34 
[No. 1, 
R. B. Sliaw —Stray Arlans in Tibet. 
and barley. Thus the village was founded. The story of the bow is pro¬ 
bably originated either by the curved course of the water-channel which 
comes out of a side valley and bends round the hill side to reach the village ; 
or else by a mere superficial resemblance of sound between the name Dah 
(of which the origin had become forgotten) and the name for a bow. 
Several of the villages possess a communal dwelling in which every in¬ 
habitant of the village has a place. That of Dah is very curious. It covers 
a considerable space in the angle between the Indus and a side-stream, pro¬ 
tected on two sides by the precipitous declivities of the high alluvial plateau 
on which it stands and on the third by a wall. It was thus fortified against 
the raids of the neighbouring Baltis. The interior consists of an intricate 
maze of passages, some open and some covered in, which may be considered 
either as the lanes of a tightly packed village, or rather as the passages of 
a vast single storied house which forms the common dwelling of the whole 
community, each household having its separate apartment or den. Here 
the people always live during winter, for warmth or for company. They 
all, however, have other houses for summer, out in the fields. I could not 
discover that there was any difference in tenure between the lands adjoin¬ 
ing the common dwelling and the outlying fields. The village of DarchiJc 
likewise is cut off from the lower course of the valley by a vertical cliff, the 
escarpment of the plateau on which it stands. There are only two ways 
of approach. One high up and away from the river, is guarded by a forti¬ 
fied communal dwelling. The other, near the river, consists of a rugged 
narrow staircase constructed in the face of the cliff and closed by a gateway 
at the top. Such precautions were necessary in former days when the men 
of Baltistan made raids on their neighbours, especially on such as were not 
Musalmans, and .penetrated even to Ladak. Now all is peace under the 
common rule of our Feudatory, the Maharaja of Kashmir. 
So much for the (so-called) Buddhist BroJcpas. But the villages of 
the same tribe which lie exposed to Musalman influences down the Indus 
on the two roads leading north-west and south-west respectively, have all 
been converted to Islam. Of the settlements on the former road, that 
down the Indus, and in side-valleys near it, the village of Ganok is entirely 
inhabited by Musalman BroJcpas, while those of Dangel, Marul, Chuli- 
clian, and Singkarmon, are inhabited partly by Musalman (Shi’ah) JBroJcpas, 
and partly by Baltis (Tibetan Musalmans) of the same sect. Below this 
the population is entirely Balti. On the other road, that across a low Pass 
south-westward to Kargil, the villages of Tsirmo and Lalung are also in¬ 
habited partly by Musalman JBroJcpas and partly by Musalman Tibetans 
from the adjoining district of Purik. These Musalman JBroJcpas on both 
roads speak the Dah dialect, and dress like the Dah people, and keep apart 
from the Tibetan Musalmans both in matter of marriage and in eating. 
