[1] The Kafir dialect of which Mr. Trumpp collected some particulars shows in the present tense of the substantive verb these remarkable forms:— Ei sŭm, Tŭ sis, siga sĕ; Ima sĭmĭs, Wĭ sik, Sigĕ sin.
[2] In the Tabakāt-i-Násiri (Elliot, II. 317) we find mention of the Highlands of Pasha-Afroz, but nothing to define their position.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Of the Province of Keshimur.
Keshimur also is a Province inhabited by a people who are Idolaters and have a language of their own.[{1}] They have an astonishing acquaintance with the devilries of enchantment; insomuch that they make their idols to speak. They can also by their sorceries bring on changes of weather and produce darkness, and do a number of things so extraordinary that no one without seeing them would believe them.[{2}] Indeed, this country is the very original source from which Idolatry has spread abroad.[{3}]
In this direction you can proceed further till you come to the Sea of India.
The men are brown and lean, but the women, taking them as brunettes, are very beautiful. The food of the people is flesh, and milk, and rice. The clime is finely tempered, being neither very hot nor very cold. There are numbers of towns and villages in the country, but also forests and desert tracts, and strong passes, so that the people have no fear of anybody, and keep their independence, with a king of their own to rule and do justice.[{4}]
There are in this country Eremites (after the fashion of those parts), who dwell in seclusion and practise great abstinence in eating and drinking. They observe strict chastity, and keep from all sins forbidden in their law, so that they are regarded by their own folk as very holy persons. They live to a very great age.[{5}]
There are also a number of idolatrous abbeys and monasteries. [The people of the province do not kill animals nor spill blood; so if they want to eat meat they get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the butcher.[{6}]] The coral which is carried from our parts of the world has a better sale there than in any other country.[{7}]