neighbourhood. Shina is the basis of Kashmiri, which is the most Southern of the Dard group of the Paisaci languages, and also of many mixed dialects spoken in the Indus and Swat-Kohistans, now being superseded by Pashto. Khowar occupies an independent position and the Kaffir dialects, at least five in number, differ widely from one another. Wagin Veri, the most Western of them agrees in some phonetic peculiarities with the purely Eranian Munjani. At the present day, these Paisaci languages occupy the three-sided tract of country between the Hindukush on the North-Western Frontier of British India.
This present position of the great Paisaci languages accords to a great extent with the place assigned to them by the Prakrit grammarians. Markandeya (17th century) mentions Kancidesiya, Pandya, Panchala, Gauda, Magadha, Vracada, Dakshi-
