94 H. G. Raverty— Tibbat three hundred and sixty -jive years ago. [No. 2, 
the time that I, the writer of theso pages, fixed a capitation tax upon 
the Kokah Chiefs, they related, that, only a short time before, a labourer 
was excavating in a certain part, when the implement he was using 
became so firmly fixed in a place, that, with all his efforts, be was unable 
to withdraw it again. He removed the earth from around, and what 
does he behold but a large stone, and in the middle of it embedded was 
gold, and the spade firmly fixed therein. Leaving it just as it was, he 
went away and informed the Hakim or Governor of the matter, when 
that functionary, and those then present with him, went in a body to the 
spot, and took hold of the mass, broke the stone, and one thousand five 
hundred misqdls of pure Tibbati gold were extracted from it, each 
misqdl of that part being a misqdl and a half of the usual weight ! 
“ The gold of Kokah which they extract from the earth is, indeed, 
so pure, that, however much it may be assayed and tested, the only loss 
that arises is the right of the fire \_i.e., what is lost by heating and 
melting] ; and this fact is considered astonishing and wonderful by 
travellers and assayers, and probably nowhere else in the world can 
such a thing be pointed out. 
“ In most parts of Tibbat the goods and merchandize of Kliita and 
Hind are to be obtained in much the same proportion and quantity. 
“ Another of the wonders of Tibbat is what is called dam-girl [stop¬ 
page of the breath or suffocation from stagnation of the air, as it is 
described], and this malady prevails throughout the whole of Tibbat j 1 
1 The author of the Survey Record I have before referred to, in his account of 
the route from Pashat, where gold washing has been carried on for centuries (the 
“Pishut” of the maps) to Goslak (see my Notes on Afghanistan, etc., page 145), 
over the Calas Ghashaey, or Pass, says : “ The summit of this mountain range, 
which is named Kund by the Afghans and Tiraj Mir by the Tajziks of Qashqar 
[Kashgliar and Qashqar ai'e totally distinct countries], and which always appears 
white from excessive snow, lies on the left hand. By the way are dense forests, 
among the trees of which are many descriptions of fruit-bearing trees, and much 
grass and herbage of various species ; and as from the smell of the grass (or herb¬ 
age) a person becomes stupified, people take an onion along with them in their 
hands, and immediately on their brain becoming affected they smell the onion and 
also eat it, and their brain recovers from the effect.” 
From this it appears that the “ onion mountains” are more than one range. 
In another place the Surveyor says, that the Mir Shah Riza, Badshah or Chief 
of Drush, a dependency of Qashqar, or Citral, who was an enthusiastic geographer, 
told him likewise, that the range extends in an unbroken, conterminous chain 
from the ti'act of country inhabited by the Qirghiz nomads (immediately south and 
west of Ka shgli ar), as far as Hirat, and that Hindu Kush is merely the name of one 
of the passes leading over it. This range is also called Sard war [the same word as 
occurs in “ Lake Mansarowar,” of the maps], and the Afghans style it Kund, both 
of which words are of the same meaning, Sardwar and Kund being the Sanskrit for 
‘ lake,’ ‘ pond,’ ‘ pool,’ etc. 
