"Their manners are light and
volatile, their characters effeminate and pusillanimous.... They are very
handsome, but their natural bent is to fraud and trickery." (Pel. Boud.
II. 167-168.) Vigne's account is nearly the same. (II. 142-143.) "They are
as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious," says Mr. Shaw (p.
292).
[Bernier says: "The women [of Kachemire] especially are very handsome; and
it is from this country that nearly every individual, when first admitted
to the court of the Great Mogul, selects wives or concubines, that his
children may be whiter than the Indians, and pass for genuine Moguls.
Unquestionably, there must be beautiful women among the higher classes, if
we may judge by those of the lower orders seen in the streets and in the
shops." (Travels in the Mogul Empire, edited by Archibald Constable,
1891, p. 404.)]
NOTE 5. - In the time of Hiuen Tsang, who spent two years studying in
Kashmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were many
Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state; there were
100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end of the 11th century a King
(Harshadeva, 1090-1102) is mentioned exceptionally as a protector of
Buddhism. The supposition has been intimated above that Marco's picture
refers to a traditional state of things, but I must notice that a like
picture is presented in the Chinese account of Hulaku's war.
