JOURNAL 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. II. 1864. 



II 



An Account of Tipper Kdsh-kdr^ and Ohitrdl, or Lower Kash-har, 

 together with the independent Afghdn State of JPanj-korah, inched* 

 ing Tdl-dsh* 



Most modern travellers have either not mentioned the two first- 

 named countries at all in their works, or have, from ignorance of 

 oriental languages, or carelessness in writing names, so confounded 

 them with a province of Chinese Turkistan, that their very existence 

 has been called into question, and even totally denied, by many 

 authors. 



Mr. Elphinstone, in his excellent work — " The Kingdom of Caubul," 

 remarks on this very subject in the following manner : — " The resem- 

 blance of the names led us into great mistakes when we first arrived 

 at Peshawar. We bought tea, which we were told was brought from 

 Kaushkaur (Cashgar), and the first people whom we asked respecting 

 the distance told us we might easily go to Kaushkaur, and return 

 within a fortnight. In time, however, we obtained more precise in- 

 formation." These doubts and mistakes have been solely occasioned 

 by not taking proper account of the mode of writing, and the pronun- 

 ciation of the names of the two countries ; that of Chinese Tartary 

 being written ^^ (kdsh-ghar) , whilst that of which I intend giving 

 some account, is written jl&£li> (hash-Mr) , a very different sound to 

 that of the former. 



The native land of all the chimeras of Bakhtro- Indian origin, con- 

 tained in the mythological system of the ancient Persians, as indicated 



■* Being the continuation to cc Notes on Kdfirist&n" in No. 4 of the Journal 

 for 1859. 



