1838.] Description of the Siah-poskis. 327 



and nine years old, who came along with him, had ruddy complexions 

 hazel eyes and auburn hair. They also had less beauty and high cheek- 

 bones, but they were still handsome, and extremely intelligent. Their 

 Kaffir names were Teengeer and Choudur, and that of their mothers 

 Rajmal andBRAOPAGLY. None of these Kaffirs, nor two others which 

 I saw, had any resemblance to the Afghans or even Cashmerians. 

 They looked a distinct race, as the most superficial observer would 

 have remarked on seeing them. 



Deenbur said that there was no chief of the Kaffirs, but that great 

 men were called Salmunash. They do not appear to carry on any 

 combined operations against their neighbours, but they retaliate, when 

 an invasion of their frontier takes place, and are very inveterate against 

 the Muhammadans, and give no quarter to captives. They possess great 

 agility and activity, qualities which their enemies accord to them. 

 Muhammadans seldom venture to enter their country as travellers, but 

 Hindus go as merchants and beggars (fakirs J and are not ill used. I 

 met a Muhammadan who had passed into Budukhshan and was not mo- 

 lested. In killing their food, the Kaffirs have no ceremonies, they 

 sacrifice cows and goats to Doghan, the Supreme Being, particularly 

 at a great festival which occurs in the beginning of April and lasts for 

 ten days. They have idols and know the Hindu god Maha'deo by name, 

 but they all eat beef and have either lost their Hindu belief or never 

 had any thing in common with it. They neither burn nor bury their 

 dead but place the body in a box arrayed in a fine dress, which consists 

 of goat skins or Cashgar woollens ; they then remove it to the summit 

 of a hill near the village where it is placed but never interred. Kaffir 

 females till the ground, and in eating the men sit apart from the women. 

 They have no tables, the dish containing the meal is placed on a tripod 

 made of iron rods of which Deenbur and his companions made a model 

 for me with twigs. They assemble around this and eat sitting on stools 

 or chairs without backs. They are very fond of honey, wine and vine- 

 gar, all of which they have in abundance. They have no domestic fowls, 

 nor is there a horse in their country ; wheat and barley are their grains, 

 there is no juwaree. They are very found of music and dancing but, 

 as in eating, the men separate from the women, and the dance of the 

 one sex differs from that of the other. Both were exhibited to me> 

 that of the men consists of three hops on one foot, and then a stamp ; the 

 women place their hands on their shoulders and leap with both feet> 

 going round in a circle. They have a two-stringed instrument and a 

 kind of drum for music. 

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