ON THE FESTIVALS AND FOLKLORE OF GILGIT. 115 



always nourished by human milk would certainly be better than that of an animal. 

 Coming to this conclusion, he gave orders that a tax of human children should be levied 

 in future instead of sheep, and that their meat should always be served at his dinner. In 

 this way he became a man-eater. 



The Capture of Gilgit by Skardu Chiefs ; the Soul of Shri Badat and the 



" talino " and "nlsalo" ceremonies. 



In the reign of Shri Badat, a Buddhist Chief of Gilgit, three princes named Khisrau, 

 Jamshed and Shamsher, the sons of Azur, a chief of Skardu, are said to have arrived at 

 Danyore, a village situated about four miles east of Gilgit at the junction of the Gilgit and 

 Hunza rivers. They were the first Muhammadan chiefs who started from Skardu to con- 

 quer and subdue the hill States of Hunza, Nagar and Gilgit. They had succeeded in 

 capturing the two former States, and it was now the turn of Gilgit to fall into their hands. 

 The people relate an interesting story about their arrival and their obtaining possession of 

 the fertile tract of Gilgit proper. They say the princes were born of fairies and arrived 

 at Danyore flying on wings from the lofty mountains where the fairies live. One day 

 they saw a wild cow grazing on the "Danyore Khoh," a hill at about two miles distant 

 from the place they were sitting. The elder brothers, Khisrau and Jamshed, requested 

 the younger, Shamsher, to shoot the cow with his bow and arrow. Shamsher out of 

 respect for his elder brothers said that he could net shoot first, but he was overruled 

 and compelled to carry out the request. He then took up his bow and arrow and 

 aiming at the cow shot her with such dexterity that her body was pierced by the arrow. 

 The Danyore people were much surprised to see this skill of Shamsher, and ran away 

 noisily to the hill to fetch the body. They found the animal lying half-dead of the 

 wound caused by the arrow, which had penetrated the heart. The cow was brought 

 to the village and placed before the princes, who ordered the liver to be roasted and 

 served. When the meat was brought in, Khisrau and Jamshed remarked that it would 

 be seemly on Shamsher's part to eat it himself, as it was the result of his skill. In vain did 

 Shamsher try to make them join. He was thus obliged to eat it himself, but he 

 had not taken more than three or four slices, when both his elder brothers took 

 flight into the air and disappeared. Shamsher also tried his utmost to follow his 

 brothers, but the meat just taken by him had worked such an effect on his body 

 that he could not even rise a little above the surface of the earth, and reproaching 

 himself with the deed which had caused his separation from his beloved but faithless 

 brothers, he remained content to pass his future days in the village. The inhabitants of 

 Danyore who had seen his marvellous act, considered him, on account of his being 

 ' fairy-born," of a race superior to their own, and always showed him much respect and 

 obedience. After a lapse of some months he related to a large gathering of the 

 villagers around him, that he had just seen a big markhor frolicking hither and thither 

 on the Hapukor Mountain (above Naupur and Naikoo villages), and that he wished 

 to shoot it at once with his arrow. They were very surprised to know that he had seen a 

 markhor from a distance of more than four miles, and they would not have believed him 

 had they not already experienced his miraculous power of sight on the occasion of his 



