167-168.) Vigne's account is nearly the same. (II. 142-143.) "They are
as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious," says Mr. Shaw (p.
292).

[Bernier says: "The women [of Kachemire] especially are very handsome; and
it is from this country that nearly every individual, when first admitted
to the court of the Great Mogul, selects wives or concubines, that his
children may be whiter than the Indians, and pass for genuine Moguls.
Unquestionably, there must be beautiful women among the higher classes, if
we may judge by those of the lower orders seen in the streets and in the
shops." (_Travels in the Mogul Empire_, edited by Archibald Constable,
1891, p. 404.)]

NOTE 5.--In the time of Hiuen Tsang, who spent two years studying in
Kashmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were many
Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state; there were
100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end of the 11th century a King
(Harshadeva, 1090-1102) is mentioned _exceptionally_ as a protector of
Buddhism. The supposition has been intimated above that Marco's picture
refers to a traditional state of things, but I must notice that a like
picture is presented in the Chinese account of Hulaku's war. One of the
thirty kingdoms subdued by the Mongols was "The kingdom of Fo (Buddha)
called _Kishimi_. It lies to the N.W. of India. There are to be seen the
men who are counted the successors of Shakia; their ancient and venerable
air recalls the countenance of Bodi-dharma as one sees it in pictures.
They abstain from wine, and content themselves with a gill of rice for
their daily food, and are occupied only in reciting the prayers and
litanies of Fo." (_Rem. N. Mel. Asiat._ I. 179.) Abu'l Fazl says that on
his third visit with Akbar to Kashmir he discovered some old men of the
religion of Buddha, but none of them were _literati_. The _Rishis_, of
whom he speaks with high commendation as abstaining from meat and from
female society, as charitable and unfettered by traditions, were perhaps a
modified remnant of the Buddhist Eremites. Colonel Newall, in a paper on
the Rishis of Kashmir, traces them to a number of Shiah Sayads, who fled
to Kashmir in the time of Timur. But evidently the _genus_ was of much
earlier date, long preceding the introduction of Islam. (_Vie et V. de H.
T._ p. 390; _Lassen_, III. 709; _Ayeen Akb._ II. 147, III. 151; _J. A. S.
B._ XXXIX. pt. i. 265.)

We see from the _Dabistan_ that in