Cashmere

“ Cashmere's soft shawls, to-day yet a luxury of the wealthiest, the diamonds of Golconda, the gorgeous carpets of Lydia, the gold of Ophir and Saba, the aromatic spices and jewels of Ceylon, and the pearls and perfumes of Arabia, the myrrh, silver, gold dust, and ivory of Africa, as well as the amber of the Baltic and the tin of Thulé, appeared alike in their commerce, raising them in turn to the dominion of the world, and undoing them by too careless prosperity. The manner and the shape of one or the other art, of one or other industry, has changed ”

“ In ancient times the making of woolen garments was considered just as much of an art in Cashmere as painting or sculpture in France and Germany, porcelain work in China or cloisonne work in Japan, and no matter how long a weaver was engaged upon a garment, he was sure to find somebody with sufficient taste and money to buy it. But nowadays, like everybody else who is chasing the nimble shilling, the Cashmere weavers are more solicitous about their profits than about their patterns and the fine quality of their goods. ”

“ All through the city one can trace the remains of some much more ancient structure in the huge blocks of carved stone which are scattered about among their more plebeian brethren, and serve to form with them, in humble forgetfulness of past grandeur, the foundations of the lofty rattletrap but picturesque wooden structures which line both sides of the river and form the city of Cashmere in the year of grace 1860. ”

“ They are all common wool materials. They are often used for girls' school dresses, for wrappers, and for baby wear. They are all softer than serges. Cashmere and henrietta resemble each other. They both have a twilled weave. Henrietta was originally woven with a silk warp. One can buy silk warp henrietta to-day. Grandmother Stark has one. Is there a sample in your box? Cashmere is also soft, and the finer qualities are made from hair of the cashmere goat. Cashmere is woven 36 to 45 inches in width and can be bought [211] for from 75 cents to $1.25 per yard. ”

“ It is found of great value by the manufacturers of Cashmere shawls, being second only to the true Cashmere fleece in the fine flexible delicacy of the fabric, and of particular utility when combined with the Cashmere wool in imparting to the manufacture qualities of strength and consistence, in which the pure Cashmere is deficient. ”

“ Flesh and blood can stand no more for the present, and we resolve to halt here for the day. The weather appears quite as hot as when we started, and the wind comes in, hot and dry, and makes one feel like a herring of the reddest; while an infernal punkha is creaking its monotonous tune, as it flaps to and fro in the next room, making one again realize to the full, “the pleasures of the plains.” We begin, in fact, to discover that the thorns which were not forthcoming on the Cashmere roses are too surely to be found elsewhere. ”

“ The letters from Cashmere on this occasion, and again in 1850, when he accompanied Sir Henry on a second trip to Cashmere and Thibet, are like nothing in the world but an Arabian Night which we feel to be true. The chiefs, the priests, the monasteries, the troops, the glorious country so misused by man, the wretched people, an English lady, young and pretty, travelling all alone in the wildest part on pony-back, all pass before us in a series of living photographs. ”

“ No wonder, therefore, that to the Hindoo at least, “Cashmere is all holy land.” From his sun-burnt plains and his home by the muddy banks of his sacred Ganges, he can form but a small conception of these cooling streams and shady pleasures. Should he happen to read the glowing descriptions of Lalla Rookh, and be perhaps led to reflect that— [111]
“If woman can make the worst wilderness dear,
What a heaven she must make of Cashmere!” ”

“ The same conservatism did not extend to colour. As a matter of fact it has, at one time and another, appeared in all shades, and in every appropriate variety of texture, lined or unlined; in two or more tones, self-coloured, trimmed, or plain, sumptuous or severe, according to the tastes and inclination of the wearer. A man's domino, as typical of to-day as of five hundred years ago, consists of a long, ample robe of scarlet cashmere gathered into a plain yoke piped with satin. Three small cashmere buttons fasten it snugly from the throat downwards, and satin ribbon ties it across the chest. ”

“ Harper remarked.
“When once they have placed their affections,” Martin went on, without seeming to notice the interruption, “they are true to the death. And if the object dies, it is seldom a Cashmere woman loves again. But when they do, the passion springs up, or rather, is instantly re-awakened. There are some people who affect to sneer at what is called ‘love at [Pg 123] first sight.’ Well, I don’t pretend to understand much about the mysterious laws of affinity, but the women of Cashmere are highly-charged electrical machines. ”

“ On the other hand, M. Jacquemont, who found “celestial happiness” in a plant of rhubarb, is unable to discover any beauty whatever in the Cashmerian ladies, and has no patience with his neighbour’s little flights of fancy in depicting their perfections. “Moore,” he writes, in his “Letters from India,” “is a perfumer, and a liar to boot. Know that I have never seen anywhere such hideous witches as in Cashmere. The female race is remarkably ugly.” ”

“ The man to whom he spoke replied: "You are in the province of Cashmere; the inhabitants, as you see, are holding great rejoicings. We are doing honour to the wedding of our beautiful Princess, who is about to marry a certain lord named Barbabou to whom her father has plighted her. May Heaven prolong their happiness!"
"THE CLEVEREST PHYSICIANS WERE CALLED IN."
On hearing these words Rustem fell down in a swoon. The gentleman of Cashmere, supposing that he was liable to fits, had him carried to his own house, where he lay some time unconscious. ”

“ Summud Shah was the banker at Srinagur, and was most attentive to our wants during the whole of our stay in Cashmere. We saw two kinds of shawls. Those made by loom, and those by hand.
Some time after this visit, we were wandering through a poor part of the town, when we observed a number of men with very weak eyes. Our guide informed us that these were workers of Cashmere shawls, and that the work they were engaged in was the cause of the weakness of their eyes, and in some of total loss of sight. ”

“ Metal-Working Art in Cashmere.—Herr Carl von Ujfalvy, who has been exploring in the western Himalayas, asserts that the Cashmereans must be regarded as the noblest of the Indian races. "At least," he says, "it must be admitted that a people that prepares its food in handsome kettles of beaten and carved copper, adorned with tasteful engravings, drinks its tea and coffee from elegantly shaped pots, and uses showily decorated pitchers and cups, and beaten and enameled dishes, vases, pipes, candlesticks, lamps, tea-vessels, and plates, and engraved spittoons, must have a peculiar artistic gift. ”

“ The manufacturing industries are rapidly developing, although the lack of demand for Cashmere shawls has been a severe blow to local weavers, who, however, have turned their attention to carpets and rugs instead. Wool is the great staple, and from time immemorial the weavers of Cashmere have turned out the finest woolen fabrics in the world. They have suffered much from the competition of machine-made goods during the last half-century or more, and have been growing careless because they cannot get the prices that used to be paid for the finest products. ”

“ These come from Peshawur, and they look very handsome on a tall dark-skinned Afghan. Others are from Cashmere, most beautifully embroidered, and are fawn-coloured, turquoise-blue, black, green, or white. The ordinary length of a lungi is nine yards; the cashmere, being thicker, are not so long. The only white cashmere lungi I ever saw was the Amîr’s. He gave it me one day; but that is a story I will relate further on.
In the cap shops are also Kabul silk handkerchiefs for sale. They are of beautiful colours—purple, crimson, and green. ”

“ It must not, however, be supposed that in the progressive nineteenth century, even this Asiatic manufacture has remained stationary. Receiving the impetus of fashion, the shawls of Cashmere have become, within the last dozen years, richer and more elaborate than ever; their richness and elaboration of pattern necessitating even a firmer and more substantial groundwork than heretofore, but still the method of their manufacture remains unchanged, as might be expected from the conservatism inseparable from semi-barbarism. ”

“ In India, those who make the fabulous-priced Cashmere shawls are the most pitiably paid of all. I am willing, if necessary, to lose a considerable fortune to prove that good wages can be paid to silk-makers, and yet have a fair profit on the product. ”

“ This pass is the boundary of Cashmere; a rapid descent leads, amidst scenery of the wildest description, following the windings of the river, to Muzafferabad, 3000 feet below Cashmere. A fatiguing and dangerous journey over a wild country brought them from thence to Attock. On many occasions the zeal with which Baron Hügel pursued his investigations in botany and natural history exposed him to much danger from the prejudices of the natives, aroused by his killing birds which were held sacred by them [3] . ”

“ It was not to be compared with the Indian rice, and the Cashmeeries he pooh-poohed, as being no judges whatever of its qualities, and, in fact; not fit to eat rice at all. He seemed quite unable to understand my walking when I could ride; or, indeed, why I should leave such a charming country as India to be uncomfortable in Cashmere, without even having any jageer business to transact as an excuse.
Our coolies, being an unusually miserable crew, we got breakfast about two P.M. To-day our tent lamp finished its erratic life, according to the Dhobie’s account, by self-destruction! ”

“ These Asiatic weavers, temperate in their habits and readily contented, receive a wage of from three-halfpence to twopence a day; but if their wants more nearly approximated to those of an European laborer, [Pg 41] what would an Indian Cashmere be worth, when we are informed that from thirty to forty men have sometimes been employed from eighteen months to two years in the manufacture of a single shawl! ”

“ Aunt Easygo speaks from an income of ten thousand a year: they may be cheap for her rate of living; but for us, for example, by no magic of numbers can it be made to appear that it is cheaper to have the greatest bargain in the world in Cashmere, lace, and diamonds than not to have them at 124 all. I never had a diamond, never wore a piece of point-lace, never had a velvet dress, and have been perfectly happy, and just as much respected as if I had. ”

“ A “khilut,” or robe of honour, composed of a shawl dress, and many other manufactures of Cashmere were then delivered to me, as well as presents of a similar nature for Mr. Leckie. Three of our attendants were likewise favoured by his Highness; and in his munificence, he sent a sum of 2000 rupees for distribution among the remainder of the suite. ”

“ In some places the beds of saffron-flowers extend to a kos. Their appearance is best at a distance, and when they are plucked they emit a strong smell. My attendants were all seized with a headache, and though I was myself at the time intoxicated with liquor, I felt also my head affected. I inquired of the brutal Cashmeerians who were employed in plucking them, what was their condition, and they replied that they never had a headache in their lifetime.” ↑
8 The Jhelum is called in Cashmere, Behat—a contraction of the Sanscrit Vedasta, which the Greeks slightly altered to Hydaspes. ”

“ The only article of female luxury more generally indulged in here than with us, is that of cashmere shawls. One, at the very least, of these dainty wrappers makes a part of every young lady's trousseau, and is, I believe, exactly that part of the présent which, as Miss Edgeworth says, often makes a bride forget the futur. ”

“ Ladies of distinction always wear Cashmere shawls round the waist, generally red; and those in Kasr ed-Dubárah had a narrow edge of gold, with gold cords and tassels at the corners. There, the nurz were different 163from any I had before seen; being of embroidered cloth, of various colours; and the daughter of the Pasha, and others, had their long sleeves buttoned at the wrist. The sleeves are always so made that they can be buttoned if their length prove inconvenient ”

“ The pedestrians one generally meets now are old ladies, carrying conical baskets filled with sulphur or saltpetre, in the direction of Cashmere, and so shy are they, that on beholding “the white face” they drop their loads as if shot, and scuttle away among the mountains, so that, if inclined, we could seize upon the Maharajah’s munitions of war and carry them off without difficulty. On reaching the vicinity of Lamieroo, the inscribed stones became more frequent than ever. ”

“ These have been invariably given the sounds they possess in the words “path” and “cut” respectively, a circumflex being placed over the latter to denote the short u in the word “put.”
Such names, therefore, as Cushmere, Tibbut, Muhummud, Hijra, &c. have been left as custom has ruled them, and will appear in their more well-known costume of Cashmere, Thibet, Mahomet, and Hegira.
The concluding sketch was originally intended to accompany a series of brightly-coloured Cashmerian designs illustrative of the life of “Krishna;” ”