'Once upon a time there lived a race at Ghilghit whose origin is
uncertain. Whether they sprung from the soil or had immigrated from a
distant region is doubtful; so much is believed that they were Gayupí,
i.e., spontaneous, aborigines, unknown. Over them ruled a monarch who
was a descendant of the evil spirits, the Yatsh, who terrorised over
the world. His name was Shiribadatt, and he resided at a castle in
front of which was a course for the performance of the manly game of
Polo. His tastes were capricious, and in every one of his actions his
fiendish origin could be discerned. The natives bore his rule with
resignation, for what could they effect against a monarch at whose
command even magic aids were placed? However, the country was rendered
fertile, and round the capital bloomed attractive. The heavens,
or rather the virtuous Peris, at last grew tired of his tyranny,
for he had crowned his iniquities by indulging in a propensity for
cannibalism. This taste had been developed by an accident. One day
his cook brought him some mutton broth the like of which he had never
tasted. After much inquiry as to the nature of the food on which the
sheep had been brought up, it was eventually traced to an old woman,
its first owner. She stated that her child and the sheep were born
on the same day, and losing the former, she had consoled herself
by suckling the latter. This was a revelation to the tyrant. He
had discovered the secret of the palatability of the broth, and was
determined to have a never-ending supply of it. So he ordered that
his kitchen should be regularly provided with children of a tender
age, whose flesh, when converted into broth, would remind him of
the exquisite dish he had once so much relished. This cruel order was
carried out. The people of the country were dismayed at such a state of
things, and sought slightly to improve it by sacrificing, in the first
place, all orphans and children of neighbouring tribes. The tyrant,
however, was insatiable, and soon was his cruelty felt by many families
at Ghilghit, who were compelled to give up their children to slaughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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