Mare’s milk is much consumed cooked with meat, and has a highly intoxicant effect. Chayàp to Rosták, 8 kôs, plain, 2 Afghan regiments of cavalry, 4 regiments of infantry (there are also some troops at Chayàp) 4,000 houses. Bazár well-frequented; springs; is a hot place. Atunjuláb, 12 kôs, plain, carriages can go (60 houses); Faizabád 16 kôs, great city and large Afghan force (3,500 houses?). I stayed at Bárak, 10 kôs; a nice place for illustrious strangers (100 houses); plenty of Zemindars, very easy, plain, full of fruit (apples, apricots, etc.); Chaugarán 9 kos, plain (200 houses); Tirgarán (60 houses, of Muláis, the strange sect regarding which elsewhere) 11 kôs, plain, with the exception of a small bad bit, over which horses, how ever, can go, called Rafàq = Parrì in Punjabi. From Tirgarán to Zerkhan in Zebák, 14 kôs, plain, but carriages cannot go. Zebák is a fine cool place. Its great Mulai, Sayed Abdurrahim, has fled to Arkari in Chitrál. Zerkhan has 500 Khassadars of Kabul (even the infantry there have horses), and 150 houses. Zerkhan to Shikashìm, small fort, 11 kôs, plain, 300 houses in villages all round; it is now well garrisoned with Kabulis (2 k. from Shikashìm are the ruby mines worked in winter near Gharàn on the road to Shignán). (In the time of Mir Shah rubies as large as candles were said to be got, lighting up the place.) “Lajvard” (Lapis lazuli) is got from Yumgan, a village in mountain above Jirm in Badakhshan. “Lajvard” is sold at a rupee of a Rupee size. (Gold streaks are often found in it.) Shikashìm to Kazi-deh, 10 kôs, plain (carriages could go) in Wakhan, which begins at Putr about half kôs from Shikashìm (another road from Shikashìm to Shignán in two days viâ Ghasann 10 kôs, plain, very cold); thence 12 kôs to a fort in Shignan. Kazi-deh has 40 houses. Kazi-deh to Pigitsh 12 kôs, very plain, 15 houses of very wealthy people, all Mulais; Shoghōr under Chitrál, 500 houses. Fort over the Khatinza, Nuqsan and Dura passes from Zeibák all under Chitrál; the first-named pass is open all the year round, but violent storms blow at the top.
Pigitsh to Fort Panjah, a plain 12 kôs; Ali Murdan Khan, its former ruler, is a refugee with Chitrál; 200 Afghan cavalry; there are 5 or 6 houses in the fort, and a number of villages round it (Zròng, a warm mineral spring, 40 houses; Kishm, 40 houses, Gatskhòn, 30 houses. Above Pigitsh are other villages. Khindàt, 50 houses; supplies are most plentiful).
From Panjah to Zàng (50 houses) 11 kôs, plain (artillery could go); Zàng to Serhadd 12 katcha kôs, 200 houses, plain, cold, much wheat, cattle, etc.; here the Pamir begins. Thence to Ushàk, 14 k. plain, except a small elevation, very cold (here there is a road to Yarkand, and another to Hunza; the Wakhanis graze their cattle and flocks here in winter as there is abundant grass); Ushàk to Langàr, 12 kôs, plain; the roads divide, of which the left one goes to Sarikol, and the right one to Hunza. Cattle are kept there in winter by the Serhadd people; Langàr to Baikará 8 kôs plain.
Barkará to Babagundì, 12 kôs over the Irshád Pir (somewhat steep and snow-covered on the Wakhan side, but otherwise easy). Here there is a road on the other side to Babagundì (small town); place for Ghazan Khan’s cattle (Dannkut). Babagundì is a famous shrine of Pir Irshád, where even the Mulai Ghazankhan gives cooking pots for travellers, and makes offerings; there are 5 or 6 houses of Zemindars, who look after the shrine. (Half a kôs beyond Babagundì the various roads to the Karumbar, Badakhshan, and one to Hunza join.)
Babagundi to Ríshatt; small fort, 11 kôs; inhabited; 5 villagers’ houses employed in agriculture. Ríshatt; for 4 kôs there is a plain road; then a difficult road, Ráship Jeráb, with precipices (6 kôs from Ríshatt), which can be destroyed, so as to make the approach from that side very hazardous; the road continues to Yubkatí, with scarcely much improvement, for 1½ kôs. There is a small town there, as generally on difficult defiles, or places than can be defended. Yubkatí to Gircha, 1 kôs katcha (10 houses); Gircha to Murkhon, 10 houses of Zemindars, 1 kôs; 2 katcha-kôs comes the Khaibar village of 4 houses, a defile defended by a small town, with a door shutting the road (Der-band); Khaibar, 4 kôs to Pàss; road over snow or glacier for 1½ kôs; below the glacier is the village of Pàss, 25 houses.
Pàss to Hussain, 20 houses; also a shrine 1½ kôs; fair road; also a deep natural tank (hauz) (where there is a place to keep cattle in winter) a few hundred yards from village. Beyond there is again one of the streaks of never-melting icefields, and dividing it from Ghulkin, a village of 60 houses (the gardens flourishing in the close vicinity of these icefields). Immediately near Ghulkin is Gulmùtti, 100 houses; thence for 10 kôs to Alti, a bad road over an elevation, Refáq, closed by one of the doors to which I have referred. The door is 1 kôs distant from Gulmùtti. Alti (150 houses), the residence of Salim Khan, father of Ghazanfar, who built Balti, where his son, the present ruler of Hunza, Ghazankhan, lives. Balti is ½ kôs from Alti, and above it. Balti has 1,000 houses, Zemindars Muláis; there are 50 Mosques, but no one reads prayers in them; people build them for the sake of glorification, not worship. They are used for dancing, drinking, etc. (the Raja used to dance himself on the Naurōz, and give presents to the Zemindars). Hunza may turn out 2,000 fighting men. Near it Fort Haiderabad (½ kôs), with 300 houses; close to it is another fort, Chumarsingh, with 100 houses; near it Dòrkhann Fort, with 200 houses (the inhabitants are more numerous than the wasted ground can support. People live largely on apricots, etc.; the land is generally sterile). ½ kôs from Dòrkhann is Gannish Fort, 600 houses, above the river which divides Hunza from Nagyr, where the Sumeir Fort confronts Gannish. There is also a small fort near Gannish, called Karál, with 50 houses. (Near Dòrkhann is also a similar small fort, the name of which I forget.) Coming back to Dòrkhann, and going from it straight in the Gilgit direction, is Aliabad Fort, with 600 houses, and close to it Hasanabad Fort, with 100 houses. There is also a “Derrband” between Hasanabad and Murtezabad, about a mile distant over a stream. Murtezabad has 2 forts, one with 100, and the other with 50 houses.
From Murtezabad to Hirì for two kôs; difficult ascent and descent. Hirì, a large village, with 800 houses of Zemindars in the fort (Shins live there); 2 kôs of bad road, excepting about 1 mile; to Mayón, 50 houses. Four katcha kôs bring one without much difficulty, except over one ascent, over the Budalèss stream, violent in summer, where there is also a fort (a warm spring in a fort called Barr, 25 houses, occupied by 20 Sepoys of the Maharaja) to Chálta, in Gilgit territory, near Budalèss. There is a fort there, 150 houses, and 100 Sepoys. Over the Nulla, about one kôs above, is Chaprôt, 50 Sepoys and 60 houses; is a strong position (Natu Shah came to grief, with 1,000 men, between Budalèss and Mayôn). From Chálta, crossing the river and a small mountain, is a plateau to Nilt Fort, in Nagyr territory, 4 kôs from Chálta, and confronting Mayôn. From Chálta to Nomal, in Gilgit territory, with two Rifáqs each; near to these respective places for 11 kôs (kacha), 100 houses. There are 20 Sepoys in the Koti to guard the grain. The Zemindars now live outside the fort, which is merely used for the storage of grain. From Nomal to Gilgit 12 kôs, plain, which now contains 200 houses.
Route III.
From Zeibák to Chitrál, over the Khatinza, a very high Pass, to Shoghor, or the other passes already mentioned. Viâ the Khatinza, which is always open, the road from Zeibák to Deh-i-gul, 1 kôs, 25 houses.
There the roads separate, one going over the Nuqsán, which is closed in winter, and the other one over the Khatinza, both joining at Kurubakh, a place ensconced by stones, and about 5 kôs either way from Deh-i-gul; from Kurubakh to Owîr, 20 houses, 3 kôs, easy road; from Owîr to Arkari, 80 houses, 5 kôs, easy road (Sháli, 10 houses, is one kôs from Arkari); Mōmi, 5 kôs farther on, 50 houses. From Arkari to Shoghor is 10 kôs katcha. From Shoghor, 3 miles below, is Rondur, 5 or 6 houses; 4 kôs is another Shali, 20 houses, and thence over a plain by a village (the name of which I forget) 5 katcha kôs.