Chapter 5

SeeActa Sanctorum(September), i. 284-299; Devic and Vaissete,Histoire générale de Languedoc, pp. 514-522 (Toulouse, 1876); E. Rembry,Saint Gilles, sa vie, ses reliques, son culte en Belgique et dans le nord de la France(Bruges, 1881); F. Arnold-Forster,Studies in Church Dedications, or England’s Patron Saints, ii. 46-51, iii. 15, 363-365 (1899); A. Jameson,Sacred and Legendary Art, 768-770 (1896); A. Bell,Lives and Legends of the English Bishops and Kings, Medieval Monks, and other later Saints, pp. 61, 70, 74-78, 84, 197 (1904).

(H. De.)

GILFILLAN, GEORGE(1813-1878), Scottish author, was born on the 30th of January 1813, at Comrie, Perthshire, where his father, the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan, the author of some theological works, was for many years minister of a Secession congregation. After an education at Glasgow University, in March 1836 he was ordained pastor of a Secession congregation in Dundee. He published a volume of his discourses in 1839, and shortly afterwards another sermon on “Hades,” which brought him under the scrutiny of his co-presbyters, and was ultimately withdrawn from circulation. Gilfillan next contributed a series of sketches of celebrated contemporary authors to theDumfries Herald, then edited by Thomas Aird; and these, with several new ones, formed his firstGallery of Literary Portraits, which appeared in 1846, and had a wide circulation. It was quickly followed by aSecondand aThird Gallery. In 1851 his most successful work, theBards of the Bible, appeared. His aim was that it should be “a poem on the Bible”; and it was far more rhapsodical than critical. HisMartyrs and Heroes of the Scottish Covenantappeared in 1832, and in 1856 he produced a partly autobiographical, partly fabulous,History of a Man. For thirty years he was engaged upon a long poem, onNight, which was published in 1867, but its theme was too vast, vague and unmanageable, and the result was a failure. He also edited an edition of theBritish Poets. As a lecturer and as a preacher he drew large crowds, but his literary reputation has not proved permanent. He died on the 13th of August 1878. He had just finished a new life of Burns designed to accompany a new edition of the works of that poet.

GILGAL(Heb. for “circle” of sacred stones), the name of several places in Palestine, mentioned in the Old Testament. The name is not found east of the Jordan.

1. The first and most important was situated “in the east border of Jericho” (Josh. iv. 19), on the border between Judah and Benjamin (Josh. xv. 7). Josephus (Ant. v. 1. 4) places it 50 stadia from Jordan and 10 from Jericho (the New Testament site). Jerome (Onomasticon, s.v. “Galgal”) places Gilgal 2 Roman miles from Jericho, and speaks of it as a deserted place held in wonderful veneration (“miro cultu”) by the natives. This site, which in the middle ages appears to have been lost—Gilgal being shown farther north—was in 1865 recovered by a German traveller (Hermann Zschokke), and fixed by the English survey party, though not beyond dispute. It is about 2 m. east of the site of Byzantine Jericho, and 1 m. from modern er-Riha. A fine tamarisk, traces of a church (which is mentioned in the 8th century), and a large reservoir, now filled up with mud, remain. The place is called Jiljūlieh, and its position north of the valley of Achor (Wadì Kelt) and east of Jericho agrees well with the biblical indications above mentioned. A tradition connected with the fall of Jericho is attached to the site (see C. R. Conder,Tent Work, 203 ff.). This sanctuary and camp of Israel held a high place in the national regard, and is often mentioned in Judges and Samuel. But whether this is the Gilgal spoken of by Amos and Hosea in connexion with Bethel is by no means certain [see (3) below].

2. Gilgal, mentioned in Josh. xii. 23 in connexion with Dor, appears to have been situated in the maritime plain. Jerome (Onomasticon, s.v. “Gelgel”) speaks of a town of the name 6 Roman miles north of Antipatris (Ras el ‘Ain). This is apparently the modern Kalkilia, but about 4 m. north of Antipatris is a large village called Jiljūlieh, which is more probably the biblical town.

3. The third Gilgal (2 Kings iv. 38) was in the mountains (compare 1 Sam. vii. 16, 2 Kings ii. 1-3) near Bethel. Jerome mentions this place also (Onomasticon, s.v. “Galgala”). It appears to be the present village of Jiljilia, about 7 English miles north of Beitin (Bethel). It may have absorbed the old shrine of Shiloh and been the sanctuary famous in the days of Amos and Hosea.

4. Deut. xi. 30 seems to imply a Gilgal near Gerizim, and there is still a place called Juleijil on the plain of Makhna, 2½ m. S.E. of Shechem. This may have been Amos’s Gilgal and was almost certainly that of 1 Macc. ix. 2.

5. The Gilgal described in Josh. xv. 7 is the same as the Beth-Gilgal of Neh. xii. 29; its site is not known.

(R. A. S. M.)

GILGAMESH, EPIC OF,the title given to one of the most important literary products of Babylonia, from the name of the chief personage in the series of tales of which it is composed.

Though the Gilgamesh Epic is known to us chiefly from the fragments found in the royal collection of tablets made by Assur-bani-pal, the king of Assyria (668-626B.C.) for his palace at Nineveh, internal evidence points to the high antiquity of at least some portions of it, and the discovery of a fragment of the epic in the older form of the Babylonian script, which can be dated as 2000B.C., confirms this view. Equally certain is a second observation of a general character that the epic originating as the greater portion of the literature in Assur-bani-pal’s collection in Babylonia is a composite product, that is to say, it consists of a number of independent stories or myths originating at different times, and united to form a continuous narrative with Gilgamesh as the central figure. This view naturally raises the question whether the independent stories were all told of Gilgamesh or, as almost always happens in the case of ancient tales, were transferred to Gilgamesh as a favourite popular hero. Internal evidence again comes to our aid to lend its weight to the latter theory.

While the existence of such a personage as Gilgamesh may be admitted, he belongs to an age that could only have preserved a dim recollection of his achievements and adventures through oral traditions. The name1is not Babylonian, and what evidence as to his origin there is points to his having come from Elam, to the east of Babylonia. He may have belonged to the people known as the Kassites who at the beginning of the 18th centuryB.C.entered Babylonia from Elam, and obtained control of the Euphrates valley. Why and how he came to be a popular hero in Babylonia cannot with our present material be determined, but the epic indicates that he came as a conqueror and established himself at Erech. In so far we have embodied in the first part of the epic dim recollections of actual events, but we soon leave the solid ground of fact and find ourselves soaring to the heights of genuine myth. Gilgamesh becomes a god, and in certain portions of the epic clearly plays the part of the sun-god of the spring-time, taking the place apparently of Tammuz or Adonis, the youthful sun-god, though the story shows traits that differentiate it from the ordinary Tammuz myths. A separate stratum in the Gilgamesh epic is formed by the story of Eabani—introduced as the friend of Gilgamesh, who joins him in his adventures. There can be no doubt that Eabani, who symbolizes primeval man, was a figure originally entirely independent of Gilgamesh, but his story was incorporated into the epic by that natural process to be observed in the national epics of other peoples, which tends to connect the favourite hero with all kinds of tales that for one reason or the other become embedded in the popular mind. Another stratum is represented by the story of a favourite of the gods known as Ut-Napishtim, who is saved from a destructive storm and flood that destroyshis fellow-citizens of Shurippak. Gilgamesh is artificially brought into contact with Ut-Napishtim, to whom he pays a visit for the purpose of learning the secret of immortal life and perpetual youth which he enjoys. During the visit Ut-Napishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood and of his miraculous escape. Nature myths have been entwined with other episodes in the epic and finally the theologians took up the combined stories and made them the medium for illustrating the truth and force of certain doctrines of the Babylonian religion. In its final form, the outcome of an extended and complicated literary process, the Gilgamesh Epic covered twelve tablets, each tablet devoted to one adventure in which the hero plays a direct or indirect part, and the whole covering according to the most plausible estimate about 3000 lines. Of all twelve tablets portions have been found among the remains of Assur-bani-pal’s library, but some of the tablets are so incomplete as to leave even their general contents in some doubt. The fragments do not all belong to one copy. Of some tablets portions of two, and of some tablets portions of as many as four, copies have turned up, pointing therefore to the great popularity of the production. The best preserved are Tablets VI. and XI., and of the total about 1500 lines are now known, wholly or in part, while of those partially preserved quite a number can be restored. A brief summary of the contents of the twelve may be indicated as follows:

In the 1st tablet, after a general survey of the adventures of Gilgamesh, his rule at Erech is described, where he enlists the services of all the young able-bodied men in the building of the great wall of the city. The people sigh under the burden imposed, and call upon the goddess Aruru to create a being who might act as a rival to Gilgamesh, curb his strength, and dispute his tyrannous control. The goddess consents, and creates Eabani, who is described as a wild man, living with the gazelles and the beasts of the field. Eabani, whose name, signifying “Ea creates,” points to the tradition which made Ea (q.v.) the creator of humanity, symbolizes primeval man. Through a hunter, Eabani and Gilgamesh are brought together, but instead of becoming rivals, they are joined in friendship. Eabani is induced by the snares of a maiden to abandon his life with the animals and to proceed to Erech, where Gilgamesh, who has been told in several dreams of the coming of Eabani, awaits him. Together they proceed upon several adventures, which are related in the following four tablets. At first, indeed, Eabani curses the fate which led him away from his former life, and Gilgamesh is represented as bewailing Eabani’s dissatisfaction. The sun-god Shamash calls upon Eabani to remain with Gilgamesh, who pays him all honours in his palace at Erech. With the decision of the two friends to proceed to the forest of cedars in which the goddess Irnina—a form of Ishtar—dwells, and which is guarded by Khumbaba, the 2nd tablet ends. In the 3rd tablet, very imperfectly preserved, Gilgamesh appeals through a Shamash priestess Rimat-Belit to the sun-god Shamash for his aid in the proposed undertaking. The 4th tablet contains a description of the formidable Khumbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest. In the 5th tablet Gilgamesh and Eabani reach the forest. Encouraged by dreams, they proceed against Khumbaba, and despatch him near a specially high cedar over which he held guard. This adventure against Khumbaba belongs to the Eabani stratum of the epic, into which Gilgamesh is artificially introduced. The basis of the 6th tablet is the familiar nature-myth of the change of seasons, in which Gilgamesh plays the part of the youthful solar god of the springtime, who is wooed by the goddess of fertility, Ishtar. Gilgamesh, recalling to the goddess the sad fate of those who fall a victim to her charms, rejects the offer. In the course of his recital snatches of other myths are referred to, including he famous Tammuz-Adonis tale, in which Tammuz, the youthful bridegroom, is slain by his consort Ishtar. The goddess, enraged at the insult, asks her father Anu to avenge her. A divine bull is sent to wage a contest against Gilgamesh, who is assisted by his friend Eabani. This scene of the fight with the bull is often depicted on seal cylinders. The two friends by their united force succeed in killing the bull, and then after performing certain votive and purification rites return to Erech, where they are hailed with joy. In this adventure it is clearly Eabani who is artificially introduced in order to maintain the association with Gilgamesh. The 7th tablet continues the Eabani stratum. The hero is smitten with sore disease, but the fragmentary condition of this and the succeeding tablet is such as to envelop in doubt the accompanying circumstances, including the cause and nature of his disease. The 8th tablet records the death of Eabani. The 9th and 10th tablets, exclusively devoted to Gilgamesh, describe his wanderings in quest of Ut-Napishtim, from whom he hopes to learn how he may escape the fate that has overtaken his friend Eabani. He goes through mountain passes and encounters lions. At the entrance to the mountain Mashu, scorpion-men stand guard, from one of whom he receives advice as to how to pass through the Mashu district. He succeeds in doing so, and finds himself in a wonderful park, which lies along the sea coast. In the 10th tablet the goddess Sabitu, who, as guardian of the sea, first bolts her gate against Gilgamesh, after learning of his quest, helps him to pass in a ship across the sea to the “waters of death.” The ferry-man of Ut-Napishtim brings him safely through these waters, despite the difficulties and dangers of the voyage, and at last the hero finds himself face to face with Ut-Napishtim. In the 11th tablet, Ut-Napishtim tells the famous story of the Babylonian flood, which is so patently attached to Gilgamesh in a most artificial manner. Ut-Napishtim and his wife are anxious to help Gilgamesh to new life. He is sent to a place where he washes himself clean from impurity. He is told of a weed which restores youth to the one grown old. Scarcely has he obtained the weed when it is snatched away from him, and the tablet closes somewhat obscurely with the prediction of the destruction of Erech. In the 12th tablet Gilgamesh succeeds in obtaining a view of Eabani’s shade, and learns through him of the sad fate endured by the dead. With this description, in which care of the dead is inculcated as the only means of making their existence in Aralu, where the dead are gathered, bearable, the epic, so far as we have it, closes.

The reason why the flood episode and the interview with the dead Eabani are introduced is quite clear. Both are intended as illustrations of doctrines taught in the schools of Babylonia; the former to explain that only the favourites of the gods can hope under exceptional circumstances to enjoy life everlasting; the latter to emphasize the impossibility for ordinary mortals to escape from the inactive shadowy existence led by the dead, and to inculcate the duty of proper care for the dead. That the astro-theological system is also introduced into the epic is clear from the division into twelve tablets, which correspond to the yearly course of the sun, while throughout there are indications that all the adventures of Gilgamesh and Eabani, including those which have an historical background, have been submitted to the influence of this system and projected on to the heavens. This interpretation of the popular tales, according to which the career of the hero can be followed in its entirety and in detail in the movements in the heavens, in time, with the growing predominance of the astral-mythological system, overshadowed the other factors involved, and it is in this form, as an astral myth, that it passes through the ancient world and leaves its traces in the folk-tales and myths of Hebrews, Phoenicians, Syrians, Greeks and Romans throughout Asia Minor and even in India.

Bibliography.—The complete edition of the Gilgamesh Epic by Paul Haupt under the titleDas babylonische Nimrodepos(Leipzig, 1884-1891), with the 12th tablet in theBeiträge zur Assyriologie, i. 48-79; German translation by Peter Jensen in vol. vi. of Schrader’sKeilinschriftliche Bibliothek(Berlin, 1900), pp. 116-273. See also the same author’s comprehensive work,Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur(vol. i. 1906, vol. ii. to follow). An English translation of the chief portions in Jastrow,Religion of Babylonia and Assyria(Boston, 1898), ch. xxiii.

(M. Ja.)

1The name of the hero, written always ideographically, was for a long time provisionally readIzdubar; but a tablet discovered by T. G. Pinches gave the equivalentGilgamesh(see Jastrow,Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 468).

GILGIT,an outlying province in the extreme north-west of India, over which Kashmir has reasserted her sovereignty. Only a part of the basin of the river Gilgit is included within its political boundaries. There is an intervening width ofmountainous country, represented chiefly by glaciers and ice-fields, and intersected by narrow sterile valleys, measuring some 100 to 150 m. in width, to the north and north-east, which separates the province of Gilgit from the Chinese frontier beyond the Muztagh and Karakoram. This part of the Kashmir borderland includes Kanjut (or Hunza) and Ladakh. To the north-west, beyond the sources of the Yasin and Ghazar in the Shandur range (the two most westerly tributaries of the Gilgit river) is the deep valley of the Yarkhun or Chitral. Since the formation of the North-West Frontier Province in 1901, the political charge of Chitral, Dir and Swat, which was formerly included within the Gilgit agency, has been transferred to the chief commissioner of the new province, with his capital at Peshawar. Gilgit proper now forms awazaratof the Kashmir state, administered by awazir. Gilgit is also the headquarters of a British political agent, who exercises some supervision over thewazir, and is directly responsible to the government of India for the administration of the outlying districts or petty states of Hunza, Nagar, Ashkuman, Yasin and Ghizar, the little republic of Chilas, &c. These states acknowledge the suzerainty of Kashmir, paying an annual tribute in gold or grain, but they form no part of its territory.

Within the wider limits of the former Gilgit agency are many mixed races, speaking different languages, which have all been usually classed together under the name Dard. The Dard, however, is unknown beyond the limits of the Kohistan district of the Indus valley to the south of the Hindu Koh, the rest of the inhabitants of the Indus valley belonging to Shin republics, or Chilas. The great mass of the Chitral population are Kho (speaking Khowar), and they may be accepted as representing the aboriginal population of the Chitral valley. (SeeHindu Kush.) Between Chitral and the Indus the “Dards” of Dardistan are chiefly Yeshkuns and Shins, and it would appear from the proportions in which these people occupy the country that they must have primarily moved up from the valley of the Indus in successive waves of conquest, first the Yeshkuns, and then the Shins. No one can put a date to these invasions, but Biddulph is inclined to class the Yeshkuns with the Yuechi who conquered the Bactrian kingdom about 120B.C.The Shins are obviously a Hindu race (as is testified by their veneration for the cow), who spread themselves northwards and eastwards as far as Baltistan, where they collided with the aboriginal Tatar of the Asiatic highlands. But the ethnography of “Dardistan,” or the Gilgit agency (for the two are, roughly speaking, synonymous), requires further investigation, and it would be premature to attempt to frame anything like an ethnographical history of these regions until the neighbouring provinces of Tangir and Darel have been more fully examined. Thewazaratof Gilgit contains a population (1901) of 60,885, all Mahommedans, mostly of the Shiah sect, but not fanatical. The dominant race is that of the Shins, whose language is universally spoken. This is one of the so-called Pisacha languages, an archaic Aryan group intermediate between the Iranian and the Sanskritic.

In general appearance and dress all the mountain-bred peoples extending through these northern districts are very similar. Thick felt coats reaching below the knee, loose “pyjamas” with cloth “putties” and boots (often of English make) are almost universal, the distinguishing feature in their costume being the felt cap worn close to the head and rolled up round the edges. They are on the whole a light-hearted, cheerful race of people, but it has been observed that their temperament varies much with their habitat—those who live on the shadowed sides of mountains being distinctly more morose and more serious in disposition than the dwellers in valleys which catch the winter sunlight. They are, at the same time, bloodthirsty and treacherous to a degree which would appear incredible to a casual observer of their happy and genial manners, exhibiting a strange combination (as has been observed by a careful student of their ways) of “the monkey and the tiger.” Addicted to sport of every kind, they pursue no manufacturing industries whatsoever, but they are excellent agriculturists, and show great ingenuity in their local irrigation works and in their efforts to bring every available acre of cultivable soil within the irrigated area. Gold washing is more or less carried on in most of the valleys north of the river Gilgit, and gold dust (contained in small packets formed with the petals of a cup-shaped flower) is an invariable item in their official presents and offerings. Gold dust still constitutes part of the annual tribute which, strangely enough, is paid by Hunza to China, as well as to Kashmir.

Routes in the Gilgit Agency.—One of the oldest recorded routes through this country is that which connects Mastuj in the Chitral valley with Gilgit, passing across the Shandur range (12,250). It now forms the high-road between Gilgit and Chitral, and has been engineered into a passable route. From the north three great glacier-bred affluents make their way to the river of Gilgit, joining it at almost equal intervals, and each of them affords opportunity for a rough passage northwards. (1) The Yasin river, which follows a fairly straight course from north to south for about 40 m. from the foot of the Darkôt pass across the Shandur range (15,000) to its junction with the river Gilgit, close to the little fort of Gupis, on the Gilgit-Mastuj road. Much of this valley is cultivated and extremely picturesque. At the head of it is a grand group of glaciers, one of which leads up to the well-known pass of Darkôt. (2) 25 m. (by map measurement) below Gupis the Gilgit receives the Ashkuman affluent from the north. The little Lake of Karumbar is held to be its source, as it lies at the head of the river. The same lake is sometimes called the source of the river Yarkhun or Chitral; and it seems possible that a part of its waters may be deflected in each direction. The Karumbar, or Ashkuman, is nearly twice the length of the Yasin, and the upper half of the valley is encompassed by glaciers, rendering the route along it uncertain and difficult. (3) 40 m. or so below the Ashkuman junction, and nearly opposite the little station of Gilgit, the river receives certain further contributions from the north which are collected in the Hunza and Nagar basins. These basins include a system of glaciers of such gigantic proportions that they are probably unrivalled in anypartof the world. The glacial head of the Hunza is not far from that of the Karumbar, and, like the Karumbar, the river commences with a wide sweep eastwards, following a course roughly parallel to the crest of the Hindu Kush (under whose southern slopes it lies close) for about 40 m. Then striking south for another 40 m., it twists amidst the barren feet of gigantic rock-bound spurs which reach upwards to the Muztagh peaks on the east and to a mass of glaciers and snow-fields on the west, hidden amidst the upper folds of mountains towering to an average of 25,000 ft. The next great bend is again to the west for 30 m., before a final change of direction to the south at the historical position of Chalt and a comparatively straight run of 25 m. to a junction with the Gilgit. The valley of Hunza lies some 10 m. from the point of this westerly bend, and 20 (as the crow flies) from Chalt. Much has been written of the magnificence of Hunza valley scenery, surrounded as it is by a stupendous ring of snow-capped peaks and brightened with all the radiant beauty that cultivation adds to these mountain valleys; but such scenery must be regarded as exceptional in these northern regions.Glaciers and Mountains.—Conway and Godwin Austen have described the glaciers of Nagar which, enclosed between the Muztagh spurs on the north-east and the frontier peaks of Kashmir (terminating with Rakapushi) on the south-west, and massing themselves in an almost uninterrupted series from the Hunza valley to the base of those gigantic peaks which stand about Mount Godwin Austen, seem to be set like an ice-sea to define the farthest bounds of the Himalaya. From its uttermost head to the foot of the Hispar, overhanging the valley above Nagar, the length of the glacial ice-bed known under the name of Biafo is said to measure about 90 m. Throughout the mountain region of Kanjut (or Hunza) and Nagar the valleys are deeply sunk between mountain ranges, which are nowhere less than 15,000 ft. in altitude, and which must average above 20,000 ft. As a rule, these valleys are bare of vegetation. Where the summits of the loftier ranges are not buried beneath snow and ice they are bare, bleak and splintered, and the nakedness of the rock scenery extends down their rugged spurs to the very base of them. On the lower slopes of tumbled débris the sun in summer beats with an intensity which is unmitigated by the cloud drifts which form in the moister atmosphere of the monsoon-swept summits of the Himalaya. Sun-baked in summer and frost-riven in winter, the mountain sides are but immense ramps of loose rock débris, only awaiting the yearly melting of the upper snow-fields, or the advent of a casual rainstorm, to be swept downwards in an avalanche of mud and stones into the gorges below. Here it becomes piled and massed together, till the pressure of accumulation forces it out into the main valleys, where it spreads in alluvial fans and silts up the plains. This formation is especially marked throughout the high level valleys of the Gilgit basin.Passes.—Each of these northern affluents of the main stream is headed by a pass, or a group of passes, leading either to the Pamir region direct, or into the upper Yarkhun valley from which a Pamir route diverges. The Yasin valley is headed by the Darkôt pass (15,000 ft.), which drops into the Yarkhun not far from the foot ofthe Baroghil group over the main Hindu Kush watershed. The Ashkuman is headed by the Gazar and Kora Bohrt passes, leading to the valley of the Ab-i-Punja; and the Hunza by the Kilik and Mintaka, the connecting links between the Taghdumbash Pamir and the Gilgit basin. They are all about the same height—15,000 ft. All are passable at certain times of the year to small parties, and all are uncertain. In no case do they present insuperable difficulties in themselves, glaciers and snow-fields and mountain staircases being common to all; but the gorges and precipices which distinguish the approaches to them from the south, the slippery sides of shelving spurs whose feet are washed by raging torrents, the perpetual weary monotony of ascent and descent over successive ridges multiplying the gradient indefinitely—these form the real obstacles blocking the way to these northern passes.Gilgit Station.—The pretty little station of Gilgit (4890 ft. above sea) spreads itself in terraces above the right bank of the river nearly opposite the opening leading to Hunza, almost nestling under the cliffs of the Hindu Koh, which separates it on the south from the savage mountain wilderness of Darel and Kohistan. It includes a residency for the British political officer, with about half a dozen homes for the accommodation of officials, barracks suitable for a battalion of Kashmir troops, and a hospital. Evidences of Buddhist occupation are not wanting in Gilgit, though they are few and unimportant. Such as they are, they appear to prove that Gilgit was once a Buddhist centre, and that the old Buddhist route between Gilgit and the Peshawar plain passed through the gorges and clefts of the unexplored Darel valley to Thakot under the northern spurs of the Black Mountain.Connexion with India.—The Gilgit river joins the Indus a few miles above the little post of Bunji, where an excellent suspension bridge spans the river. The valley is low and hot, and the scenery between Gilgit and Bunji is monotonous; but the road is now maintained in excellent condition. A little below Bunji the Astor river joins the Indus from the south-east, and this deep pine-clad valley indicates the continuation of the highroad from Gilgit to Kashmir via the Tragbal and Burzil passes. Another well-known route connecting Gilgit with the Abbottabad frontier of the Punjab lies across the Babusar pass (13,000 ft.), linking the lovely Hazara valley of Kaghan to Chilas; Chilas (4150 ft.) being on the Indus, some 50 m. below Bunji. This is a more direct connexion between Gilgit and the plains of the Punjab than that afforded by the Kashmir route via Gurais and Astor, which latter route involves two considerable passes—the Tragbal (11,400) and the Burzil (13,500); but the intervening strip of absolutely independent territory (independent alike of Kashmir and the Punjab), which includes the hills bordering the road from the Babusar pass to Chilas, renders it a risky route for travellers unprotected by a military escort. Like the Kashmir route, it is now defined by a good military road.

Glaciers and Mountains.—Conway and Godwin Austen have described the glaciers of Nagar which, enclosed between the Muztagh spurs on the north-east and the frontier peaks of Kashmir (terminating with Rakapushi) on the south-west, and massing themselves in an almost uninterrupted series from the Hunza valley to the base of those gigantic peaks which stand about Mount Godwin Austen, seem to be set like an ice-sea to define the farthest bounds of the Himalaya. From its uttermost head to the foot of the Hispar, overhanging the valley above Nagar, the length of the glacial ice-bed known under the name of Biafo is said to measure about 90 m. Throughout the mountain region of Kanjut (or Hunza) and Nagar the valleys are deeply sunk between mountain ranges, which are nowhere less than 15,000 ft. in altitude, and which must average above 20,000 ft. As a rule, these valleys are bare of vegetation. Where the summits of the loftier ranges are not buried beneath snow and ice they are bare, bleak and splintered, and the nakedness of the rock scenery extends down their rugged spurs to the very base of them. On the lower slopes of tumbled débris the sun in summer beats with an intensity which is unmitigated by the cloud drifts which form in the moister atmosphere of the monsoon-swept summits of the Himalaya. Sun-baked in summer and frost-riven in winter, the mountain sides are but immense ramps of loose rock débris, only awaiting the yearly melting of the upper snow-fields, or the advent of a casual rainstorm, to be swept downwards in an avalanche of mud and stones into the gorges below. Here it becomes piled and massed together, till the pressure of accumulation forces it out into the main valleys, where it spreads in alluvial fans and silts up the plains. This formation is especially marked throughout the high level valleys of the Gilgit basin.

Passes.—Each of these northern affluents of the main stream is headed by a pass, or a group of passes, leading either to the Pamir region direct, or into the upper Yarkhun valley from which a Pamir route diverges. The Yasin valley is headed by the Darkôt pass (15,000 ft.), which drops into the Yarkhun not far from the foot ofthe Baroghil group over the main Hindu Kush watershed. The Ashkuman is headed by the Gazar and Kora Bohrt passes, leading to the valley of the Ab-i-Punja; and the Hunza by the Kilik and Mintaka, the connecting links between the Taghdumbash Pamir and the Gilgit basin. They are all about the same height—15,000 ft. All are passable at certain times of the year to small parties, and all are uncertain. In no case do they present insuperable difficulties in themselves, glaciers and snow-fields and mountain staircases being common to all; but the gorges and precipices which distinguish the approaches to them from the south, the slippery sides of shelving spurs whose feet are washed by raging torrents, the perpetual weary monotony of ascent and descent over successive ridges multiplying the gradient indefinitely—these form the real obstacles blocking the way to these northern passes.

Gilgit Station.—The pretty little station of Gilgit (4890 ft. above sea) spreads itself in terraces above the right bank of the river nearly opposite the opening leading to Hunza, almost nestling under the cliffs of the Hindu Koh, which separates it on the south from the savage mountain wilderness of Darel and Kohistan. It includes a residency for the British political officer, with about half a dozen homes for the accommodation of officials, barracks suitable for a battalion of Kashmir troops, and a hospital. Evidences of Buddhist occupation are not wanting in Gilgit, though they are few and unimportant. Such as they are, they appear to prove that Gilgit was once a Buddhist centre, and that the old Buddhist route between Gilgit and the Peshawar plain passed through the gorges and clefts of the unexplored Darel valley to Thakot under the northern spurs of the Black Mountain.

Connexion with India.—The Gilgit river joins the Indus a few miles above the little post of Bunji, where an excellent suspension bridge spans the river. The valley is low and hot, and the scenery between Gilgit and Bunji is monotonous; but the road is now maintained in excellent condition. A little below Bunji the Astor river joins the Indus from the south-east, and this deep pine-clad valley indicates the continuation of the highroad from Gilgit to Kashmir via the Tragbal and Burzil passes. Another well-known route connecting Gilgit with the Abbottabad frontier of the Punjab lies across the Babusar pass (13,000 ft.), linking the lovely Hazara valley of Kaghan to Chilas; Chilas (4150 ft.) being on the Indus, some 50 m. below Bunji. This is a more direct connexion between Gilgit and the plains of the Punjab than that afforded by the Kashmir route via Gurais and Astor, which latter route involves two considerable passes—the Tragbal (11,400) and the Burzil (13,500); but the intervening strip of absolutely independent territory (independent alike of Kashmir and the Punjab), which includes the hills bordering the road from the Babusar pass to Chilas, renders it a risky route for travellers unprotected by a military escort. Like the Kashmir route, it is now defined by a good military road.

History.—The Dards are located by Ptolemy with surprising accuracy (Daradae) on the west of the Upper Indus, beyond the head-waters of the Swat river (Soastus), and north of theGandarae,i.e.the Gandharis, who occupied Peshawar and the country north of it. TheDardasandChinasalso appear in many of the old Pauranic lists of peoples, the latter probably representing theShinbranch of the Dards. This region was traversed by two of the Chinese pilgrims of the early centuries of our era, who have left records of their journeys, viz. Fahien, coming from the north, c. 400, and Hsüan Tsang, ascending from Swat,c.631. The latter says: “Perilous were the roads, and dark the gorges. Sometimes the pilgrim had to pass by loose cords, sometimes by light stretched iron chains. Here there were ledges hanging in mid-air; there flying bridges across abysses; elsewhere paths cut with the chisel, or footings to climb by.” Yet even in these inaccessible regions were found great convents, and miraculous images of Buddha. How old the name ofGilgitis we do not know, but it occurs in the writings of the great Mahommedan savant al-Biruni, in his notices of Indian geography. Speaking of Kashmir, he says: “Leaving the ravine by which you enter Kashmir and entering the plateau, then you have for a march of two more days on your left the mountains of Bolor and Shamilan, Turkish tribes who are calledBhattavaryan. Their king has the title Bhatta-Shah. Their towns areGilgit, Aswira and Shiltash, and their language is the Turkish. Kashmir suffers much from their inroads” (Trs. Sachau, i. 207). There are difficult matters for discussion here. It is impossible to say what ground the writer had for calling the peopleTurks. But it is curious that theShinssay they are all of the same race as the Moguls of India, whatever they may mean by that. Gilgit, as far back as tradition goes, was ruled by rajas of a family called Trakane. When this family became extinct the valley was desolated by successive invasions of neighbouring rajas, and in the 20 or 30 years ending with 1842 there had been five dynastic revolutions. The most prominent character in the history was a certain Gaur Rahman or Gauhar Aman, chief of Yasin, a cruel savage and man-seller, of whom many evil deeds are told. Being remonstrated with for selling amullah, he said, “Why not? The Koran, the word of God, is sold; why not sell the expounder thereof?” The Sikhs entered Gilgit about 1842, and kept a garrison there. When Kashmir was made over to Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu in 1846, by Lord Hardinge, the Gilgit claims were transferred with it. And when a commission was sent to lay down boundaries of the tracts made over, Mr Vans Agnew (afterwards murdered at Multan) and Lieut. Ralph Young of the Engineers visited Gilgit, the first Englishmen who did so. The Dogras (Gulab Singh’s race) had much ado to hold their ground, and in 1852 a catastrophe occurred, parallel on a smaller scale to that of the English troops at Kabul. Nearly 2000 men of theirs were exterminated by Gaur Rahman and a combination of the Dards; only one person, a soldier’s wife, escaped, and the Dogras were driven away for eight years. Gulab Singh would not again cross the Indus, but after his death (in 1857) Maharaja Ranbir Singh longed to recover lost prestige. In 1860 he sent a force into Gilgit. Gaur Rahman just then died, and there was little resistance. The Dogras after that took Yasin twice, but did not hold it. They also, in 1866, invaded Darel, one of the most secluded Dard states, to the south of the Gilgit basin, but withdrew again. In 1889, in order to guard against the advance of Russia, the British government, acting as the suzerain power of Kashmir, established the Gilgit agency; in 1901, on the formation of the North-West Frontier province, the rearrangement was made as stated above.

Authorities.—Biddulph,The Tribes of the Hindu Kush(Calcutta, 1880); W. Lawrence,The Kashmir Valley(London, 1895); Tanner, “Our Present Knowledge of the Himalaya,”Proc. R.G.S.vol. xiii., 1891; Durand,Making a Frontier(London, 1899);Report of Lockhart’s Mission(Calcutta, 1886); E. F. Knight,Where Three Empires Meet(London, 1892); F.Younghusband, “Journeys in the Pamirs and Adjacent Countries,”Proc. R.G.S.vol. xiv., 1892; Curzon, “Pamirs,”Jour. R.G.S.vol. viii., 1896; Leitnér,Dardistan(1877).

(T. H. H.*)

GILL, JOHN(1697-1771), English Nonconformist divine, was born at Kettering, Northamptonshire. His parents were poor and he owed his education chiefly to his own perseverance. In November 1716 he was baptized and began to preach at Higham Ferrers and Kettering, until the beginning of 1719, when he became pastor of the Baptist congregation at Horsleydown in Southwark. There he continued till 1757, when he removed to a chapel near London Bridge. From 1729 to 1756 he was Wednesday evening lecturer in Great Eastcheap. In 1748 he received the degree of D.D. from the university of Aberdeen. He died at Camberwell on the 14th of October 1771. Gill was a great Hebrew scholar, and in his theology a sturdy Calvinist.

His principal works areExposition of the Song of Solomon(1728);The Prophecies of the Old Testament respecting the Messiah(1728);The Doctrine of the Trinity(1731);The Cause of God and Truth(4 vols., 1731);Exposition of the Bible, in 10 vols. (1746-1766), in preparing which he formed a large collection of Hebrew and Rabbinical books and MSS.;The Antiquity of the Hebrew Language—Letters, Vowel Points, and Accents(1767);A Body of Doctrinal Divinity(1767);A Body of Practical Divinity(1770); andSermons and Tracts, with a memoir of his life (1773). An edition of hisExposition of the Bibleappeared in 1816 with a memoir by John Rippon, which has also appeared separately.

GILL.(1) One of thebranchiaewhich form the breathing apparatus of fishes and other animals that live in the water. The word is also applied to thebranchiaeof some kinds of worm and arachnids, and by transference to objects resembling thebranchiaeof fishes, such as the wattles of a fowl, or the radiating films on the under side of fungi. The word is of obscure origin. Danish hasgiaelle, and Swedishgälwith the same meaning. The root which appears in “yawn,” “chasm,” has been suggested. If this be correct, the word will be in origin the same as “gill,” often spelled “ghyll,” meaning a glen or ravine, common in northern English dialects and also in Kent and Surrey. Thegin both these words is hard. (2) A liquid measure usually holdingone-fourth of a pint. The word comes through the O. Fr.gelle, from Low Lat.gelloorgillo, a measure for wine. It is thus connected with “gallon.” Thegis soft. (3) An abbreviation of the feminine name Gillian, also often spelled Jill, as it is pronounced. Like Jack for a boy, with which it is often coupled, as in the nursery rhyme, it is used as a homely generic name for a girl.

GILLES DE ROYE,orEgidius de Roya(d. 1478), Flemish chronicler, was born probably at Montdidier, and became a Cistercian monk. He was afterwards professor of theology in Paris and abbot of the monastery of Royaumont at Asnières-sur-Oise, retiring about 1458 to the convent of Notre Dame des Dunes, near Furnes, and devoting his time to study. Gilles wrote theChronicon DunenseorAnnales Belgici, a résumé and continuation of the work of another monk, Jean Brandon (d. 1428), which deals with the history of Flanders, and also with events in Germany, Italy and England from 792 to 1478.

The Chronicle was published by F. R. Sweert in theRerum Belgicarum annales(Frankfort, 1620); and the earlier part of it by C. B. Kervyn de Lettenhove in theChroniques relatives à l’histoire de la Belgique(Brussels, 1870).

GILLES LI MUISIS,orLe Muiset(c.1272-1352), French chronicler, was born probably at Tournai, and in 1289 entered the Benedictine abbey of St Martin in his native city, becoming prior of this house in 1327, and abbot four years later. He only secured the latter position after a contest with a competitor, but he appears to have been a wise ruler of the abbey. Gilles wrote two Latin chronicles,Chronicon majusandChronicon minus, dealing with the history of the world from the creation until 1349. This work, which was continued by another writer to 1352, is valuable for the history of northern France, and Flanders during the first half of the 14th century. It is published by J. J. de Senet in theCorpus chronicorum Flandriae, tome ii. (Brussels, 1841); Gilles also wrote some French poems, and thesePoésies de Gilles li Muisishave been published by Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove (Louvain, 1882).

See A. Molinier,Les Sources de l’histoire de France, tome iii. (Paris, 1903).

GILLESPIE, GEORGE(1613-1648), Scottish divine, was born at Kirkcaldy, where his father, John Gillespie, was parish minister, on the 21st of January 1613, and entered the university of St Andrews as a “presbytery bursar” in 1629. On the completion of a brilliant student career, he became domestic chaplain to John Gordon, 1st Viscount Kenmure (d. 1634), and afterwards to John Kennedy, earl of Cassillis, his conscience not permitting him to accept the episcopal ordination which was at that time in Scotland an indispensable condition of induction to a parish. While with the earl of Cassillis he wrote his first work,A Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded upon the Church of Scotland, which, opportunely published shortly after the “Jenny Geddes” incident (but without the author’s name) in the summer of 1637, attracted considerable attention, and within a few months had been found by the privy council to be so damaging that by their orders all available copies were called in and burnt. In April 1638, soon after the authority of the bishops had been set aside by the nation, Gillespie was ordained minister of Wemyss (Fife) by the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and in the same year was a member of the famous Glasgow Assembly, before which he preached (November 21st) a sermon against royal interference in matters ecclesiastical so pronounced, as to call for some remonstrance on the part of Argyll, the lord high commissioner. In 1642 Gillespie was translated to Edinburgh; but the brief remainder of his life was chiefly spent in the conduct of public business in London. Already, in 1640, he had accompanied the commissioners of the peace to England as one of their chaplains; and in 1643 he was appointed by the Scottish Church one of the four commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. Here, though the youngest member of the Assembly, he took a prominent part in almost all the protracted discussions on church government, discipline and worship, supporting Presbyterianism by numerous controversial writings, as well as by an unusual fluency and readiness in debate. Tradition long preserved and probably enhanced the record of his victories in debate, and especially of his encounter, with John Selden on Matt. xviii. 15-17. In 1645 he returned to Scotland, and is said to have drawn the act of assembly sanctioning the directory of public worship. On his return to London he had a hand in drafting the Westminster confession of faith, especially chap. i. Gillespie was elected moderator of the Assembly in 1648, but the laborious duties of that office (the court continued to sit from the 12th of July to the 12th of August) told fatally on an overtaxed constitution; he fell into consumption, and, after many weeks of great weakness, he died at Kirkcaldy on the 17th of December 1648. In acknowledgment of his great public services, a sum of £1000 Scots was voted, though destined never to be paid, to his widow and children by the committee of estates. A simple tombstone, which had been erected to his memory in Kirkcaldy parish church, was in 1661 publicly broken at the cross by the hand of the common hangman, but was restored in 1746.

His principal publications were controversial and chiefly against Erastianism: Three sermons against Thomas Coleman;A Sermon before the House of Lords(August 27th), on Matt. iii. 2,Nihil RespondemandMale Audis;Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, or the Divine Ordinance of Church-government vindicated(1646), which is deservedly regarded as a really able statement of the case for an exclusive spiritual jurisdiction in the church;One Hundred and Eleven Propositions concerning the Ministry and Government of the Church(Edinburgh, 1647). The following were posthumously published by his brother:A Treatise of Miscellany Questions(1649);The Ark of the New Testament(2 vols., 1661-1667);Notes of Debates and Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, from February 1644 to January 1645. SeeWorks, with memoir, published by Hetherington (Edinburgh, 1843-1846).

GILLESPIE, THOMAS(1708-1774), Scottish divine, was born at Clearburn, in the parish of Duddingston, Midlothian, in 1708. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and studied divinity first at a small theological seminary at Perth, and afterwards for a brief period under Philip Doddridge at Northampton, where he received ordination in January 1741. In September of the same year he was admitted minister of the parish of Carnock, Fife, the presbytery of Dunfermline agreeing not only to sustain as valid the ordination he had received in England, but also to allow a qualification of his subscription to the church’s doctrinal symbol, so far as it had reference to the sphere of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. Having on conscientious grounds persistently absented himself from the meetings of presbytery held for the purpose of ordaining one Andrew Richardson, an unacceptable presentee, as minister of Inverkeithing, he was, after an unobtrusive but useful ministry of ten years, deposed by the Assembly of 1752 for maintaining that the refusal of the local presbytery to act in this case was justified. He continued, however, to preach, first at Carnock, and afterwards in Dunfermline, where a large congregation gathered round him. His conduct under the sentence of deposition produced a reaction in his favour, and an effort was made to have him reinstated; this he declined unless the policy of the church were reversed. In 1761, in conjunction with Thomas Boston of Jedburgh and Collier of Colinsburgh, he formed a distinct communion under the name of “The Presbytery of Relief,”—relief, that is to say, “from the yoke of patronage and the tyranny of the church courts.” The Relief Church eventually became one of the communions combining to form the United Presbyterian Church. He died on the 19th of January 1774. His only literary efforts were anEssay on the Continuation of Immediate Revelations in the Church, and a Practical Treatise on Temptation. Both works appeared posthumously (1774). In the former he argues that immediate revelations are no longer vouchsafed to the church, in the latter he traces temptation to the work of a personal devil.

See Lindsay’sLife and Times of the Rev. Thomas Gillespie; Smithers’sHistory of the Relief Church; for the Relief Church seeUnited Presbyterian Church.

GILLIE(from the Gael.gille, Irishgilleorgiolla, a servant or boy), an attendant on a Gaelic chieftain; in this sense its use, save historically, is rare. The name is now applied in the Highlands of Scotland to the man-servant who attends a sportsman in shooting or fishing. Agillie-wetfoot, a term now obsolete (a translation ofgillie-casfliuch, from the Gaeliccas, foot, andfliuch, wet), was the gillie whose duty it was to carry his master over streams. It became a term of contempt among the Lowlanders for the “tail” (as his attendants were called) of a Highland chief.

GILLIES, JOHN(1747-1836), Scottish historian and classical scholar, was born at Brechin, in Forfarshire, on the 18th of January 1747. He was educated at Glasgow University, where, at the age of twenty, he acted for a short time as substitute for the professor of Greek. In 1784 he completed hisHistory of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests(published 1786). This work, valuable at a time when the study of Greek history was in its infancy, and translated into French and German, was written from a strong Whig bias, and is now entirely superseded (seeGreece:Ancient History, “Authorities”). On the death of William Robertson (1721-1793), Gillies was appointed historiographer-royal for Scotland. In his old age he retired to Clapham, where he died on the 15th of February 1836.

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