This is apparently a hunting song, but seems also to be applied to singing the praises of a favourite.
There is another song, which was evidently given with great gusto, in praise of Sheir Shah Ali Shah, Rajah of Skardo.[34] That Rajah, who is said to have temporarily conquered Chitrál, which the Chilasis call Tshatshál,[35] made a road of steps up the Atsho mountain which overlooks Bûnji, the most distant point reached before 1866 by travellers or the Great Trigonometrical Survey. From the Atsho mountain Vigne returned, “the suspicious Rajah of Gilgit suddenly giving orders for burning the bridge over the Indus.” It is, however, more probable that his Astori companions fabricated the story in order to prevent him from entering an unfriendly territory in which Mr. Vigne’s life might have been in danger, for had he reached Bûnji he might have known that the Indus never was spanned by a bridge at that or any neighbouring point. The miserable Kashmîri coolies and boatmen who were forced to go up-country with the troops in 1866 were, some of them, employed, in rowing people across, and that is how I got over the Indus at Bûnji; however to return from this digression to the Guraizi Song:
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]
CHILASI SONGS.
[The Chilasis have a curious way of snapping their fingers, with which practice they accompany their songs, the thumb running up and down the fingers as on a musical instrument.]