Another Bulūk is Cheghānserāi, which contains one village only, and is of limited extent, lying in the very jaws or entrance of Kaferistān. As its inhabitants, though Musul­mans, are mingled with the Kafers, they live according to the customs of that race. The large river, known by the name of the River of Cheghānserāi, comes from the north-east of Cheghānserāi, behind Bajour. Another smaller stream,* coming from the west, after flowing down through the midst of Pīch, a district of Kaferistān, falls into it, The wine of Cheghānserāi is strong and yellowish; but bears no sort of comparison with that of the Dareh-Nūr. In Cheghān­serāi there are neither grapes nor vineyards; but they bring the wines down the river from Kaferistān and Kaferistān-Pīch. When I took Cheghānserāi, the Kafers of Pīch came to their assistance. So prevalent is the use of wine among them, that every Kafer has a khīg, or leathern bottle of wine about his neck; they drink wine instead of water.

Kāmeh.

Kāmeh,* though not a distinct district, but under Nangen­hār, yet gets the name of a Bulūk.

Nijrau.

Another Tumān is Nijrau, which lies north-east from Kābul, in the hill-country. Behind it, in the hill-country, all the inhabitants are Kafers, and the country is Kaferistān, It is a sort of sequestered corner. Grapes and fruits are extremely abundant in this district; and it produces a great quantity of wine, but in making they boil it. In the winter season they fatten a number of fowls. The inhabitants are wine-bibbers, never pray, fear neither God nor man, and are heathenish in their usages. In the hills of this district they have the pine, the jilgūzeh,* the oak, and the mastic tree* in abundance. The fir, pine, and oak trees grow beneath Nijrau, but are not met with higher up; they are among the trees of Hindustān. The people of this hill-country burn the fir instead of lamps; it gives light, and burns like a candle. It has a very singular appearance. In the mountain districts of Nijrau, the flying-fox* is found. It is an animal larger than a squirrel, with a kind of leathern web stretching between its fore and hind feet, like a bat’s wing. They frequently brought them to me. It is said that they can fly a bowshot from a higher tree to a lower one. I myself have never seen them fly, but have let one go beside a tree, which it quickly clung to and ascended; and, when driven away, expanded its wings like a bird, and came to the ground without injury. In these mountains is found the bird lūkheh,* which is also termed the būkalamūn, or Chameleon-bird, and which has, between its head and its tail, five or six different colours. It has a brilliant changeable colour, like the neck of a dove, and is larger than the beautiful partridge, named kibk-i-dari. It is probable that this bird is that which in Hindustān passes for the kibk-i-dari. The people of the country relate a singular circumstance concerning it. In the winter season these birds come down to the skirts of the hills; and if in their flight they happen to pass over a vineyard, they are no longer able to fly, and are caught.* In Nijrau there is also a species of rat, which is named the musk-rat, and has scent of musk, but I have not seen it.*

Penjhīr.

Penjhīr* is another Tumān. It lies upon the road, and is in the immediate vicinity of Kaferistān. The thoroughfare and inroads of the robbers of Kaferistān are through Penjhīr. In consequence of their vicinity to the Kafers, the inhabitants of this district are happy to pay them a fixed contribution. Since I last invaded Hindustān, and subdued it, the Kafers have descended into Penjhīr, and returned, after slaying a great number of people, and committing extensive ravages.

Ghūrbend.

There is another Tumān, named Ghūrbend.* In this country they call a steep hill-pass bend; and as they cross over to Ghūr by this pass, the district, from that circum­stance, has acquired the name of Ghūrbend. The Hazāras have got possession of the tops of its valleys. It contains a few villages, but yields little revenue. It is said, that on the mountains of Ghūrbend there are mines of silver and of lapis-lazuli. On the skirts of the hills there are some districts; in the upper part are Mīteh, Kacheh, and Parwān; and lower down are twelve or thirteen villages. All of them abound in fruits, and their wines come from this tract; the strongest wine comes from Khwājeh Khan-Saīd. As all these villages lie on the skirts of the mountain, or on the mountain itself, although they pay something as revenue, yet they are not regularly rated in the revenue rolls. Lower down than these villages, along the skirts of the mountains, and between them and the river Bārān, lie two detached spots of level ground; the one called the Kurrah-e-Tāziān, the other the Dasht-e-Sheikh.* In the warm season they are covered with the chekīn-taleh grass in a very beautiful manner,* and the Aimāks and Tūrks resort to them. In the skirts of these mountains the ground is richly diversified by various kinds of tulips. I once directed them to be counted, and they brought in thirty-two or thirty-three different sorts of tulips. There is one species which has a scent in some degree like the rose, and which I termed lāleh-gulbūi (the rose-scented tulip). This species is found only in the dasht-e-Sheikh (the Sheikh’s plain), in a small spot of ground, and nowhere else. In the skirts of the same hills, below Parwān, is produced the lāleh-sad barg* (or hundred-leaved tulip), which is likewise found only in one narrow spot of ground, as we emerge from the straits of Ghūrbend. Between these two plains there is a small hill, on which there is a line of sandy ground, reaching from the top to the bottom of the hill. They called it Khwājeh reg i rawān.* They say that in the summer season the sound of drums and nagarets issues from this sand.

There are a number of other districts* belonging to Kābul. On the south-west of Kābul, is a high snowy* mountain, on which the snow of one year generally falls on the snow of another. It happens very rarely that the old snow has disappeared before the new falls. When the ice-houses of Kābul are exhausted, they fetch ice from this mountain to cool their water. It is three farsangs from Kābul. This hill and that of Bāmiān are both exceedingly lofty. The Hirmand,* the Sind, the Dūghābeh of Kunduz, and the river of Balkh, all take their rise in this mountain; and it is said, that in the same day a person may drink from the streams of all these four rivers. The districts* which I mentioned are chiefly on the skirts of this mountain. Their gardens are numerous,* and their grapes, as well as every other kind of fruit, abundant. Among these villages there are none to be compared with Istālīf and Isterghach,* which were termed by Ulugh Beg Mirza, Khorasān and Samarkand. Pamghān is also within the range of these districts*; and though it cannot be compared with those just mentioned, in respect to grapes and fruits, is beyond all comparison superior to them in respect to climate. The mountain of Pamghān* always keeps its snow. Few quar­ters possess a district* that can rival Istālīf. A large river runs through it, and on either side of it are gardens,* green, gay, and beautiful. Its water is so cold, that there is no need of icing it; and it is particularly pure. In this district is a garden, called Bāgh-e-kalān (or the Great Garden), which Ulugh Beg Mirza* seized upon. I paid the price of the garden to the proprietors, and received from them a grant of it. On the outside of the garden are large and beautiful spreading plane-trees, under the shade of which there are agreeable spots finely sheltered. A perennial stream, large enough to turn a mill, runs through the garden; and on its banks are planted planes* and other trees. Formerly this stream flowed in a winding and crooked course, but I ordered its course to be altered* according to a regular plan, which added greatly to the beauty of the place. Lower down than these villages, and about a kos or a kos and a half above the level plain, on the lower skirts of the hills, is a fountain, named Khwājeh sih-yārān (Khwājeh three-friends), around which there are three species of trees; above the fountain are many beautiful plane-trees, which yield a pleasant shade. On the two sides of the fountain, on small eminences at the bottom of the hills, there are a number of oak-trees; except on these two spots where there are groves of oak, there is not an oak to be met with on the hills to the west of Kābul. In front of this fountain, towards the plain, there are many spots, covered with the flowering arghwān* tree, and besides these arghwān plots, there are none else in the whole country. It is said that these three kinds of trees were bestowed on it by the power of these three holy men, beloved of God; and that this is the origin of the name Sih yārān.* I directed this fountain to be built round with stone, and formed a cistern of lime and mortar ten gaz by ten. On the four sides of the fountain, a fine level platform for resting was constructed on a very neat plan.* At the time when the arghwān flowers begin to blow, I do not know that any place in the world is to be compared to it. The yellow arghwān is here very abundant, and the yellow arghwān’s blossom mingles with the red. On the south-west of this fountain there is a valley, in which is a rivulet, containing half as much water as would suffice to turn a mill. This rivulet I confined within artificial banks, and caused a channel to be dug for it over one of the heights on the south-west of Sih yārān. On the top of this height I formed a circular platform for sitting on.* The date of my forming this rivulet was found in the words, Jūi khush* (a charming stream).

Logar.