[47] These are the strange sect of the Muláis about whom more in my “Handbook of Hunza, Nagyr and a part of Yasín.”
[48] This is said to be no longer the case, except in those Dard republics, where foreigners have not yet interfered. In monarchical Yasin, and, above all, in Hunza, sexual laxity has ever been great. Where Sunni rulers have substituted dancing-boys for the dancing of men (formerly both men and women danced together), a worse evil has been introduced. A most sacred relationship is the one created by the foster-mother. The linguistic portion of “The of Hunza-Nagyr Handbook,” as also of Parts I. and II. of “Dardistan” solves the questions of whether and where polygamy, endogamy, etc., existed among the Dards, who, in appearance and sentiment as regards women, as also in legendary lore, are very “European,” but whom invasion will convert into strict Muhammadans and haters of the “Firenghi.”
[49] The “brother in the faith” with whom raw milk has been drunk, [Vide page 41.]
| Betrothal, | = balli = pumpkin in Gilgiti, | Soél—Astóri |
| Bridegroom, | = hileléo, Gil. | hiláleo. Astóri. |
| Bride, | = hilal | |
| Bridegroom’s men, | = garóni, Gil. | hilalée, Astóri. |
| Marriage شادي | = garr, Gil. | Kàsh. Astóri |
| Dowry, | = “dab,” Gil. and Astóri | |
(the grain, ghee and sheep that may accompany the betrothal-present is called by the Astóris “sakáro.”)
| Husband, | = baráo, Gil. | baréyo, Astóri. |
| Wife, | = Greyn, Gil. | gréyn, Astóri. |
Wedding dinner “garéy tíki” in Gilgiti. “Kajjéyn bai kyas,” in Astori (?) [“tikki” is bread, “bai” is a chippati, kyas = food].
[50] The Turks say “a girl of 15 years of age should be either married or buried.”
[51] Is celebrated in Autumn when the fruit and corn have become ripe. For a detailed account of this and other festivals see “Hunza-Nagyr Handbook,” and Parts II. and III. of the “Languages and Races of Dardistan.”
[52] I have already related that a foreign Mulla had found his way to Gilgit, and that the people, desirous that so holy a man should not leave them and solicitous about the reputation that their country had no shrine, killed him in order to have some place for pilgrimage. Similar stories are, however, also told about shrines in Afghanistan. My Sazîni speaks of shrines in Nagyr, Chilâs and Yasin, and says that in Sunni Chilâs there are many Mullahs belonging to all the castes—two of the most eminent being Kramìns of Shatiál, about 8 miles from Sazîn. About Castes, [vide page 62].