1876.] H. C. Marsh— Description of a trip to the Gilgit Valley. 133 



made Baja Akbar Khan, son of Tsa Bahadur, and his following. He is a 

 heavy-featured lad of eighteen, and speaks little but his mother-tongue. After 

 a short chat with his people and the Guard of Honor, supplied him from 

 Gilgit, (in reality to overawe the rather turbulent population) I continued 

 my march. The path then descends to the level of the river along a narrow 

 ledge, the site of many a fight, opposite which is the village of Hammuchul on 

 the left bank. The spur of Gaisheli with its steep climb brought us to the 

 upland slope of Dalnath, with its bright sparkling stream allowed to run 

 to waste, the village having been depopulated in one of the late wars and 

 never been re-inhabited. 



This fact of depopulation is the curse of this small but fertile valley. 

 Situated between two powerful neighbours, Gilgit and Yassin, the unfortunate 

 people have suffered from both sides, have been taken off en masse, either to 

 populate Yassin or sold into slavery, a few finding refuge in the neighbour- 

 ing states of Dareyl and Tangyr. After our midday meal under the shade of 

 the willows which border the Dalnath stream, we wended our weary way 

 over a bad rocky spur down again to the river, then up again over a hill side 

 opposite to the nala which brings water from the high hills above, to 

 the village of Japoke on the left bank ; then continuing we reached Gitch, 

 a small village, 8 miles from Golapur ; then again by a level path over a 

 stony uncultivated flat above the river, from which we began to ascend a 

 narrow ledge of limestone rocks, with a very difficult bad road, hardly 

 passable for ponies, but easily defended. 



A second road leads up over the tops of the hills from Shere, so as to 

 avoid this narrow ledge, and is the usual road taken by an hostile force from 

 Yassin. At the highest point of this narrow ledge and high up over the 

 river which rushes past its perpendicular base, is a flat stone under which a 

 lookout is kept towards Yassin, to give warning to Sher Kil'a, in case o£ 

 trouble, which in Goraman's days was common enough. Opposite this place, 

 on the left bank, is a small village of Dajipoker with its few corn fields. 

 The path improves as the ledge of rocks becomes broader, and finally leads to 

 Singul, a large village with extensive gardens and fields with a small fort 

 for its defence. This was our halting-place, and while the camp was being 

 pitched, I took a stroll into the fort. Conceive a space of 150 feet square, 

 surrounded by 25 to 30 feet walls, without any space left as a court, but 

 quite crowded by small irregular huts, some parts in two to three stories, com- 

 municating one with another by dark passages and notched logs of wood to 

 ascend to the roofs ; then imagine this crowded with men, women, and children, 

 all their rags, cooking pots, agricultural implements, guns, dogs, and fowls, 

 and a faint idea of the conditions under which they live can be obtained. 

 The force of circumstances obliged them to crowd into forts in former days, 

 but as Dogra rule has been paramount for at least twelve years, habit has still 



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V. 



