“The houses of the Caufirs are often of wood, and they have generally cellars where they keep their cheeses, clarified butter, wine, and vinegar. In every house there is a wooden bench fixed to the wall, with a low back to it. There are also stools shaped like drums, but smaller in the middle than at the ends, and tables of the same sort, but larger. The Caufirs, partly from their dress and partly from habit, cannot sit like the other Asiatics; and if forced to sit down on the ground, stretch out their legs like Europeans. They have also beds made of wood and thongs of neats’ leather: the stools are made of wicker-work. “They celebrate a sacrifice at a particular place near the village where there was a stone post; a fire was kindled before it, through which flour, butter, and water were thrown on the stone. At length an animal was sacrificed, and the flesh was burned, and part eaten by the assistants, who were numerous, and who accompanied the priest in prayers and devout gesticulations.”[57] Their neighbours, the dwellers in the beautiful vale of Cashmere, also claim descent from the Jews, “a claim[58] borne out by the personal appearance of the race, their garb, the cast of their countenance, and the form of their beards. There is a belief, too, among them that Moses died in the capital of Cashmere, and that he is buried near it.” (This belief is erroneous, as that Lawgiver ended his days very far away from Cashmere.) “There is no doubt that they were originally of Brahmin (Hebrew) origin; and prosperous must have been the people—wise, beneficent, and energetic the rulers, in those old days, if tradition and legend are to be believed, and the mighty monuments of a past grandeur, long anterior to the days when Mogul wealth and taste embellished the valley, are to be looked on as faithful witnesses; but to this golden age succeeded centuries of oppression. “We must, therefore, not be too hard on the Kashmiri; his faults are those that oppression fosters, and his virtues, for he has some, are his industry, his religious toleration, his observance of family ties and obligations, while for qualities of head and hand he is second to no Eastern race. As artificers, the pale, slim, sneaking denizens of the crowded lanes of Sreenuggur will compete with any in the East, and the sturdy, broad-shouldered, large-limbed peasant is a painstaking and successful husbandman. “Among the many changes of masters which Cashmere has undergone, one class of men appear not only to have retained the religion of their Brahmin (Hebrew) forefathers, but also a high position among their fellows. I allude to the Kashmiri Pundits—men of lengthy pedigree, of wealth and influence, who, thanks to their superior education and fitness for business, were largely employed by their successive conquerors, placed in posts of trust, and seemingly exempted from the forcible conversion to the creed of Mahommed, which was universally imposed on their countrymen.”