bodies were still visible in various stages of decay and imperfectly
covered. There is no habitation for about six miles on either side of
the pass, and it is only when information reaches a village that they
send out to cover the remains of the true believer. The only village
between the pass and the Kunar river is Ashreth. The people of this
village pay tribute to Dir as well as Chitral, and this tribute is
rendered in the form of escort to travellers ascending the pass. But
the people themselves are Shias and recently converted Kafirs, and are
known to be in league with the Kafir banditti, giving notice to the
latter of the approach of travellers rather than rendering effective
aid against them. Fortunately the ascent was easy and gradual. The
descent is steeper, and in parts very trying. We had to cross and
recross the frozen stream several times, owing to the sides of the hill
rising almost perpendicularly from its base. To add to our
difficulties, we had to pick our way over deep snow (even in May), not
only over branches, but tolerably large sized trunks of trees that had
been uprooted. I was told that during the winter months a regular
hurricane blows up this valley, carrying everything before it. The Pass
(Kotal) forms the northern boundary of Dir territory.

Ashreth to Chitral (5,151 feet) was done by us in three marches. It is
at the head of the Shushai Valley that the village of Madalash lies,
the inhabitants of which are alluded to by Major Biddulph, in his
"Tribes of the Hindu Kush," as being a clan speaking amongst themselves
the Persian tongue. They keep entirely to themselves, and enjoy certain
privileges denied to their surrounding neighbours, and from what I
learnt are credited as having come, over a couple of hundred years ago,
from across the Hindu Kush, _viâ_ the Dura Pass.

Between Daroshp and Chitral the passage by the river contracts to a