"The _Hindoo_ history of Kashmir assures us that the beautiful valley which forms this kingdom was originally a vast lake, called Satisaras. This account is also agreeable to the _local traditions_ of this country. It was Kasy'apa, _a holy person_ who, according to the Hindoo historians, caused the waters which covered this valley to escape. He was the son of _Marichi_, the son of Brahma. The Mahometan writers call him Kachef or Kacheb, and many of them pretend that he was a god, or a genius, and servant of Soliman, _under whose orders he effected_ the drying up of Kashmir. To execute _this task_ he made, near Baramanleh, _a passage across the mountains_, through which the water passed.... The territory, recovered in this way by Kasy'apa, _was also peopled_ by this holy man, with the assistance of the superior gods, whom he brought for this purpose from heaven, _at the commencement_ of the seventh manwantara, or that in which we are now." Klaproth adds:--"We must therefore suppose that Kashmir has been subjected to the same periodical revolutions as the other parts of the world, if we would reconcile this date with the ordinary chronology."[56] [56] Compare the following account of existing customs in Cashmir with the above extract from Klaproth and ch. xi., with commemorative festivals of the Deluge. Mr G. G. Vigne ("Travels in Kashmir," ii. 93) says:--"What has been poetically termed the feast of roses, has of late years been rather the feast of signaras or _water_-nuts. It is held, I believe, about the 1st May, when plum-trees and roses are in full bloom, and is called the Shakergal, from the Persian shakergan, to blow a blossom [the Mandan ceremony took place when the willow flowered.--Catlin, p. 6]. The richer classes come in _boats_ to the foot of the Tukt, ascend it, and have a feast upon _the summit_, eating more particularly of signaras (_water_-nuts). The feast of the No-warh (new place) takes place at the vernal equinox [compare Noah, Taurus], at _which period_ the _valley is said to have been drained_. It is held chiefly at the _But_ or idol stone on Hari par_but_." Query--Can this be "the ark or big canoe" in the Mandan celebration? Considering the prominence of boats in all these mysteries, and considering the resemblance of but to boat, and the like analogies in so many languages (Sanskrit, pota = boat) (_vide_ Vicomte d'Anselme, _infra_, p. 196), may we be permitted the conjecture until corrected. Compare also p. 268, Ogilby's "Japan," Cook. &c., p. 271.