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144 Every place to which he went fell into his possession. At last he reached the fort of Shákalhá, an elevated place which is called Kumba on the borders of Kashmír, and stopped there for one month. He punished some of the chiefs of the surrounding places, and collected an army under his command. Then he made firm treaties with the chiefs and rulers of that part of the country, and securely established his dominion. He sent for two trees, one of which was a maisír, that is white poplar, and the other a deodár, that is a fir. He planted them both on the the boundary of Kashmír, upon the banks of a stream, which is called the five waters, and near the Kashmír hills, from which numerous fountains flow. He stayed there till the branches of each of the trees ran into those of the other. Then he marked them, and said it was the boundary mark between him and the Ráí of Kashmír, and beyond it he would not go.

The narrator of this conquest has thus said, that when the boundary towards Kashmír was defined, Chach returned to the capital city Alor. He stopped there a year to take rest from the fatigues of the journey; and his chiefs got ready the provisions and materials of war. He then said, “O minister! I have no fear from the east, now I must take care of the west and the south.” The minister replied, “Indeed, it is most praiseworthy for kings to be acquainted with the affairs of their countries. It is also to be apprehended that from your absence in the upper provinces the nobles and the governors of the different parts may have presumed