Dardistan in 1866, 1886 and 1893 / Being an account of the history, religions, customs, legends, fables, and songs of Gilgit, Chilas, Kandia (Gabrial), Dasin, Chitral, Hunsa, Nagyr, and other parts of the Hindukush, as also a supplement to the second edition of the Hunza and Nagyr handbook and an epitome of part III of the author's "The languages and races of Dardistan"

by G. W. Leitner

9. PRAISE OF THE CONQUEROR SHEIR SHAH ALI SHAH.

Guraizi.	English.
Sheir Shah Ali Shah	= Sheir Shah Ali Shah.
Nōmega djong	= I wind myself round his name.[36]
Ká kōlo shing phuté	= He conquering the crooked Lowlands.
Djar súntsho taréga	= Made them quite straight.
Kâne Makponé	= The great Khan, the Makpon.
Kâno nom mega djong	= I wind myself round the Khan’s name.
Kó Tshamūgar bòsh phuté	= He conquered bridging over [the Gilgit river] below Tshamûgar.
Sar[37] súntsho taréga	= And made all quite straight.

I believe there was much more of this historical song, but unfortunately the paper on which the rest was written down by me as it was delivered, has been lost together with other papers.

“Tshamūgar,” to which reference is made in the song, is a village on the other side of the Gilgit river on the Nagyr side. It is right opposite to where I stayed for two nights under a huge stone which projects from the base of the Niludâr range on the Gilgit side.

There were formerly seven forts at Tshamūgar. A convention had been made between the Rajah of Gilgit and the Rajah of Skardo, by which Tshamūgar was divided by the two according to the natural division which a stream that comes down from the Batkôr mountain made in that territory. The people of Tshamūgar, impatient of the Skardo rule, became all of them subjects to the Gilgit Rajah, on which Sher Shah Ali Shah, the ruler of Skardo, collected an army, and crossing the Makpon-i-shagaron[38] at the foot of the Haramûsh mountain, came upon Tshamūgar and diverted the water which ran through that district into another direction. This was the reason of the once fertile Tshamūgar becoming deserted; the forts were razed to the ground. There are evidently traces of a river having formerly run through Tshamūgar. The people say that the Skardo Rajah stopped the flow of the water by throwing quicksilver into it. This is probably a legend arising from the reputation which Ahmad Shah, the most recent Skardo ruler whom the Guraizis can remember, had of dabbling in medicine and sorcery.[39]