Kashmir People and Affairs. 351

Mariy hundred years ago the Chinese traveller Fa-1
Hian spoke of the people of Kashmfr as being of a
peculiarly bad character. Ranjft Singh said to Sir
Alexander Burnes, " All the people I send into Kash-
mfr turn out rascals (karamsada); there is too much
pleasure and enjoyment in that country." Moorcroft
described them as "selfish, superstitious, ignorant, supple,
intriguing, dishonest, and false." A more recent tra-
veller, Dr A, L. Adams the naturalist, says of them—
" Everywhere in Cashmere you see the inhabitants in-
dolent to a degree, filthy in their habits, mean, cowardly,
shabby, irresolute, and indifferent to'all ideas of reform
or prqgress." Their name has become a by-word
throughout a great part of Asia. Even where there
are so many deceitful nations they have obtained a bad
pre-eminence. According to a well-known Persian say-
ing1! "you will never experience anything but sorrow
and anxiety from the Kashmfrf." When these people
got this bad name is lost in antiquity, and so is the
period when they first passed into the unfortunate cir-
cumstances which have demoralised them. They are,
however, not unattractive, being an intellectual people,
a#d characterised by great ingenuity and sprightliness.

I cannot deny the truth of the accusations brought
against them, yet I could not but pity them, and sym-
pathise with them. I think also that they have the
elements of what, in more fortunate circumstances,
mi£ht be a very fine character ; but dwelling in a fertile
and beautiful valley, surrounded by hardy and warlike
tribes, they have for ages been "Subject to that oppres-
sion which destroys national hope and virtue. Their
population tias hardly been large enough to afford effec-
tual resistance to the opposing forces, though, unless
there had been a large element of weakness in their
character, they might surely have held their passes;
and, at the same time, they were too many in numbers