The Chílâsis call the Siah Pôsh Kâfirs = Bashgalí (Bashgal is the name of the country inhabited by this people who enjoy the very worst reputation for cruelty). They are supposed to kill every traveller that comes within their reach and to cut his nose or ear off as a trophy.[74]
The Chilâsis were originally four tribes; viz.:
- The Bagoté of Buner.
- The Kané of Takk.
- The Boté of the Chilâs fort.
- The Matshuké of the Matshukó fort.
The Boté and the Matshuké fought. The latter were defeated, and are said to have fled into Astor and Little Tibet territory.
A Foreigner is called “ósho.”
Fellow-countrymen are called “malêki.”
The stature of the Dards is generally slender and wiry and well suited to the life of a mountaineer. They are now gradually adopting Indian clothes, and whilst this will displace their own rather picturesque dress and strong, though rough, indigenous manufacture, it may also render them less manly. They are fairer than the people of the plains (the women of Yasin being particularly beautiful and almost reminding one of European women), but on the frontier they are rather mixed—the Chilâsis with the Kaghanis and Astóris—the Astóris and Gilgitis with the Tibetans, and the Guraizis with the Tibetans on the one hand and the Kashmiris on the other. The consequence is that their sharp and comparatively clear complexion (where it is not under a crust of dirt) approaches, in some Districts, a Tatar or Moghal appearance. Again, the Nagyris are shorter than the people of Hunza to whom I have already referred. Just before I reached the Gilgit fort, I met a Nagyri, whose yellow moustache and general appearance almost made me believe that I had come across a Russian in disguise. I have little hesitation in stating that the pure Shîn looks more like a European than any high-caste Brahmin of India. Measurements were taken by Dr. Neil of the Lahore Medical College, but have, unfortunately, been lost, of the two Shîns who accompanied me to the Panjab, where they stayed in my house for a few months, together with other representatives of the various races whom I had brought down with me.[75] The prevalence of caste among the Shîns also deserves attention. We have not the Muhammadan Sayad, Sheykh, Moghal, and Pathan (which, no doubt, will be substituted in future for the existing caste designations), nor the Kashmiri Muhammadan equivalents of what are generally mere names for occupations. The following List of Dard Castes may be quoted appropriately from Part II. of my “Dardistan”:—
K. CASTES.
“Raja (highest on account of position).
“Wazîr (of Shîn race, and also the official caste of ‘Róno’).