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APPENDIX II
From the earliest times the Kashmiris have been objects of contempt and
derision, whilst the women have been--perhaps unduly--lauded for their
looks and general excellence.
The Kashmiris themselves are of opinion that "once upon a time" they were
an honourable and valiant folk, brought gradually to their present
condition by foreign oppression.
To a certain extent this is probably true, but, according to the
_Rajatarangini Kulan_, they were noted for dishonesty and cunning long
before the evil days of conquest and adversity. Bernier speaks well of the
men, calling them witty and industrious. Doubtless the Kashmiri character,
originally none too good, was ruined during the long years of cruelty and
injustice to which he was subjected by the Tartars, Afghans, and Sikhs,
who, from the day when Akbar put him into women's clothes, treated him as
something lower than a brute.
Forster, writing in 1783, abuses the Kashmiri, whom he stigmatises as
"endowed with unwearied patience in the pursuit of gain." He speaks of the
vile treatment to which he was subjected by his then rulers the Pathans,
observing that Afghans usually addressed Kashmiris by striking them with a
hatchet, but, he concludes, "I even judged them worthy of their adverse
fortune."
Elphinstone (1839) is of opinion that "the men are excessively addicted to
pleasure, and are notorious all over the East for falsehood and cunning;"
and again, "The Cashmerians are of no account as soldiers.
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