VIGNE'S TRAVELS IN KASHMIR AND THIRST.

POSSESSING the organ of locomotion strongly developed, Mr.VIGNE passed nearly seven years (1832-1839) In travelling through the elevated table-lands and mountainous regions between. India, Persia, Tartary, and the Arabian Sea. A former volume' which we have no recollection of seeing, contained his" Personal Narra- tive" of a visit to Afghanistan and Kabul ; the present publica- tion gives an account of his travels in Kashmir, (or Cashmere, as it used to be written,) Middle and Little Thibet, and the region of the Himalaya lying in the angle formed between those three coun- tries.

Excepting Little Thibet, no part of this region can be said to be absolutely untrodden : the country North of the Punjab, and parts of Middle Thibet, have of late years been visited by several ; and of the celebrated Cashmere, accounts by successive travellers have appeared at intervals from the time of BERNIER -to the present day. Practically speaking, however, a great part of Mr. VIGNE'S course may be considered new ; for some of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries have not given their accounts to the world, or have only incidentally mentioned this part of their route ; and the narratives of the elder writers are scattered and difficult of access. The length of time our author 'sojourned in the country, the protection of RUNJIT SINGH under which he travelled, and the dread of the English power that is now prevalent along the confines of India, also gave him more leisure and much greater opportunities of observation than many previous travellers, perhaps than any : and he is not devoid of the scientific knowledge by which nature may be profitably examined, or of the quickness of perception and liveliness of style necessary to ob- serve and describe life.

' Mr. Vthisn's Travels in Kashmir, however, are not of a character so popularly interesting as might have been expected from his sub- jects, time, and opportunities; owing to several circumstances, all of which are resolvable into want of skill. In the regular narra- tive of any journey there is something like a story—there is a be- gluing and an end ; the intermediate incidents may be dull enough, but they are linked together by a natural succession, and the reader holds a thread which conducts him regularly along. In a well- arranged work which aims at giving the results of travel, the author naturally classifies his topics under their respective heads : the reader in search of antiquities will know where to find them, and geo- graphy will be separated from natural history. Mr. VIGNR endea- vours to combine both of these modes, and he has combined little more than the defects of each. Writing in the narrative form, be rarely carries out a single tour for any distance, but mingles two or three tours together—a little way along this road, and then back again to go along another, as if he were writing an itinerary or survey; a thing which he probably designed, but which, both for the geographer and the general reader, would have been more ad- vantageously presented in its pure form. Besides this main error, he frequently stops his narrative, such as it is, for historical accounts or archaeological disquisitions; and, for a popular work, deals far too much in names of places, that, however interesting to the geo- grlipher or the Anglo-Indian, to whom they convey many associa- tions, are to the general reader nothing more than a "muster-roll of names." These drawbacks to the pleasure of perusal could have been obviated by a better arrangement. The pictures of the country and its people, with the accounts of its productions and the incidents of travelling, might have been strung together under the title of sketches, after the rapid manner in which Mr. VIGNE narrates his introductory journey from England to the Himalayas ; whilst history, archteology, and material science, especially in geo- graphy, might have been presented under distinct heads or memoirs. We say nothing about the bulk of the volumes, a good part of them relating to things in which many take no interest ; because a man who brings back information from such distant countries can- not be expected to publish the more dry or scientific parts sepa- rately for a few readers : but the public has a right to require that the popular part should be presented in a popular form. This error of judgment in the arrangement of his matter is the more unfortunate, since Mr. V1G24E is both a pleasant and a powerful describer. Without any inflation or straining after effect, he pre- sents very striking pictures of the stupendous scenery of the Hima- layas, as well as of the softer though still sublime landscapes to be found on their lower slopes and in the table-land-valley of Cashmere. He also depicts with spirit the costumes and groups of the inhabi- tants, tells the few incidents of his journey with effect, and touches off with something like felicity the characteristics of the persons he • • encountered. At the same time, as may be gathered from a previous remark, these passages are not so numerous as those of a more dry character. Unless under peculiar circumstances, or in the hands of a very gifted writer, a Journey into such remote regions is indeed more adapted to advance science by fixing important facts, than to gratify the curiosity of the general reader, or perhaps the student of human nature. Amid those stupendous mountains and elevated table-lands, population is very scanty, from the limited i means of subsistence they can afford ; what s called luxury is equally impossible, from the same cause ; any thing like advance- ment in the fine or useful arts, or of variety of classes in the people, is of course out of the question ; and though institutions, manners, and national and individual characters, always exist, it is not every traveller who can present such pictures as CXSAR drew of the Gauls, Germans, and Britons. An itinerary of mountain-paths, whose views, however extraordinary in their sublimity, are alike in general character, and do not always admit of description—names of places, rivers, &c., which are of more importance on the map as geographical points than for any intrinsic interest they possess—and the unvarying difficulties of the journey, important to the traveller, but palling upon the printed page—with here and there a disquisi- tion which nine readers out of ten do not care about—are the ge- neral matter of which such journies must consist ; and Mr. VIGNE'S endeavour to avoid this monotonous narrative has not been happy ; sometimes producing an itinerary, soffietimes a kind of gazetteer without an alphabetical arrangement. The most interesting parts of Mr. VIGNE'S book are his journies into Little Thibet and Cashmere. The interest of Thibet arises from the novelty of the ground and the character of its ruler and his people; that of Cashmere from the fulness with which Mr. VIGNE has treated certain parts of it, and the romantic associations attached to the name. But the country has fallen from its palmy state, under the dominion of the late RUNJIT SINGH; who ruined it, not by cruelty or military devastations, but by fiscal exactions, and the insolent oppressions of a dominant trace hectoring uncon- trolled by superior authority. Here is a picture of the SIKHS IN CASHMERE.

The lordly Sikb, the gaudiness of whose red and yellow dress is well con- trasted with the sombre uniformity of the outer costume of the Kashmirians,— which latter consists merely of a loose, long-sleeved cloak,—is usually to be seen lounging about in the very plenitude of consequence. The skin on his dark, fierce, and finely-chiselled features, has been polished up, and rendered almost transparent, by the use of almond-oil; his long black hair, lately cleaned with milk, is flocking out from under the snake-like folds of his small but neatly- twisted turban ; he is proud of the new pistol in his kumurbund, or girdle, his heron's plume, his large golden ear-rings, and bangles of pure gold on his wrists; and he significantly twists up his long black and silky mustachios, when con- scious of attracting the attention of the women who have come to fetch water from the stream : and, as is often the case, if he be the commandant of the neighbouring guard-house, and the officer in charge of the revenue, he will be always surrounded by a coterie of idle Kashmirians, and may be seen listening with the utmost complacency to lying representations and petitions for exemp. tion, which it is quite out of his power to grant, from those who hate as cor- dially as they flatter him, and whom he as cordially despises in return.

Mr. Irrortz has collected a great deal of very curious and even useful information respecting the materials and manufacture of the celebrated Cashmere shawls : we can only make room for one part of it—the practices of the shawl-brokers ; which gives a curious idea of the extensive mercantile correspondence carried on in Asii, in despite of the little facilities afforded by the state, and the posi tive checks interposed by the condition of society.

CASHMERIAN SHAWL-BROKERS.

The mokym, or broker, who transacts business between the shawl-manufac- turer and the merchant, is a person of great importance in the city ; and the manner in which their transactions are carried on is rather singular. They have correspondents in most of the larger cities of Hindustan, whose business it is to collect and forward every species of information connected with their trade. By their means they seldom fail to hear of any saudagur or merchant who is about to start for Kashmir, even from such a distance as Calcutta ; and, if he be a rich man, the mokym will send as far as Delhi to meet him, and in- vite him to become his guest during his sojourn in the valley. Perhaps, again, when the merchant, half dead with fatigue and cold, stands at length on the snowy summit of the Par Panjal, or either of the other mountain-passes, he is suddenly amazed by finding there a servant of the broker, who has kindled a fire ready for his reception, hands him a hot cup of tea and a kebab, a delicious kaliaun, and a note containing a fresh and still more pressing invitation from his master. Such well-timed civility is irresistible ; his heart and his boots thaw together, and he at once accepts the hospitality of the mokym; who, it may be, is awaiting the traveller with a friendly hug at the bottom of the pass, two or three days' journey from the city, to which he obsequiously conducts him. Ile finds himself at home at the house of his new friend, and himself and servants studiously provided with all he can require. His host of course takes care to repay himself in the end. He has an understanding with the shawl-manufacturers who frequent his house; so that the guest is at the mercy of both parties, and should he quarrel with the broker, and hope to make a purchase without his intervention, he would find it impossible. No shawl-vender can by any possibility be induced to display his stores until the approach of evening ; being well aware of the superior brilliancy im- parted to their tints by the slanting rays of the setting sun ; and when the young saudagur has purchased initiation by experience, he will observe that the shawl is never exhibited by one person only ; that the broker perhaps, apparently inattentive, is usually sitting by, and that, under pretence of bring- ing the different beauties of the shawl under his more especial notice,. constant and free-masonic fire of squeezes and pinches, having reference to the price to be asked, and graduated from one hundred to a five rupi power, is secretly kept up between the venders, by means of their hands extended under the shawl. When the merchant has completed his purchases, the mokym, who was before so eager to obtain him as a guest, pays him the compliment of seeing him safe to the outside of the city ; where he takes leave of him at Chaturbul, the very last place within it; from which custom the brokers bare obtained the cant name of Doat-i-Chaturbsd, or the " Chaturbul friends." As, after its shawls, Cashmere is chiefly known in Europe by the reputed beauty of its people, it will be well to present Mr. VIGNE'S account of

THE CASHMERIANS.

The complexion of the Mussulman Kashmirian is generally not so dark, cer- tainly not darker, than that of the natives of the South of Europe—the Neapo- litans for instance; to whom they may also be compared on account of the live- liness and comicalities of their disposition : but his features are large and aqui • line, like those of the Afghans; and I do not know that I can better describe than by calling them subdued Jewish; whilst a Hindu may often be distin- guished by the fairness of his complexion. The broad Herculean build and manly features of the Kashmirian peasant, contrasted with his whining complaints and timid disposition, if considered apart from the effects of a long-continued subjection to tyranny and despotism, may perhaps form a subject for physiological speculation. I think it would now be difficult to induce the Kaslimirians to rise alone and unassisted against their oppressors. Mahmud of Ghuzni, it is said, was at first foiled in his en- deavours to make himself master of Kashmir; though he afterwards took it. The great Akber took it, after, I think, two unsuccessful attempts; and tradi- tion says, that in order to subdue the then warlike spirit of the inhabitants, he made them doff their more martial habiliments, and wear the large plain cloak of the Afghans; and also, in furtherance of the same plan, that he forced them to eat their bread stale—which, in these countries, where the cakes are swallowed hot as soon as made, caused them, it is said, to have only "stomachs to eat, and not to light."

"Many fowls in a house will defile it, and many Kashniiris in a country will spoil it." "If you meet a snake do not put it to death, but do not spare a "Do not admit a Kashmiri to your friendship, or you will bang a hatchet over your doorway."

In this spirit are the remarks of the neighbouring nations when speaking of a Kashmirian : but the same want of courage that obliges them to have recourse to artifice and dishonesty has caused their other faults to be regarded in a still more unfavourable light ; for as far as mere morality is concerned, I should say that the Kashmirian had very much the advantage of both the Sikh and the • Patan-

THE BEAUTIES OF CASHMERE.

Many of the women are handsome enough to induce a man to exclaim, as did the Assyrian soldiers when they beheld the beauty of Judith —" Who would despise this people, that have among them such women ? " Their

dress has already been described : a red gown with large loose sleeves, red fillet on the forehead, over which is thrown a white mantilla. The hair is

collected in separate plaits, then gathered together ; and a long tassel of black cotton is suspended from it, almost down to the ankles. The Hindu women usually wear a white rolled cloth tied loosely round the waist.

In Kashmir there is no purdah, or concealment of the features, excepting among the higher classes. I do not think that the beauty of the women has been overrated. They have not often that slim and graceful shape which is so common in Hindustan, but are more usually gifted with a style of figure which would entitle them to the appellation of fine or handsome women in European society. They have the complexion of brunettee, with more pink on the cheek ; and that of the Hindu women has often too much of the pink and white in it; and in this respect they resemble the Armenians and Turks of Tarkund. But, whatever the other features may be, they have usually a pair of large, almond-shaped, hazel eyes, and a white and regular set of teeth. I am not speaking of the nnbeautifying effects of dirt, poverty, and misery united; and the Kashmirian women are of course (the enamorata of Gil Bias at Algiers is an exception) wholly deficient in the graces and fascinations derivable from civilization and accomplishment ; but for mere uneducated eyes I know of none that surpass those of Kashmir ; to the natural brilliancy and softness of which, the length of a black eyelash, and a little sigma or antimony, hi a great addition.

- The advance into Little Thibet was made under favourable cir- cumstances. AHMED Shah, its ruler, was very apprehensive of an invasion of his country by the Sikhs; but he thought he was safe as long as he could get an Englishman there ; a conjecture which events proved to be correct. Mr. Viortz therefore entered his dominions en prince ; a sort of envoy basing been sent to conduct the traveller, and Anntsb Shah himself came out to meet him in force. This compliment, -however, might have arisen from another matter he had in hand—the interception of some highland cattle- drivers who had been "lifting" the property of his subjects : so that 1r. VIGNE was witness to a mountain-skirmish that would

have delighted WALTER Scorr.

A THIRETIAN AMBUSCADE.

At an early hour the next morning, we all moved forward towards the place of the ambuscade. The whole country was, on account of its elevation, quite free from trees; but the ground was blind, rocky, and covered with coarse her. bage nearly up to the summits of the mountains among which our path lay. After a few miles we came in sight of the Rajah's tent, on the opposite side of the month of the defile through:which the maurauders were expected to arrive; and near it were several hundred men, visible to us, but concealed from their approaching victims by a small eminence. The young Khan ordered a halt within a mile and a half of his father's tent ; and we sat down for half an

hour, quietly awaiting the give k Be said that he bad particular gi orders from his father to me escort and protection : and when I expressed a wish to proceed to the side of a hill opposite to the end of the defile, where I could without any danger to myself have seen the whole cortege of the robbers moving unconsciously along into the very jaws of the ambuscade, he said that I must not go, as they would probably see me, and all his father's plane would be spoiled.

From the spot where we remained I could distinguish several parties lying in ambush in different parts of the mountains; but all was as silent as the place was desolate, although so many human beings were in sight.

Suddenly—and I shall never forget the excitement of a scene so new and so savage—the band advanced rapidly into the open part of the defile, striking up one of its wildest and loudest strains; and the mountains echoed again with the clangour of their huge trumpets and the laugh-like cheers of the Bultis, as every man left his place of concealment and sprang forward upon the astonished marauders. Our party were instantly mounted, and we pushed forward to the top of the hill in advance of us : but the work had been shortly finished, and was nearly over when we arrived. The bodies of five or six men who had at- tempted to escape towards us were lying on our right. They bad been inter- cepted and killed, and stripped in an instant. At a short distance lay a wounded wretch, who had raised himself on his hand ; and by his side was an old Tiboti Sepahi, coolly loading his matchlock, from which he gave him the coup de grace. Around another was a circle of the victors; from which one more ferocious than the rest would now and then step forward to inflict a fresh wound with his sword. Others were busied in stripping the slain and securing • part of the spoil to themselves. Among the latter were my brave Kashmirian kulis ; who, watching their opportunity, abandoned their loads in the melee, and contrived to seize upon several sheep, which they killed, and buried, on the same principle that a dog buries a bone, to be dug up on their return.

Whilst I was surveying the extraordinary scene around me, my attention was attracted by a large crowd; and I was told that the Gylfo was approaching. He and all around him dismounted as he drew near to me, and I of coarse followed his example. Of two who were taller than the rest, I did not imme- diately know which was Ahmed Shah ; but I afterwards found that the second was his brother Gholani Shah, the Rajah of Parkuta. Ahmed Shah ap- proached me bareheaded; and when near, he frequently stopped and salaamed by bowing low, and touching the ground with the back of his hand, and then carrying it to his forehead. I advanced quickly, took his hand, and shook it a la Anglais, —bidding my interpreter to inform him that it was the English custom to do so; with which piece of information he seemed much pleased. Wethen all sat down on some tent-rugs that had been brought up for the oc- casion; and, after mutual inquiries after each other's health, I congratulated him upon the success of his expedition. He replied, that these very maraudere had pillaged part of his country two or three times before, and that he had de- termined to come in person and destroy them : that he had all his life prayed that he might set eyes upon a Feringhi before he died, and that his wish Was now granted.

A HIMALAYAN REACHER.

But the glory of the valley is the magnificent glacier at the end of it. Its

lower extremity is a short distance from the village of Arindo ; and the natives say that it is slowly but perceptibly advancing. It occupies the entire valley, as far as the eye can reach ; and a place that looks more like the extremity of the world does not exist in nature. Vast mountains, alike bare, precipitous, and rugged, appear to form a channel for it ; and in the extreme distance their sides are coloured with the red and white tints of iron and gypsum. The width of the lofty, wall of ice, in which it terminates towards Arindo, is about a quarter of a mile ; its height is nearly one hundred feet. The only way in which I can account for the quantity of soil and rock upon its upper surface, on which I gathered several plants, is, that it must have been collected partly by the effect of winds and partly by the avalanches of ages past, which fell upon it and deposited a detritus, when as yet, from the narrowness of its bed, it was more within range of their descending forces. I have never seen any spectacle of the same nature so truly grand as the debouchure of the waters from beneath this glacier. The ice is c'ear and green as an emerald, the archway lofty, gloomy, and Avernus-like. The stream that emerges from beneath it is no incipient brook, but a large and. ready-formed river ; whose colour is that of the soil which it has collected in its course, whose violence and velocity betoken a very long descent, and whose force is best explained by saying that it rolls along with it enormous masses of ice, that are whirled against the rocks in its bed with a concession producing a sound resembling that of a distant cannon, and if not permanently intercepted by them, may be seen floating on the Indus, even below the valley of lakardo.