Chapter I
Section IV. - Ancient Remains in Gilgit and Hunza
The total absence of reliable records makes it impossible at present to trace more of the early history of Gilgit and the adjoining regions than in revealed for a brief period by the illumination notices of the Chinese Annals. A patient study of local traditions and ethnology, and a systematic search for ancient remains would, no doubt, bring to light materials likely to help us in restoring some aspects of the life and culture that prevailed there during pre-Muhhamadan times. But for such labours the series of rapid and often trying marches which, between June 11 and 28, carried me through the valleys of Gilgit and Hunza to the Hindukush watershed, as described in chapters II and III of my Personal Narrative, left no opportunity. Among the few relics of Buddhist worship which are extent above ground in the main valley of Gilgit, and to which Major J.Manners Smith very kindly grew my attention, I was able to visit only the great rock-carved relief at the entrance of the Kergah Nullah, some four miles above Gilgit Fort and not far from the village of Nagpur. This relief, which appears to have been first described by Colonel Biddulph, occupies a conspicuous position, More than thirty feet above the ground, on a precipitous rock-face. It shows the figure of a colossal Buddha, about nine feet in height, carved in low relief within a shallow niche of trefoil shape .
Chapter I に戻ってこの辺を読んで吟味してみると、ギルギットとフンザの事が出てくる。スタインらはパミールに入る経路としてギルギット、フンザの峡谷を経てヒンデュークシュ山脈の分水嶺を目指したのである。この事はPersonal Narrativeの第2章と3章にも書かれているらしい。又、ギルギットには砦と石仏がある。写りは良くないが写真も撮ってある。
