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THE UNKNOWN LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. 37 lloating on the lakes, its hills and islands covered with antique buildings, and its happy, easy-going, picturesque inhabitants, both malc and scinale, robed in long white gowns with full loose flowing sleeves--the mon with snow-white turbans, the women with little caps or bonnets, all of whom spend their time in thcir numcrous devotional cxcrciscs or quictly working on their cclcbrated shawls or working curious designs in gold and silver, for which tliere is but a dull market these days of rapid machinc imitations; and above all, the balmy atmosphere of this 'garden of the gods' conspires to make one forget all his troubles, rcal or imaginary.
There arc 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 makc a passage between two rocks in a gorge, thereby draining the lake of its waters and ruining the adjacent country, by which lie 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 cxcept 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 cxcursions into the surrounding country, cxamining old ruins and studying tlic peculiar customs of the people.
The history of Kashmir is full of interesting inci(lents. I will give only a short sketch.
A Maliomcdan writer, Noor-ul-deen, who begins the history of Kaslimir with the Creation, affirms that the vallcy was visited by Adam after the fall; that the descendants of Scth reigned over the country for 1.00 ycars; and that after the cluge it became peopled by a tribe from Turkistan. The Hindu historians add that
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