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- The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ covered with antique buildings, and its happy, easy-going, picturesque inhabitants, both male and female, robed in long white gowns with full loose flowing sleeves—the men with snow-white turbans, the women with little caps or bonnets, all of whom spend their time in their numerous devotional exercises or quietly working on their celebrated shawls or working curious designs in gold and silver, for which there is but a dull market these days of rapid machine imitations; and above all, the balmy atmosphere of this 'garden of the gods' conspires to make one forget all his troubles, real or imaginary.
There are legends extant regarding this valley, one of which claims that in very ancient times this valley was a great lake, and that an invading king ordered his men to make a passage between two rocks in a gorge, thereby draining the lake of its waters and ruining the adjacent country, by which he gained victory over the inhabitants. Another legend is, that the waters themselves forced a passage between the rocks of a gorge, leaving nothing of the great lake except a few lagoons and the river Jhelum.
M. Notovitch reached Shrinagar, the capital of Kashmir, on the evening of October 19th, where he remained six days, Spending the time in making long excursions into the surrounding country, examining old ruins and studying the peculiar customs of the people.
The history of Kashmir is full of interesting incidents. I will give only a short sketch.
A Mahomedan writer, Noor-ul-deen, who begins the history of Kashmir with the Creation, affirms that the valley was visited by Adam after the fall; that the descendants of Seth reigned over the country for 1,110 years; and that after the deluge it became peopled by a tribe from Turkistan. The Hindu historians add that after the line of Seth became extinct, the Hindus conquered the
