ON THE FESTIVALS AND FOLKLORE OF GILGIT. 95 



of the former would be Shins and those of the latter would be Yeshkuns. This shows 

 that their family system takes the mother into consideration. 



The Ronos are said to have come from Rajauri, a district in Kashmir, where they 

 belonged to a ruling family of the district. 



The Gujars have recently come to these parts and speak the same dialect as in India. 



Besides these, there is another family of the former Muhammadan rulers of the 

 country called " Ra." They originally came from Skardu about three centuries ago, and 

 professed to be the descendants of Alexander the Great. The inhabitants considered 

 them to have been born of a fairy, and this idea leads the people to think that their rulers 

 were of a superior race touching on the divine, and that therefore it was necessary to 

 honour and obey them. 



The people live very simply, and their requirements are few. Each one is himself 

 a cultivator, a weaver, a carpenter, etc. Their dress, which they weave from the 

 wool of sheep and ibex, includes the shuka (cloak), woollen pantaloons, a woollen shirt and 

 a rolled cap. The women wear loose trousers, a shirt and a cap, with a few silver 

 ornaments and shell brooches. They wear on their feet a kind of leather socks called 

 pabboo, made either of ibex skin or of cow hide. For hill journeys they wrap their 

 feet in pieces of goat or ibex skin which they call thauti. 



The chief amusement of the people is polo, which they play with the utmost zest, and 

 shooting markhor, ibex and oorial with their matchlocks for the sake of meat, skin and 

 wool. 



The former language of the people was Sanskrit, but the dialect now spoken is 

 generally called " Shina," though the Chitralis call it " Dangrik." It contains many 

 Sanskrit as well as Persian words. 



Such are the tribes to whom the folklore and customs appertain, but they have lived 

 together for such a long period under the Buddhist and Muhammadan rulers that it is now 

 difficult to know which of the ceremonies was originally observed by each separate tribe. 



I* 



The Festival of " Shino Bazono." 

 The advent of spring in the Gilgit country brings with it the quaint festival of 

 " Shino Bazono," which corresponds to the English May-day. It lasts about fifteen days, 

 beginning in the middle of February and ending about the beginning of March. As indicat- 

 ing that the long cold winter is at an end with all its accompanying hardships, and that 

 spring is nigh, bringing with it warmth and life and a renewal of the scanty stock of 

 provisions which has run dangerously low during the past months, the festival is hailed 

 with much rejoicing by the simple Gilgit folk. In order to observe this feast rightly, 

 the people, twelve days before its commencement, put ten seers of wheat into a wooden 

 basin. They fill this up with water and keep the mixture wet for five days, after which 

 they take it out and place it in a small pit dug for the purpose in the ground, over which 

 stones are heaped. The wheat is left in this pit for four days, after which the grain is seen 



*[See also p. 119 postca. — Ed.] 



