1864] An Account of Tipper Kash-kar. 131 



canton of Wakhan. # This is the main road between Badakhshan and 

 •Gilgitt to Kashmir. The Yarkand road branches off from Issar to 

 the north, through the darah or valley of lake Sir-i kolf over the 

 table land of Pamir. 



Further west there is another Pass into Badakhshan, called " Kotah 

 i-Nuksan" or the " Defile of Mischief." This road winds along the 

 face of tremendous precipices, and through frightful defiles, by which 

 the hamlet of Gao-khanah (signifying "Cow-house" in Persian,) 

 lying in a plain, may be reached in two or three days. Further north 

 is Rabat, (< Eobat' of Wood) on the Wardoj river. A route into 

 Kafiristan joins the above road amongst the defiles of Hindu Kush, 

 by which the districts held by the Kamuz, Asian, and Ashpin tribes 

 of Si'ah-posh Kafirs may be reached in from three to four days, with- 

 out much difficulty, in the summer months. 



To the north-east of Upper Kash-kar (which some also term Shagh- 

 nan), is Shagat, distant five manzils or stages. It is also called Kash- 

 kar, so I am informed ; but the people are different in their manners 

 and customs, and are under a different ruler. 



The river of Chitral or Kash-kar, also known as the Cheghan-sarae, 

 from the small town of that name, near which it falls into the Kamah 

 or Kunar, as it flows south to join the river of Kabul, appears — as I 

 have already pointed out at page 3 — to have been long confounded 

 with the Kamah or Kunar, of which it is only a feeder. The Chitral 

 river rises at the " Talab-i-Nil," or " Cerulean Lake. "J This lake 

 must not be mistaken for lake Sir-i-kol,§ from which the Panj, or 



# " At Issar 10,000 feet, on the termination of the main valley of the Oxus 

 the road divides into two, which when beyond Killah Panj bore respectively E. 

 20° S., and N. 40° E. The former conducted to Chitral, Gilgit, and Kashmir," 

 and the latter across the table-land of Pamir to Yarkand.' 5 Wood. 



t " There is a Pass called Mustodj, or Mastuch, which joins the valley of 

 Wakan (Wakhan). I suppose that the name may be extended to the mountains 

 bounding Chitral on the eastward, as I was told that after crossing the Mastuch 

 Pass, the traveller descends with a stream for several days until he reaches 

 Chitral, the country of Shah Kator." Vigne : " Travels in Kashmir :" Yol 

 II. p. 309. 



X " An individual who had seen the region between Wakhan and Kashmir 

 informed me that the Kunir (Chitral) river had its principal source in a lake 

 resembling that in which the Oxus has its rise, and that the whole of this 

 country, comprehending the districts of Gilghit, Gunjit, and Chitral, is a series 

 of mountain defiles that act as water courses to drain Panir." " Wood's Journey 

 to the Oxus." 



" There is said to be a lake in Shaghnan, half a day's journey in circum- 

 ference, which drains the country on the left bank of the Panj, as the Oxus is 

 here called." Ibid. 



§ Sir in Persian signifies the head, top, summit ; great, highest, etc. ; and 

 ftoli in the same language means a pond, a reservoir, a lake, and so forth, 



