Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 53 ページ（カラー画像）

0053	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

called by the other Dards " Bhute " ',¹¹ and in Darēl and Tangīr I found the term Buṭa generally applied to all Chilāsīs. Is it possible that Albērūnī's information about the Bhattavaryān (*Bhuṭṭa-varyān) and their ruler Bhatta(*Bhuṭṭa)-Shāh was somehow connected with this old ethnic designation of Chilās? The materials at present available do not permit us definitely to answer the question.¹²

The references to Chilās in the records just analysed are far too scanty to throw light on the early history of the territory. Yet by reason of the raids that, as already mentioned, its people have until recent times made into neighbouring tracts, and on account of their universal reputation for bravery, Chilās may lay claim to greater importance among these Dard territories than either its size or resources would justify. For this and other similar reasons, I cannot help particularly regretting that the great length and difficulties of the route to the scene of my contemplated winter campaign in the far-off Taklamakān and Lop deserts, as well as local arrangements made on my behalf, rendered it impossible for me to devote more than a bare three days to my passage through Chilās. In view of the scanty time at my disposal, the rapid marching it involved and the numerous practical tasks that at the same time occupied my attention, I am evidently unable on this occasion to fill up the gap that the inaccessibility of Chilās at the time when Mr. Drew and Colonel Biddulph did their pioneer work for most of the Gilgit Agency obliged them to leave in the published accounts. As, however, the four or five main valleys which make up Chilās, all draining from the south to the Indus, share the same general physical features, a brief record of the impressions gathered on my way down the valleys of Niat and Thak, together with some observations made on the former principal settlement of Chilās by the Indus, may usefully find a place here.

All the valleys comprised in Chilās are very narrow and steep. This characteristic is fully accounted for by the abrupt fall of the land. Over a direct distance which is nowhere more than about 25 miles and in most cases considerably less, they descend from a watershed 14,000 feet or more in height to the Indus bed, which lies here only from about 3,500 to 3,300 feet above sea-level. Eastwards where the huge ice-clad ridge dominated by the peak of Nangaparbat approaches still closer to the deep-cut gorge of the Indus, the valleys descending its northern slopes are even more difficult of access and wholly uninhabited. As a result of this configuration the heads of the habitable valleys, also, are very confined and the area for summer grazing limited. Hence the stock of cattle kept by the people of Chilās is small, and settlements of grazing Gujars, such as are numerous farther south, are conspicuously absent in these valleys.

At the head of the easternmost main valley leading down to Būnar on the Indus we spent a trying night amid rain and snow after crossing the Barai pass. Thence we ascended on the

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ