Deliverance from the Cross — Page 142
struck me as resembling Jews. Their countenance and manner, and that indescribable peculiarity which enables a traveller to distinguish the inhabitants of different nations all seemed to belong to that ancient people. You are not to ascribe what I say to mere fancy, the Jewish appearance of these villagers having been remarked by our Jesuit Father and by several other Europeans long before I visited Kashmere. 17 The visitor with an ordinary standard of beauty, as he passes along the river or the roads or streets, does see a great many more than one or two really beautiful women. He will often see strikingly handsome women, with clear cut eyebrows, and a general Jewish appearance. 18 Other interesting Jewish types of Kashmir Mohammedans are found among the headmen of the picturesque little hamlets along the foothills. Here may be seen fine old patriarchal types, just as we picture to ourselves the Israelitish heroes of old. 19 When the people are in appearance of such decided Jewish cast it is curious that such a theory should exist, and certainly, as I have said, there are real Biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir, and especially 17 Travels in the Mughul Empire by Frarncois Bernier, translated by Archibald Constable, 1891, Oxford University Press, 1919, p. 413. 18 Sir Francis Younghusband, Kashmir, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1911, p. 125. 19 Ibid. , p. 129 142