1859.] Notes on Kdfiristan. 323 



it joins the Shtinab, (erroneously styled the Alingar by some travel- 

 lers) at Tirgari in the district of Lamghan, where it receives the 

 Najii or Alishang river, and then takes the name of Alingar. After 

 flowing for eight or ten miles further, through the above-named 

 district, it joins the Kabul river some miles west of Jelalabad, at 

 Kergah, a mile to the east of Manderawer, and about twenty-live 

 miles from the embouchure of the Kamah. 



The next river to the west is the Najil or Alishang. It likewise 

 takes its rise on the southern slope of the Indian Caucasus, but 

 somewhat further to the south than the preceding, in the district of 

 -Najil, situated to the north of the darah or valley of Mil ; # and 

 after running for about sixty miles through the Si'ah-posh Kafir 

 country, almost parallel with, and but a few miles distant from the 

 Kow, joins the latter river, after which the united stream is known 

 as the Alingar, as before mentioned. 



West of the Alingar is the river of Tagab or Tagao, which also 

 taking its rise in the Hindu Kush, flows almost due south for about 

 ninety miles through Kafiristan. A few miles from its mouth, after 

 receiving the united streams of Ghorband, Nijrow, Panjsher, and 

 their tributaries, watering the valleys bearing those names, and 

 included in the Kohistan of Kabul, it falls into the river of Kabul 

 about forty miles east of that city. 



Numerous small streams, running east and west, and west and 

 east, fall into the whole of these rivers and greatly increase their 

 volume. In fact, every valley, with scarcely an exception, has a 

 rivulet flowing through it, on each side of which is deposited the rich 

 alluvion washed from the mountains by the heavy rains of the winter 

 and spring months, that constitutes the chief and most fertile 

 portion of the land, being well adapted to, aud most easily brought 

 under, cultivation. This explanation is applicable to nearly all the 

 alpine districts of the Hindu Kush, and which, though well-watered, 

 contain, comparatively, but little level land capable of tillage. The 

 rivers flow over rocky beds, are rapid, aud generally clear ; and the 

 five larger ones, when swollen from the melting of the snows in the 

 summer months, increase considerably in rapidity and violence — in 



* Baber mentions that, "the part of Kafiristan nearest to Alishang is called. 

 Mlel, and the river of Alishang comes down from Miel." Memoirs, p. 112. 



