In the Nijr-aū mountains is an abundance of _archa_, _jīlghūza_, _bīlūt_ and _khanjak_.[799] The first-named three do not grow above Nigr-aū but they grow lower, and are amongst the trees of Hindūstān. _Jīlghūza_-wood is all the lamp the people have; it burns like a candle and is very remarkable. The flying-squirrel[800] is found in these mountains, an animal larger than a bat and having a curtain (_parda_), like a bat's wing, between its arms and legs. People often brought one in; it is said to fly, downward from one tree to another, as far as a _giz_ flies;[801] I myself have never seen one fly. Once we put one to a tree; it clambered up directly and got away, but, when people went after it, it spread its wings and came down, without hurt, as if it had flown. Another of the curiosities of the Nijr-aū mountains is the _lūkha_ (var. _lūja_) bird, called also _bū-qalamūn_ (chameleon) because, between head and tail, it has four or five changing colours, resplendent like a pigeon's throat.[802] It is about as large as the _kabg-i-darī_ and seems to be the _kabg-i-darī_ of Hindūstān.[803] People tell this wonderful thing about it:—When the birds, at [Sidenote: Fol. 135b.] the on-set of winter, descend to the hill-skirts, if they come over a vineyard, they can fly no further and are taken.[804] There is a kind of rat in Nijr-aū, known as the musk-rat, which smells of musk; I however have never seen it.[805] Panjhīr (Panj-sher) is another _tūmān_; it lies close to Kāfiristān, along the Panjhīr road, and is the thoroughfare of Kāfir highwaymen who also, being so near, take tax of it. They have gone through it, killing a mass of persons, and doing very evil deeds, since I came this last time and conquered Hindūstān (932 AH.-1526 AD.).[806] Another is the _tūmān_ of Ghūr-bund. In those countries they call a _kūtal_ (_koh_?) a _bund_;[807] they go towards Ghūr by this pass (_kūtal_); apparently it is for this reason that they have called (the _tūmān_?) Ghūr-bund. The Hazāra hold the heads of its valleys.[808] It has few villages and little revenue can be raised from it. There are said to be mines of silver and lapis lazuli in its mountains. Again, there are the villages on the skirts of the (Hindū-kush) mountains,[809] with Mīta-kacha and Parwān at their head, and Dūr-nāma[810] at their foot, 12 or 13 in all. They are fruit-bearing villages, and they grow cheering wines, those of Khwāja Khāwand Sa`īd being reputed the strongest roundabouts. The villages all lie on the foot-hills; some pay taxes but not all are taxable because they lie so far back in the mountains. Between the foot-hills and the Bārān-water are two detached stretches of level land, one known as _Kurrat-tāziyān_,[811] the other as _Dasht-i-shaikh_ (Shaikh's-plain). As the green grass of the millet[812] grows well there, they are the resort of Turks and [Sidenote: Fol. 136.] (Mughūl) clans (_aīmāq_).