- Descended from Lamieroo through a precipitous pass
for about three kos and a half, to Kulchee, a tidy little village
of fifteen huts, situated in an oasis of apricot and walnut-trees,
the first we had encountered since leaving Cashmere.
The people here seemed particularly simple and happy among their waving
corn-fields and wild fruit-trees, and they were most anxious to supply
us with apricots and milk, and whatever they could produce. The Gopa,
or head-man of the village, could speak a little Hindostanee, besides
being able to read and write his own language in two characters, and
as he seemed unusually sharp and intelligent, I was very glad to have
a chat with him while waiting for the commissariat to come up. The
character most common on the inscribed stones, and one of those now in
actual use, he told me was Romeeque; the other, the square character
on the stones, is obsolete, and is called Lantza;[21] while a third
character, which was the one he was most conversant with, but which
did not appear upon any of the stones, he called Tyeeque.
His explanation of the stones was, that at the last day a certain
recording angel, whom he called Khurjidal, would pass through the
land, and inspecting these mounds of inscribed stones, would write
down the names of all those who had contributed to the heap. What the
inscription was he seemed unable clearly to explain, but believed it to
refer in some manner to the Supreme Being.
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