PAMIR, the Upa Meru of the Vedic Aryans, which Europeans have changed to Bam-i-Danya, or the roof of the world. Lieutenant Wood, of the Indian navy, early in the 19th century encamped on its summit, and traced the Oxus to its source. The ascent from Yarkand and Kashgar, westward to the table-land of Pamir, is almost imperceptible; and when that lofty position is gained, where the average elevation is probably as much as 15,000 feet above the sea, a vast open plain is seen, which stretches from the valley of the Jaxartes in one direction, across the head-streams of the Oxus, to the top of the Kashgar or Chitral valley in another. This plateau may be 700 or 800 miles in extent.
Pamir is a very mountainous country: the peak of Kaufmann is 22,580 feet ; Mount Gurunda, from which many of the rivers of Central Asia flow, is 20,900 feet ; Mount Mustag, 25,800 feet. The summits of all these are covered with eternal snow, the limit whereof on the northern slope is at 11,000 feet high • on the southern, at 19,000 feet. The valleys of the Pamir are barren, only a few of them being covered with fertile meadows. From this plateau, the Oxus, Jaxartes, rivers of Yarkand and Kashgar, and the Gilghit branch of the hulas, derive their head-waters. The Pamir, to the height of some 12,000 feet, has no steppe region. There are valleys along the rivers up to a height of 14,000 feet., but the widest is only 20 versts. This peculiar feature the Pamir has in common with the Tian Shan and Tibet, where similar valleys of narrow width considerable heights are found. Real lofty plateaux are not to be found on the Pamir. The mountains rise in lofty ridges to 6000 feet and 7000 feet above the valleys. The absolute height of the mountains of the Pamir reaches often to 19,000 feet, and three groups of great altitude reach as high as 25,000 feet. It is studded throughout with lakes, and from it descend four great river systems. The Narym, which is the main stream of the Jaxartes, runs through a long, luxuriant valley, between the culminating ridge and outer range of the Tian Shan, and drains all the northern face of the plateau. The Oxus, rising in the Sari Kul or Yellow Lake of Pamir, at least 300 miles to the south of the Jaxartes, receives from its right bank a multitude of small streams, which run to the south through rugged valleys, on the south •estern face of the Pamir uplands. The western face of Pamir, between the Jaxartes and the Oxus, is far more precipitous than the eastern. Ridges run out as far as Samarcand and Karshi, and the streams from the upland which twine amongst these ridges form the Zar-afshan and Karshi part of the water system of the Oxus, though before they reach that river they are entirely consumed Pamir Kul, in lat. 37° 14' N., and long.
74° 18' E., also called Burkut Yasin, a small lake, 13,300 above the sea, close to the erest of the Pamir steppe, and 102 miles east from Panja in l‘rakhan. From its western end flows the more southern of the two known branches of the Oxus. In summer, the neighbourhood is infested by Kirghiz and Kunjuti robbers.
Peschel rejects the view that these highlands were the primitive homes of the Indo-Europeans. Ile regards Bactria and Turkestan as likely to find more favour with students of the Indian and Iranian tongues. But he considers that it lay of Nestus, now Kara-su, occupying both }lopes of the Caucasus and the gorge of Daniel.
PAN, a race of the Kandh country, procurers or the Meriah sacrifices, numerous in Road. In le Chutia Nagpur tributary states this class are -egarded both by Hindus and aborigines as vile. The Kandhs associate with them on a more equal 'eating, allowing them to hold lands and to share n the village festivals. They also ply their trade is weavers, and the poorest of them work as farm abourers, cultivating land belonging to Kandhs, Ind making over to their landlords half the pro luce as rent.—Dalton, Eihnol. of Bengal, p. 299.
PAN. How. Betel-leaf, Piper betle, used as a masticatory, which takes the place of opium and tobacco in many Asiatic eountrics. Slices of the areca nut are wrapped in the froth leaves of the betel-pepper vine, with a small quantity of quick• limo. This masticatory has a herbaceous and aromatic hut astringent taste. Some of all dames, male and female, chew it, and allege that it strengthens the stomach, sweetens the breath, and preserves the teeth. It gives the lips, tongue, and teeth a reddish tinge. The Piper betle is cultivated in spots by itself ; it requires much water and cam—Shaw/ids' Dia.
l'AN or Pun. 111No. An ancient Indian cur rency, the fifth part of an anna. A sum of 80 cowry shells; also a land measure of 3! cubits. It is the source of the Anglo-Indian coin, Fanam, and seems to be derived from the Sanskrit Pans, money in general.— Wilson.
PAN and Pat are Sanskrit names for a leaf t and hence Panna, a leaf or sheet or paper, and Patera, a plate of metal or sacrificial cup, be cause these vessels were first made of leaves. There is a coincidence between the Sanskrit and Tuscan Patina. The Madonna Impannata, by Raphael, in the Pitti palace at Florence, is so called from the subdued light admitted through the the panes of which are of paper.— Tod's Rajasthan, i, p. 661.