Page:Younghusband - Kashmir.pdf/158

 112 THE PEOPLE

and used many of the same parables as Christ used, as, for instance, the parable of the sower., His tomb is in Srinagar, and the theory of this founder of the Quadiani sect is that Yus Asaf and Jesus are one and the same person.

When the people are in appearance of such a decided Jewish cast it is curious that such a theory should exist; and certainly, as I have said, there are real Biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir, and especially among the upland villages. Here the Israelitish shepherd tending his flocks and herds may any day be seen.

Yet apart from this, the ordinary Kashmiri villager is not an attractive being. Like his house he is dirty, untidy, and sl'pshod, and both men and women wear the most unbecoming clothing, without either shape, grace, or colour.- But the physique of both men and women is excellent. They are of medium height, but compared with the people of India of exceptional muscular strength. The men carry enormous loads. In the days before the cart-road was constructed, they might be seen carrying loads of apples sometimes up to and over 200 Ibs. in weight; and the labour they do in the rice-fields is excessively severe.

Good as is their physique, the Kashmiris are, how-