[53] I refer to the Khajuná, or Burishki, a language also spoken in Nagyr and a part of Yasin, whose inhabitants are Dards.
[54] I refer to the practice of “Taqqîah.” In the interior of Kabul Hazara, on the contrary, I have been told that Pathan Sunni merchants have to pretend to be Shiahs, in order to escape being murdered.
[55] Since writing the above in 1867, a third Kafir from Katár has entered my service, and I have derived some detailed information from him and others regarding the languages and customs of this mysterious race, which will be embodied in my next volume. [This note was written in 1872.]
[56] I have heard this denied by a man from Sazîn, but state it on the authority of two Chilâsis who were formerly in my service.
[57] My Sazîni says that only a portion of the Fort was blown up.
[58] [Vide “History of Dardistan” for details of the contending dynasties of that region, pages 67 to 110].
[59] Major Montgomery remarks “the coins have the word Gujanfar on them, the name, I suppose, of some emblematic animal. I was however unable to find out its meaning.” The word is غضنفر , Ghazanfar [which means in Arabic: lion, hero] and is the name of the former ruler of Hunza whose name is on the coins. In Hunza itself, coined money is unknown. [For changes since 1866, see “Hunza and Nagyr Handbook, 1893.”]
[60] This was the name of the grandfather of Amán-ul-Mulk, the present ruler of Chitrál (1877). Cunningham says that the title of “Kathor” has been held for 2000 years. I may incidentally mention that natives of India who had visited Chitrál did not know it by any other name than “Kashkar” the name of the principal town, whilst Chitrál was called “a Kafir village surrounded by mountains” by Neyk Muhammad, a Lughmáni Nîmtsha (or half) Mussulman in 1866.
[61] This is the plausible Gilgit story, which will, perhaps, be adopted in Hunza when it becomes truly Muhammadan. In the meanwhile, my endeavour in 1866 to find traces of Alexander the Great’s invasion in Dardistan, has led to the adoption of the myth of descent from that Conqueror by the Chinese Governor or the ancient hereditary “Thàm” of Hunza, who really is “ayeshó,” or “heaven-born,” owing to the miraculous conception of a female ancestor. “Mogholot” is the direct ancestor of the kindred Nagyr line, “Girkis,” his twin-brother and deadly foe, being the ancestor of the Hunza dynasty. (See Genealogy on pages [69] and [111].)
[62] This designation is really that of the Minister of Finances.