48 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Feb. 



sian, and the use of the Persian character for modern Cashmeeree 

 writing. But the old characters are still in use among the Shawl- 

 weavers, and the country, as is well known, still swarms with most 

 - learned pundits, to whom Sanscrit is as familiar as Latin to the pundits 

 of Europe, and who are able and willing to restore to its proper charac- 

 ter and to grammatical shape their native tongue, the more so as 

 the country is now again under Hindoo rule. North-west of Cashmere 

 again there is another, quite different and widely spread language, also 

 clearly Arian. Tins is the language of Ohilas, the Kylas, Olympus, 

 or Heaven of the Hindoos. It is spoken by the independent moun- 

 taineers on the Hazareh Frontier, thence throughout Chilas, which is 

 the westerly hill territory of the Maharajah of Cashmere, and in 

 Ghilglrit, the recent Central- Asian acquisition of the Maharajah. 

 Some of the people in my road called it ' Dardu Gal' or the language 

 of the Dards, and I have since noticed that Vigne alludes to it and 

 gives it much the same limits which I have mentioned, under the name 

 of the ' Dangree' language. There are dialects, but all the people 

 within these limits understand one another. I got together several 

 people from those parts, and put them through the primary words and 

 phrases by which the affinity of a language may usually be tested. 

 Although the Chilas tongue is a different language from the Punjabee, 

 and the Punjabees cannot understand it, it seemed to me to be a good 

 deal nearer to Hindee or Punjabee than the Cashmeeree. And the 

 same remark seems to apply to all that has appeared of the languages 

 of Chitral and Kafferistan, which are probably, I should think, nearly 

 related to that of Chilas. Those which I have mentioned are the 

 only unknown Arian languages. The Punjabee runs up through the 

 hills to the frontier of Cashmere in one direction, and to that of 

 Affghanistan in another. Even my small knowledge enabled me to 

 ascertain that the language of the Maharajah's most northerly subjects 

 or tributaries beyond Ghilghit is palpably Turkish, and to the East, the 

 pretended descendants of Alexander, the Baltis of Lskardo, speak the 

 Thibetan language which their features would lead us to expect. 

 Chitral and Kafferistan form but a narrow strip projected along the 

 ridge of the Caucasus, and enclosed between the Pushtoo speaking 

 AiTuhans on one side, and the Persian speaking ISadakshanees on the 

 other. My present object is not directed to the Chitral and Kaffir 



