The _dress_ consists of long, flowing choghás (stuffed with cotton) and woollen turbans. The Khatlanis wear a kind of full boot which they call _chamush_, but lately a kind of shoe is introduced from Russia, and is called _nughai_.
The country is connected with Yarkand by two roads, one running through Kokand and the other through the Pamir.
The above and following accounts were in answer to questions by Dr. Leitner, whose independent researches regarding Kandiá in 1866-72 were thus corroborated in 1881, and again in 1886, when the photographs which serve as the basis of our illustrations were taken.
IV. THE LANGUAGE, CUSTOMS, SONGS, AND PROVERBS OF GABRIÁL.
POSITION.—A town in _Kandiá_, a part of Yaghistan (the independent, or wild, country) situated beyond the river Indus (Hawā-sinn), which separates it from _Chilás_. The country of _Kandiá_ extends along both sides of the _Kheri Ghá_, a tributary of the Indus, and is separated from _Tangir_ by a chain of mountains.
The town of _Gabriál_ is situated three days’ march from _Jalkôt_, in a north-west direction, and is one day’s march from _Patan_, in a northerly direction. _Patan_ is the chief city of Southern Kandiá.
INHABITANTS.—The whole tract of Kandiá can send out 20,000 fighting men. They are divided into the following castes:—
(1) Shîn, the highest, who now pretend to be Quraishes, the Arabs of the tribe to which the Prophet Muhammad belonged. (Harif Ullá, the Gabriáli, and Ghulam Mohammad, of Gilgit, _call themselves Quraishes_.)
(2) Yashkun, who now call themselves Mughals, are inferior to the Shîn. A Yashkun man cannot marry a _Shîn_ woman. Ahmad Shah, the Jalkoti belonged to this caste.
{ (3) Doeúzgar, carpenters.} In reality these people constitute no { (4) Jolá, weavers. } distinct castes, but all belong to a 3 { (5) Akhár, blacksmiths. } third, the Kamìn, caste. { (6) Dôm, musicians. { (7) Kámìn, lowest class.
The people of _Northern Kandiá_ (Gabriál) are called _Bunzárî_, and of the southern part (_i.e._, Patan) _Maní_, as the Chilasis are called _Boté_. A foreigner is called _Raráwi_, and fellow-countryman, _Muqámi_.
RELIGION.—The Gabriális, as well as all the people of _Chilás_, _Patan_, and _Palas_, are Sunnis, and are very intolerant to the _Shias_, who are kidnapped and kept in slavery (Ghulam Mohammad, the Gilgiti, has been for many years a slave in Chilás, as Ahmad Shah reports). The Gabriális were converted to Muhammadanism by a saint named _Bâbâji_, whose shrine is in Gabriál, and is one of the most frequented places by pilgrims. The Gabriális say that this saint lived six or seven generations ago. Mir Abdulla (who is really of Afghanistan, but now lives in Gabriál,) says that the Gabriális were converted to Islám about 150 years ago. Lately, this religion has made great progress among the people of Kandiá generally. Every little village has a mosque, and in most of the towns there are numerous mosques with schools attached to them, which are generally crowded by students from every caste. In Gabriál, the Mullahs or priests are, for the most part, of the Shîn caste, but men of every caste are zealous in giving education to their sons. Their education is limited to Muhammadan law (of the Hanifite school), and Arabian logic and philosophy. Very little attention is paid to Arabic or Persian general literature and caligraphy, that great Oriental art; so little, indeed, that Harifullah and Mir Abdulla, who are scholars of a very high standard, are wholly ignorant of any of the caligraphic forms, and their handwriting is scarcely better than that of the lowest primary class boys in the schools of the Punjab.