The Memoirs of Bābur 910.7.4

910.7.4

From all these the mountains of Nijr-aū, the Lamghānāt and Sawād differ in having masses of cypresses,[841] holm-oak, olive and mastic (_khanjak_); their grass also is different,—it is dense, it is tall, it is good neither for horse nor sheep. Although these mountains are not so high as those already described, indeed they look to be low, none-the-less, they are strongholds; what to the eye is even slope, really is hard rock on which it is impossible to ride. Many of the beasts and birds of Hindūstān [Sidenote: Fol. 141.] are found amongst them, such as the parrot, _mīna_, peacock and _lūja_ (_lūkha_), the ape, _nīl-gāu_ and hog-deer (_kūta-pāī_);[842] some found there are not found even in Hindūstān. The mountains to the west of Kābul are also all of one sort, those of the Zindān-valley, the Ṣūf-valley, Garzawān and Gharjistān (Gharchastān).[843] Their meadows are mostly in the dales; they have not the same sweep of grass on slope and top as some of those described have; nor have they masses of trees; they have, however, grass suiting horses. On their flat tops, where all the crops are grown, there is ground where a horse can gallop. They have masses of _kīyik_.[844] Their valley-bottoms are strongholds, mostly precipitous and inaccessible from above. It is remarkable that, whereas other mountains have their fastnesses in their high places, these have theirs below.