Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/113

 fair traitor, and, as sole tribute, eracted the offering

of one sheep, instead of that a human child, annually from every one of the natives.” This custom has prevailed down to the present day, and the people of Shin, wherever they be, celebrate their delivery from the rule of a monster, and the inauguration of a more humane Government, in the month pre

ceding the beginning of winter—a month which they call Dawakió or Daykiö—after the full moon is over and the new moon has set in. The day of this national celebration is called ‘nos chili,' the “feast of firs.' The day generally follows four or five days after the meat provision for the winter has been laid in to dry. A few days of rejoicing precede the special festivity, which takes place at night. Then all the villagers go forth, having a torch in their hands, which, at the sound of music,

they swing round their heads, and throw in the direction of Ghilgit, if they are at any distance from that place; whilst the people of Ghilgit throw it indifferently about the plain in which that town, if town it may be called, is situated. When the throwing away of the brands is over, every man returns to his house, when a curious custom is ob served.

He finds the door locked.

89

THE DARDS.

MARCH 1, 1872.]

The wife then

asks: ‘Where have you been all night? I won't let you come in now.' Then her husband entreats her and says, “I have brought you property and

children, and happiness, and anything you desire.' Then after some further parley, the door is opened, and the husband walks in. He is, however, stop ped by a beam which goes across the room, whilst all the females of the family rush into a inner apart ment to the eldest lady of the place. The man then assumes sulkiness and refuses to advance, when the repenting wife launches into the following song: Mà têté shabilès wº rajó tolyá. Mà têté shabilès w8 ashpa panu. Mà têté shabilès w8 tumák ginu.f Mú tºté shabilès w8 kangar ginu. Má têtê shabilès wo iehapan banu. Mú titté shabilès sha mul déginum Mú tuté shabilès, w8 gamy tshino.

Shabilès shà mul de ginum Mù tuté shabilès, w8 gićy loto, Shabilès sha mul de ginum. Translation.—

Thou hast made me glad ' thou favourite of the Rajal Thou hast rejoiced me, oh bold horseman

Me hast thou made glad O ghi ball ! Rejoicing, pleasure's price giving, I will buy.”

“Then the husband relents and steps over the partition beam. They all sit down, dine together, and thus end the

festivities of the ‘Nos.'

The

little domestic scene is not observed at Ghilgit ; but it is thought to be an essential element in the celebration of the day by people whose ancestors may have been retainers of the Ghilgit Rājā Azru Shemsher, and by whom they may have been dis missed to their homes with costly presents. “The song itself is, however, well-known at Ghilgit. “When Azru had safely ascended the throne, he ordered the tyrant's place to be levelled to the ground. The willing peasants, manufacturing spades of iron, (killi,) flocked to accomplish a grate ful task, and sang whilst demolishing his castle – Kºro teyto Shiri-ga-Badat jé kuró [I am) hard said Shiri and Badat |f why hard Dem Singa Khotá kºro Dem Sing's Khotó [is] hard ; Na chumare kille tº rake phala them [With] this iron spade thy palace level I do. Chaké ! tuto Sachó Malika Dem Singe Behold I thou Shachó Malika Dem Singh's. A hot) kuró na chumare killéyi Khotó hard ; [with] this iron spade Tº rake -ga phalatém, chaké ! Thy palace very I level, behold Translation.

“‘My nature is of a hard metal,' said Shiri and Badat. “Why hard 2 I Khoto, the son of the pea sant Dem Singh, am aloue hardy; with this iron spade I raze to the ground thy kingly house. Be hold now, although thou art of race accursed, of Shacho Malika, I, Dem Singh's son, am of a hard metal ; for with this iron spade I level thy very palace; look out ! look out!’” During the Nauroz [evidently because it is not a national festival] and the 'Id, none of these na tional Shin songs are sung. Eggs are dyed in dif ferent colours, and people go about amusing them selves by trying which eggs are hardest, by striking the end of one against the end of another. The

possessor of the hard egg wins the broken one. The women, however, amuse themselves on those days by tying ropes to trees and swinging them selves about on them.

I am pleased with thee who so well usest gun and sword Thou hast delighted me, oh thou who art invested with a mantle (of honour) Oh great happiness! I will buy it all by giving pleasure's rice.

oº:

[nourishment to us] a heap of corn and a store of

heel

bºa will I buy it all by giving pleasure's priceſ founded reputation of cannibalism which was given by Kashmiris and others to the Dards before 1866, and of which one Dardu tribe accuses another, with which, even if it should reside in a neighbouring valley, it may have no
 * Possibly this legend is one of the causes of the un

E.—LEGENDS RELATING TO ANIMALs.

1.—A Bear and a Corpse. It is said that bears, as the winter is coming on, are in the habit of filling their dens with grass, and hat they eat a plant called aftali, which has at narcotic effect upon them and keeps them in a state intercourse.

I refer elsewhere to the custom of drinking a

portion of the blood of an enemy, to which my two Katirs confessed.

+ Evidently a modern interpolation. † Elsewhere called “Shiribadat” in one name.