Innermost Asia : vol.1 / Page 104 (Color Image)

0104	Innermost Asia : vol.1

north and much better preserved; by the latter canal Sulaiman Shāh, a Khushwaqt ruler of Yāsīn
and Gilgit at the beginning of the nineteenth century,⁴ had endeavoured to bring water once
more to Dasht-i-taus. This enterprise of reclamation is supposed to have been abandoned when
the rule of that energetic but unscrupulous prince came to a violent end. That the occupation of
the Dasht-i-taus belongs to an earlier period is proved by the remains of a large walled enclosure
called Bahri-khān (Pl. 1), situated about two miles above the northern end of Yāsīn and opposite
to Ghujalti village on the left bank (Fig. 38). Tradition connects it with a Chinese or 'Kalmak'
invasion, possibly the same that I have had occasion to discuss before in connexion with the
Chinese record of Khush-āmad's reign about the middle of the eighteenth century.⁵ The enclosing
walls, built of large water-worn stones from the river-bed below and fully five feet in thickness,
form an irregular pentagon of which the three best-preserved faces measure about 264, 273 and
153 feet respectively. Their present height nowhere exceeds four or five feet, and the remains
of large quarters traceable near the centre of the enclosure are even more decayed. Apart from
debris of hard dark-grey pottery within the ruined fort, I could trace no signs of prolonged occupa-
tion. But there can be no doubt that if the old canal were restored, or even if that of Sulaiman
Shāh were completed, the amount of arable land, and with it the population, in the Yāsīn valley
could be greatly increased.

March to
Hondur. Continuing our march up the valley we followed the line of Sulaiman Shāh's canal for nearly
four miles before crossing the mouth of a large river that descends the Tui valley. Through this
leads an important summer route, by which the upper Yārkhun valley can be reached on the
Mastūj side across the high Tui pass. Beyond the junction the main valley, known from this point
upwards as Warshigūm, affords room for a succession of picturesque villages with rich fields and
orchards, extending almost without interruption up to Hondur. They are comprised in the sub-
division of Salgām that forms at the present day the best-populated tract of Yāsīn. Passing the
large fort of Mīr Wālī, called after Pakhtūn Wāli's father, Hayward's murderer, I visited at
Barkulti the fine but much-neglected house of the local 'Hākim' (Fig. 45). The style and abun-
dance of the excellent wood-carving in its large halls recalled what I had seen in Hākim Obaidullah's
house at Mīragrām on the Mastūj side.⁶ It was unfortunately too late in the day to take any
photographs of the interesting interior. The house was said to have been built some five genera-
tions ago. A photograph (Fig. 42) taken at Hondur, where we halted for the night, may show how
closely the fine physical appearance of the people of Warshigūm resembles that of their neighbours
in Chitrāl and Mastūj. Notwithstanding their Burishaskī speech, wholly distinct from either
the Dardic or the Iranian language group, the 'Burish' whom I saw seemed to exhibit all the
physical features characteristic of the pure Homo Alpinus type.

Village of
Darkōt. From above Hondur cultivation becomes intermittent, as the valley northward narrows.
But in spite of the stupendous rock walls rising on either side progress along its bottom remains
quite easy right up to the village of Darkōt, a distance of nearly twelve miles. Here, at an elevation
of over 9,000 feet, the head of the valley opens out into a huge amphitheatre, forming a wide grass
and jungle covered flat flanked on its sides by mighty ice-clad spurs. The streams issuing from
the glaciers which fill the side valleys between these spurs unite close to Darkōt to form the river
of Yāsīn. The plain extending around their junction abounds in grazing and fuel, and seems
as if created by nature as a resting-place for a force of invaders from the north, such as Kao Hsien-
chih had successfully led across the Darkōt pass. It struck me as a significant indication of the
vicinity of the uppermost Oxus valley that one of the headmen of Darkōt was an immigrant from

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books