s of Udyana, the term Pashai, as Polo uses it, vaguely covers the
whole tract from the southern boundary of Badakhshan to the Indus and the
Kabul River.

But even by extending its limits to Attok, we shall not get within seven
marches of Kashmir. It is 234 miles by road from Attok to Srinagar; more
than twice seven marches. And, according to Polo's usual system, the
marches should be counted from Chitral, or some point thereabouts.

Sir H. Rawlinson, in his _Monograph on the Oxus_, has indicated the
probability that the name _Pashai_ may have been originally connected with
_Aprasin_ or _Paresin_, the Zendavestian name for the Indian Caucasus, and
which occurs in the Babylonian version of the Behistun Inscription as the
equivalent of Gaddra in the Persian, i.e. _Gandhara_, there applied to the
whole country between Bactria and the Indus. (See _J. R. G. S._ XLII.
502.) Some such traditional application of the term Pashai might have
survived.

[1] The Kafir dialect of which Mr. Trumpp collected some particulars shows
in the present tense of the substantive verb these remarkable forms:--
_Ei sum_, _Tu sis_, _siga se_; _Ima simis_, _Wi sik_, _Sige sin_.

[2] In the _Tabakat-i-Nasiri_ (_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.[NOTE 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.[NOTE 2] Indeed, this
country is the very original source from which Idolatry has spread
abroad.[NOTE 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.[NOTE 4]

There are in this country Eremites