Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/857

Rh evidence woman’s chastity is loose, and adultery slightly punished or easily compensated (but on these points the Afghan Christians give a strongly opposed statement). Female children are freely sold by the Bashgalis to their Mussulman neighbours, and the king of Chitrâl receives an annual tribute of children of both sexes (whom he sells doubtless). The black clothing, which has given the Kafirs a general name, varies in character. Tribes on the Cabul side wear entire goat’s skins; the Bashgalis wear short-sleeved black tunics of woven goat’s hair, with a broad red binding, and girt with a leather belt bearing a dagger. On their feet they wear rude sandals of wild-goat skin, with a tuft on the instep. The women wear long sack-like garments of black woven goat s hair, with long loose sleeves, girt loosely at the waist, and with a coloured cotton scarf tightly bound over the shoulders. It is a general characteristic that men shave the whole head except a circular 3-inch patch on the crown, from which the hair hangs often to the waist. The Bashgalis at least wear no head covering. Women wear the hair plaited in many long thin tresses, coiled under their head-dress. The head-dress of the Bashgali women is remarkable, consisting of a black cap with lappets and two horns about a foot long, made of wood wrapt with black cloth and fixed to the cap. Such a head-dress, with horns of greater length, is described by Chinese travellers of the 6th and 7th centuries as worn in the valley of the upper Oxus, then held by the Yetha or Ephthalites, an indication probably of kindred with or influence over the ancestors of this Kafir tribe. Among the Sanus, Wamas, or Red Kafirs, long, massive, silver chains presented by the tribe are worn over the shoulders by successful warriors. Their women tie up the hair with a silver band. The Kafir arms are bows and arrows, battle-axe and dagger. The dagger is peculiar, of excellent fabric, with a deep 工 hilt of iron with brass studs, and slung in a triangular iron sheath. Their bows and arrows are short and weak-looking, but they make good practice up to 60 yards. Swords and matchlocks are spreading. Among the notable and general customs are the copious use of wine, which at their feasts they drink from large silver cups which are among their most precious possessions; their sitting habitually upon stools of wicker-work, whilst they find it as difficult as we do to adopt the cramped postures usual among Asiatics; their use of slips of pine for candles; the custom of recording the deeds of a warrior by a post beside his coffin, in which a peg is driven for every man he has slain. The Islamized Chugâni people of Darah Nûr also maintain this practice. The people are fond of dancing. Men and women join. Biddulph witnessed a village dance, wild and strange,—the men brandishing arms, with whooping and whistling and discharge of guns. At times the whole would lock arms by pairs and revolve backwards and forwards in grotesque waltz, or following in order wind in figures of 8. Their houses are neat and clean, generally of more than one story (communicating by rough ladder beams), and sometimes of five or six on the declivity of a hill. They are much embellished with wood carving. We may assume Tanner’s striking description of a large Chugâni village to give a fairer idea of the Kafir towns than we have yet any direct means of gaining:—

1em

A newborn child is carried with its mother to a special house outside the village, where they remain secluded. After twenty days mother and child are bathed and brought back with music and dancing. The dead are placed in coffins, and, after much dancing and waking and sham fighting, are carried to some lofty spot and there deposited, but no grave is made. The Siâh-posh dogs, cattle, sheep, fowls, and all their agricultural products are famous for quality, and much sought by their neighbours. Their cattle in appearance and size compare favourably with English breeds, but have large humps. The women are said to do much of the agricultural work.

1em (undefined)  KAHLÚR, also called, one of the petty hill states in the Punjab, India, lying between 31°12′ 30″ and 31°35′ 45″N. , and between 76°26′ and 76° 58′E. The area is 448 square miles, and the estimated population 60,000. The principal products are opium and grain; woollen goods are manufactured. The estimated revenue is about 10,000. The Gurkhas overran the country in the early part of the century, and expelled the rájá, who was, however, reinstated by the in.  K’AI-FUNG FOO is the capital of the of  in, and is one of the most ancient  in the. A on the present site was first  by  (–) to mark off (k’ai) the boundary of his  (fung); hence its. It has, however, passed under several es in. During the, , and  (–) it was known as P’een-chow. During the, or five (–), it was the Tung king, or eastern capital. Under the and   (—) it was called P’een-king. By the or   (–), its  was again changed to P’een-leang, and on the return of the  to power with the establishment of the   (–), it was  by its original name of Kai-fung. The is situated at the point where the last spur of the   system melts away in the eastern, and a few  south of the. Its position, therefore, lays it open to the destructive influences of the. In it was totally destroyed by a  caused by the  of  bursting, and on several prior and subsequent occasions it has suffered injury from the. The is large and imposing-looking, with broad  and handsome, the most noticeable of which are a twelve-storied  600 high, and a   from which, at a height of 200, the inhabitants are able to observe the approach of the yellow  of the  in times of. The forms a substantial protection, and is pierced by five. The whole neighbourhood, which is the site of one of the earliest settlements of the in, is full of  associations, and it was in this  that the  who entered  in the reign of  (–) first established a. For many centuries held themselves aloof from the, and practised the  of  in a   and supported 