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Transcript of DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY. - Forgotten Books
DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY .
R . G . LATHAMM.A .,M.D . ,
urn FELLOW or 1m m a com m on, unnm m n,arc.
V O L . I I .
EUROPE, AFRICA, INDIA.
L O N D O N
JOHN VAN VO ORST , PATERN O STER ROW .
MDCCCLIX.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I .
The Lithm nic Branch of the Sum atian Stock.—The Old Prussian .
The Lit.huania.ns.—The Yatahvings.
—The Lets
CHAPTER II .The Slavonic Branch of tho Sam etian Stock.
—The Bussiana—Servians.
—Lekh or Poles. -Tahek or Bohem ians.—Bulgarisns.
-Panalavo
nism .—Original Slavonic Area.
CHAPTER III.
FAG !"
The Skipetar, or Albanians
CHAPTER IV.
The In tins or Italians, and the Greeks or Hellenes.-The Germ ans.
—TheKelts.
—The Enskaldnnac, or Baaks
CHAPTER V .
Papnh tiona, other than Italian, speaking a language derived from the
Lati n
CHAPTER VI .The Dioecun
'
ann or Caucasians of Caucasus.—The Cim ians
CHAPTER VII .The Dioscurians or Caucasians of Caucasus.—Tabetah andMinna
CHAPTER VIII .The Dioecnrim , &c.
—The Georgians.—The Lexi
CHAPTER IX.
The Dioscnrim s, aw.—The Iron
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI .The Sem itic Popuhfiom —TheArabians.
—S yrians.—Sam erita.ns
CHAPTER XII .
The Sem itic Populations.—The Abyssinian of Tigré and Am hara
The Agows.—The Palad in.
—The Gafat
V i CONTENTS .
CHAPTER XIII .t nox
The 00pte.—The Bishari. —The Nubians.
—The Populations, aw. of Kor
dovan, of Darfur, of Sennaar.—The eo-called Negroes of Abyssinia.
—The Galla Fam i ly, 6. e. the Danakil, the Som auli, and the Gallas
proper
CHAPTER XIV.
The Tibbu.—The Bornfii and Howesa Groups.—The Sungni .—The Am e
zig.—TheMa
CHAPTER XV .
TheW olof or Jolof.—Serere.—Sem wu1i.—Felup.
—Balantes.—Bia.far.
CHAPTER XVI .TheMandingo Group.—Bego of Kalum .
—Tim m ani .—Bullom .—The Vei
Syllabarium .—Susu, &c.
—Sokko, &c.—The Krum en
CHAPTER XVI I .Populations of the Ivory, Pepper, Gold, and Slave Coasts.
—The Avek
vom .—The Kouri, the Fentis, and Ashantis.
—The 6 113 or Akkraand Adam pi Tribes.—TheKem pay.
—The Dahom ey, Yoruba, Benin,Ibo, Tapas, Old Calaher, Duane, Ieubu, Fernando Po, Ediya, and
CHAPTER XVIII .
The Kafir and Hottentot Fam ilies
CHAPTER XIX .
Certain Populations belonging to the unexplored Parts of Africa to the
South of Abyssinia.—The Gongs Fam ily. The Eloikob
CHAPTER XX .
Certain Populations belonging to the im perfectly explored Parts of Africa.
—The Mobba, 8m , of Bareeleh.—The Bagirm i .—The Mandam
The Tribes between theMandarin. and the Nufi.—The Betta , aw.
CHAPTER XXI .
The Persian Gm up.-The Kurds.
—The Persians pm per.—Talieh, Tajiks,
and Iliyat.
—The Gypsies of Persia.—The Seisteunia
CHAPTER XXII .The Biluch Tribes
CHAPTER XXIII.The Afghana
—The W estern Tribes.—The Durani .—The Ghilzyes.
—TheEastern Afghans
CONTENTS .
CHAPTER XXIV .
Certain equivocal Afghans.—TheBon ich.—The Twins. —The Cankers.
CHAPTER XXV.
The Paropam im ns of the 0m —Cohistm is. 8m .
CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVII.Anci ent History and Antiquities of Persia.
-B.ela.tion of Persia to India.
—The Religion of Ancient Persia. The Persia
CHAPTER XXVIII.The Ancient Languages of Persia. and India.
—The Persepolitan of the
Cuneiform Inscriptions .-The Caubul Coins.
- The Pali Inscriptions.
—The Sanskrit and Pali of Literature
CHAPTER XXIX.
Outhe Languages akin to the Tam ul. -The Tehnga..—The Tam ul proper.
—The Om areee.—The Cfirgi. -The Malayalam —The Tulu, or Tu
lam .—The Ghond.—The Khond.
—The Eastern K0].—The Bajmhal. -The Tamul elem ents of the Brahfii
CHAPTER XXX.
Relations of the languages akin to the Tam ul .—Belatione of the Len
guages akin to the Sanskrit
CHAPTER XXI I .The languages akin to the Hindi . -The Kaehm eri .—The Hindi . —The
interm ediate form s, ane—Migratory Populations and Trades.
—TheGypsies.
—The Bhfl Dialecte .—The H indostani
CHAPTER XXXII.India as an Influence. —Its action upon Tibet, Ava, &c.
—Up0n the
Islands of the Indian Archipelago.—Brahm inism and Buddhism
CHAPTER XXXIII.The Alphabets of India
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Frontiers of India and Persia.—The Paropam iaans.
—The Afghans—The Caukere, &c .
—The Brahfii and Biluch
CHAPTER XXXV.
Foreign Influences in India.—Bacchic -Assyri&n
—Persian .
h m nian .—Macedonian.
—Arab.
-Afghan . Turk (Tshagatai)
vi
PAGE
300
vxii CONTENTS .
CHAPTER XXXVI.
General View of the Divisions of the Population of India.- t
CHAPTER XXXVII.Populations speaking either Hindi or a. Language akin to it.—Cashm ir 350
CHAPTER XXXVIII .Populations speaking either Hindi or a. Language akin to it.—TheRajput
and Jut Division.-The Sikhs
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Populations speaking either the Hindi or a Language akin to it. -The
Rejput end Jut Division.—Sind.—Kutch.
—Gujem t 36 9
CHAPTER XL .
Populations speaking either Hindi or a Language akin to it. -TheRajput
and Jut Division.-R.ajputana, Bajwarra, or Bajasthan
CHAPTER XLI .
Populations speaking eitherHindi, or a Language akin to it. ! Delhi, Al
CHAPTER XLII .Populations whose Language is either Hindi , or akin to it.—The Sub
CHAPTER XLIII .
CHAPTER XLIV .
The Populations whose Language is akin to the Tam nl.—The Bajm hnli
Mountaineem .—The Kola.
—The Khonds .—The Sam
CHAPTER XLV .
The Telinga, Canarese, Tnlava, Malayalam , and Tam ul Districts
CHAPTER XLVI .Ceylon.
—TheMaldives and Laem dives.—Migratory and other Popnla
tions of Continental India
CHAPTER XLVII .Pepulations of theMalayan Peninsula.
—Orang Bonus andMalays Proper—Sem ang.
-Sekai .—Johore Tritme—Om ng Lent
CHAPTER XLVIII .
Retrospect—Beletive Influence of the preceding Pcpuletiona upon theHistory of the W orld at large.
—Zone of Conquest.—O rigin and
Diffusion of Civilization
DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY.
CHAPTER I .
The Lithuanic Branch of the Sam etian Stock.—The O ld Prun im —The
L ithuanian; —The Yatshvinga—The Lets.
IN beginning the notice of the Ugrian stock with the
Finlanders a sacrifice was m ade to convenience . It
would have been m ore scientific to have taken them
last ; inasm uch as they are the population m ost closely
allied to the first m em bers of the exclusively European
group. O f this, the m ost eastern division is the Sar
m atian ; the Sarm atian stock falling in to two branches
( l ) the Lithuania, or Prussian ; (2) the Slavonic, Slavonian, or Slavic .The present representatives of what was once the great
Lithuanic fam ily are only to be found in fragm en ts. Afew are Prussian subjects. The m ajority, however,belong to the Russian Governm ents of Kurland, Liefland
(Livonia), Eston ia,W itepsk, Vilna, and Grodno—furthersouth than which latter Governm ent they are not to be
found. Nor yet are they to be found west of the Vistula.
There are several Lithuanians in Prussia, but only in
East Prussia. West Prussia has none.
In the eleventh,twelfth, and thirteenth centuries things
were very different . A 11 Prussia was Lithuanic ; the
V O L . 1 1 . B
2 O LD PRUSS IANS .
parts on the Vistula as well as the parts on the Niem en
the parts even beyond the Vistula. All was Lithuanic as
far as the fron tiers of Pom erania ; where i t was Slavonic .
Where, then ,were the Germ ans ? In Hanover, West
phalia, and the parts to the west of the Elbe. They had
yet to conquer their presen t occupancies in the two
Prussias —the two Prussias, for when we write about
the Lithuanic populations, the division into East andWest
is im portan t. West Prussia was, and is, the m ore
thoroughly Germ anized of the two . In both, however,the presen t Germ an s are Prussians in the way that
an Englishm an is a Briton, i . e. not at all . An English
m an is a Germ an upon soil originally British. A Prussian
is a Germ an upon soil originally Lithuanic .
The m ost Lithuanic parts of East Prussia are the partsto the east of the Pregel , the villages near Tilsit, Gumbinnen
,Ragnit, and Pilkallen ; the term ination in -allen
(gallen or kallen) being com m on—as are m any other
Lithuanic form s. A s is also the use of two nam es,one
L ithuanic and one Germ an, for the sam e place. In
Livonia we m ay find three .
I think P russia and P russian are native denom inations,and that the O ld Prussians who gave their nam e to thecountry were a separate substantive division of the fam ily.
That they differed from the others in language is known
by the short specim ens that have com e down to us of the
dialect of Sam land, N attangen ,and a part of Oberland,
as it was spoken about A . D . 1550.
In the twelfth century the Prussians were a powerful
nation . In the second they bore the nam e G othones,and
occupied the am ber country . The Germ ans cal led themEaten, or m en of the east ; this being the origin of the
words fl an a‘
i‘
oc and JEstyii, in Strabo and Tacitus. The
Germ ans who conquered them called them Guddon . A t
ou) a ssuns. 3
the presen t tim e the nam e Pakul is to be found in songs
and legends, which, in other respects, are purely Germ an ;
Pakul being the nam e of the old Prussian god P ikullos.
A s it was in the west so was it in the south . Indi
vidually, I believe that, in the tim e of Tacitus, a L ithu
anic language was spoken as far south as G allicia, and
that i t was that form of speech which Tacitus attributes
to the Gothini and calls Gallic. Be this as it m ay, it is
certain that the parts between the northern fron tier of the
present G allicia and the boundaries of ancien t Prussia,were occupied in the thirteenth cen tury by a powerful
nation which is som etim es called P ollex iani, but oftener
G etuim'
, Jaczwingi, Jentuisiones, and Gete , and which
is especially stated by contem porary authorities to have
been one of the four divisions of the Lithuanic nam e ;
the other three being the Prussian, the Lithuanic proper,and the L et. O f the Yatshving language we have no
specim ens—only a few proper nam es, e. g . K om atus,Mestor, Rausim odus, Tai fal, and P odlakus, the latter
being, in all probability, the individual from whom the
present district of P odlachia bears its nam e.
The Yatsh-vinga lay to the south of the East Prussians,and to the east of the Poles, in the presen t province of
S ierdec, and in the P odlachia of the older m aps. They
are said also to have extended as far as the m arshes about
Pinsk at the head-waters of the Pripecz . A t the begin
ning of the thi rteenth century they were form idable to
both Russia and Poland. This population ,
“ vas t andwarlike
,greedy of honour, allied in language, rites, re
ligion , and custom s to the Lithuanians, the Sam ogitians,and the Prussians, dedicated, too, like them , to the wor
ship of idols, a population of which Drohyczyn was the
m etropolis, was so broken in a great battle againstthe Poles, under their Duke, Boleslav, in the year of
3 2
4 OLD PRUSS IAN S .
our Lord 1282, as to becom e well-nigh extinct, a few
only rem aining ; som e of whom were attached to Poland,som e to Lithuania. They never retreated, and never
refused a battle, however unequal . This is the languageof the chroniclers in speaking of the now unknown Y atsh
vings . The Poles were their chief conquerors.
O f the Lithuanian proper the district of Sam ogitia is
the chief,though not the only, locality . A s a general
rule,however
,it has been displaced by the Polish on the
west and south, and by the Russian on the east. It is
a form of the Lithuanian proper, rather than one of
the Prussian , that is spoken at the presen t tim e in East
Prussia. Such, at leas t, is the general opinion . It is
possible, however, that the difference between the two
sections m ay be exaggerated .
The Lets are the Lithuanic occupants of Courland
and Livon ia,differing from the Lithuanians in dialect
and in their external relations. Whilst the Lithuanianproper has been pressed upon by the Pole, it is the G er
m an who has encroachedupon the L et—the towns of both
L iefland (Livonia) and Kurland being Germ an rather
than Slavonic, as is the territorial nobility, the civiliza
tion, and the creed.
The Lithuanians have been pressed upon by the Polesand by the Germ ans. They seem , however, them selvesto have pressed upon the Estonians. That the Liefs of
L iefland were Fins has already been stated. S e probably
were the Koralli, Karelians, or Kurs, o f Kurland. S o
also the populations who gave the F in nam e Suom e to thefenny districts of Sam land and S am ogitia. It is possiblethat, at the present m om ent
,no single representative of
the Lithuanic fam ily m ay stand on soil originally L ithuanic . What was originally L ithuanic is now Polish or
Germ an . What is now Lithuanic was originally Fin .
LITHUAN IANS AND LETS . 5
In their physical form both the Lets and the Livonians
have m any poi nts in com m on with the Fins. They are
light rather than dark, with undersized, rather than stout,bodies, flattish faces, and skulls (as far as they have been
observed) som ewhat truncate at the occiput. This m ay
be accounted for by interm ixture, or it m ay be accounted
for by original sim ilarity . To say nothing about the fact,just noticed, of the Lithuanic occupancies being origi
nally Fin, the physical conditions of soil and clim ate are
the sam e for both populations. S o are the pursuits . The
m arshy flats of both Livonia and Estonia are rich in their
produce both of corn and flax ; and it is on the purely
agricultural labours of the flax -dresser and the com
grower that the industry of both the Estonian and the
Let expends itself. A s are the occupations, so are the
ideas . The seed-tim e and the harvest are the chief tim es
for festivity . The influences, im aginary as well as real ,that affect the change of seasons, and determ ine the vicis
situdes of the weather, are alike invoked on both sides of
the Salis ; for the Salis is the river of Livonia that dividesthe Let area from the Estonian .
Flax , oats, oaks, firs, aspens, willows—these give the
im agery to nine-tenths of the popular poetry of the
countries under notice.
A s early as A . D . 16 9 1 a fragm ent of the popular
poetry of the Lithuanians found its way into print. It
runs thus
Ar asz taw ne m ielas buwau?
Sutawim i ruggelus pjowjau;Sn tawin i szeneli grebjnuSutawim i awiieles riazan.
Do I not becom e dear to thee ?W ith thee the rye I cut ;W ith thee the hay I rakedW ith thee the oats I bound.
6 LITHUAN IAN S AND LETS .
In 1745 Ruhig added a few m ore specim ens ; which,attracting the notice of Lessing and Herder, appear in thework which, like the ancient ballads of our own language
,
has done so m uch towards the creation of a taste for the
poetry of a natural life, the fam ous S tim m e der Vo’
lker.
Nothing, however, that could be called a collection pre
ceded the publi cation of the Dainos, by Rhesa, A . D . 1825 .
Daina, which is, word forword, the Daina of theRum anyo,
and, perhaps, the Duan of the Kelts, and, as such, a very
rem arkable term ,m eans song of the people
—e ollcsyesang,as the Germ ans translate it. A claim (plural dainos) is
secular in respect to its subjects, rather than ecclesiastic,a religious poem being called yésm e . The dainos are
handed down from father to son, are sung on all occasions and by every one, are sim ple in construction, wi th
out rhym e, and of no great length. They generally
em body a sentim ent, or exhibit an image ; and are rarelysufficiently narrative to deserve the nam e of ballad.They preserve m ore than one archaism ,
e.g . the horse of
com m on life is an arklys, the steed of the dainos is az‘irgas.They preserve
,too, m ore than one relic of paganism .
It is the Mother Earth,or the Goddess Z em yna, that
gives the corn and flax . It is the sea-god Bangputys
who raises the billows. It is Lam ia who brings luck .
The better known nam es of P erkynos and P ikullos are
of frequent occurrence. This im plies that the num ber of
dainos is considerable. Rhesa gives eighty-five. In the
collections , however, of N esselm ann and Schleicher, the
two being taken together, they am oun t to about four
hundred .
I have elsewhere" given m y reasons for believing that a
great deal of the history of the Goths belongs, not to
the Germ ans, but to the Lithuanians ; the m ain argum en t
N ative Races of the Russian Em pire —The Germ anic of Tacitus .
LITHUAN IAN S AND LETS . 7
in favor o f this view, lying in the fact of the subjects ofAlaric, Theodoric, and the other conquerors of the fourth,fifth, and sixth centuries having been Goths only as
Englishm en are Britons ; i . e. no t at all. In Germ any
they never bore t he nam e . They received it when they
settled on the soil of the Gs tm . I f se , som e portion ,at leas t, of the old inhabitants of Dacia and Thrace were
Lithuanic ; a fact of im portance when the rem arkable
relations between the Lithuanic and the Sanskrit com e
under notice.
Apparently, the Lithuanians are the m ost westernm em bers of the stock to which they belong. In Prussiathey com e in direct contact with the Germ ans ; with
nothing Slavonic in the in terval . In Livonia and Estonia,they lie to the west of Russia. Y et it is only in appear
ance,that they seem to intervene between the Slavonians
and the Germ ans . Germ any has pressed up to their
frontier. Russia has lapped round . Their real relations
to the west are what they are in Lithuania ; between
which country and Germ any.the whole of Poland is
interjacent, and to the east of which lie the Ugrians.
The clear and unequivocal history of the Lithuanic
fam ily, ao nom ine, begins no earlier than the eleven th
century ; when the Teuton ic Knights, the Knights of the
Sword, and the Poles invaded East Prussia, Courland,L iefiand, Lithuania, and the Y atshving coun try ; the
m ovem ent being from west to east.
In Poland the Yagellon dynasty was, m ore or less,Lithuan ic . I say m ore or less because i t is believedto have been Slavonic as well ; the Lithuanians, as a
general rule, being considered to be anything but anation
of conquerors. With the doctrine thus suggested, I
differ in toto having given m y reasons elsewhere .“
N ative Races of Russia.
8 LITHUAN IAN S AND LETS .
The present distribution of the Lithuanians of
is as follows
In Kovno
Vilna
Courland
G‘
rrodno
Let population, on the
In Courland
Livonia
V itepsk
Kovno
S t. Petersburg
Pskov
Total of LithuaniansLets
To these add certain m em bers stock
East Prussia.
other hand, runs thus
10 THE suvom w s.
Huss and Ziska, is a Bohem ian or a Moravian only as anEnglishm an is a Briton, or a Spaniard of the N ew World
a Mexican, i . e. not at all. H e is sim ply a Germ an on
Slavon ic soil . The real indigem e are the Tshek, for so
they call them selves. Whether the term be native fromthe beginning is m ore than I can say. Word for word, it
is Daci, of which we have the interm ediate form T fa'
zxoc.
The Tshek is the language of Bohem iaandMoravia. Akinto it is the Slovak, of the southern part of the westernCarpathians, in con tact wi th the Magyar of Hungary.
5 . The Bulgarians .—The language of Bulgaria is S la
vonic . W e m ay also add with safety, that its basisis som ething either Servian or Russian, or, if not thisexactly
,som ething between the two . The coun try
over which it is spoken belongs to the area where the
two form s are supposed to have graduated into each
other. Y et the Bulgarian is as little purely Servianas it is purely Russ. I t has m ore than one Turk
sound,m ore than one Turk com bination . The Turk,
like all the Siberian form s of speech,prefer an inflection
at the end, to one at the beginning of a word. The Bul
garian (in this respect standing alone am ongst the Slavonictongues) not only has a defini te article, but incorporatesit with the substantive to which it is attached, and, notonly does this, but places it at the end of that word ,rather than at the beginning. The Alban ian does thesam e. S o does the Rum anyo of Wallachia. S o do the
Norse languages. But no Slavonic tongue does so except
theBulgarian . Now the Bulgarian blood is pre-em inently
m ixed . It is F ih , Turk, and Sarm atian—certainly, m ore
or less Slavonic ; probably, m ore or less Lithuanic .
A t an early period,the S criptures were translated in to
Slavonic ; from which it followed that the language into
which they were rendered becam e written . I ts alphabet
THE SLAVON IANS . 1 1
was founded on the Greek ; inasm uch as the Christianity
which it conveyed was the Christianity of Constantinople,i . e. that of the Greek Church . The m issionary who
in troduced it bore the respected nam e of Cyrill , and the
alphabet is known as the Cyrillian . It is one of the best
and worst in Europe . It is good because it is full, and
con tains, for each sim ple single sound, a sim ple single
sign . It is bad because it is founded upon the capital
letters only ; and, so being founded, is fitter for inscriptions than for writing . Nevertheless, it is the alphabet of
the Russian portion of the Greek Church ; and how large
that portion is I need not say . It is an alphabet by m eans
of which m ore than one language of Caucasus, Siberia,and even Arm enia, has been reduced to writing.
What m odern dialect represents this Old, or Church,Slavonic ? Som e say the Russian, som e the Servian ,
som e the Bulgarian . It is certainly not the Bulgarian,and, probably, neither the Russ nor the Serb exactly. I
believe it to be a dialect now extinct, but one which,originally, was spoken in som e part of Hungary or Transylvan ia.
A nd now we m ay ask how these divisions and sub
divisions of the Slavonic nam e are determ ined. Do
they graduate into each other,or are they separated
by broad and trenchant lines of dem arcation ? Thereare broad and trenchan t lines of dem arcation and thereare the phenom ena of transition .
The m em bers of the southern division,the Servian and
Russian (for the Russian ,though at the presen t tim e spoken
in both Siberia and Am erica, originated in the parts aboutthe Danube and the Carpathians) , run into each other (theRussian being the m ost of an outlyer) but not into them em bers of the northern group , of which the Slovak istheir nearest congener . Yet the Slovak affinities are
12 THE SLAVON IANS .
Tshek, Moravian, and Bohem ian . The Serb of Lusatia
is m ore Polish than Bohem ian ; not, however, without
Bohem ian elem ents. The isolated dialects of Luneburg
and Pom erania are Polish . In one word, the affinities
are just what the geographical relations suggest.
W hat applies to the language applies to the creed .
The northern and southern divisions are natural, provided
always that we consider the Russians as southern and
Servian . A t the sam e tim e, there are the phenom ena of
transition and in term ixture.
The Germ an ized Slavon ians of Luneburg, the G er
m anized Slavonians of Pom erania, the Poles, the Serbs
of Lusatia, the Bohem ians, the Moravians, and the S lo
vaks are either Rom anists or Protestants ; in other words,they took their Christianity from Rom e rather thanGreece. O n the other hand
,the Russians
,the Bul
gat ians, and the Servians took their Christianity from
Constantinople, and belong to the Greek,or Eastern ,
rather than to the Rom an, or Western, Church .
In Illyria, by which I m ean Croatia, Carinthia, and
Carniola, there is (or rather there has been) an inter
m ixture . The discovery of old writings in what is called
the G lagolit alphabet has rewarded the industry and
acum en of the investigators of the Illyrian,or Vend,
dialects ; the G lagolit alphabet being Greek in origin ,and, as such, betraying a Constantinopolitan influence.
It differs from the Cyrillian in detail only . Practically
speaking, however, it is m erely a literary curiosity. The
Dalm atian, Carinthian , Carn iolan, and Croatian dialects
are written, when written at all, in Rom an letters ; the
Cyrillian alphabet being Servian and Russian . The
letters go with the churches.
O ne portion of the Slavonic stock is neither Protestantnor Rom anist ; neither Latin nor Greek . Bosnia, along
run suvonuns. 13
with part of Bulgaria, is, to a great extent, at one and
the sam e tim e,Slavonic and Mahom etan .
It is an enorm ous m ass—this great Slavonic stock, andwe have (se to say) to distribute its com ponent parts .
W e have done so in the way of language. W e have
done so in the way of creed. W e have done so in the
way of alphabet. W e now consider its political analysis.
Russia.—The lion ’
s share is Russian . To Russia he
longs, with a sm all exception, everything that is Russ.
To Russia, too, belongs the greater part of the Polish
division . A few Servians, and a few Bulgarians, are
Russian .
The Russ division itself, however, falls into sectionsand subsections, both in respect to physical conform a
tion and dialect. The Great Russian is spoken overthe greater part of Russia, over Cen tral A sia, and
Siberia, over parts even of North-western Am erica, with
a m inimum am oun t of dialectual difference, and with a
m inim um am ount of difference between it and the written
language . All this indicates the recency of its diffusion ,
com bined with the hom ogeneous character of the form of
speech diffused.
The White Russians belong to the Governm ent of
Sm olensk, their frontier being Lithuanic, their original
political relations Lithuanic, and (as such) som e of their
di fferentiating characteristics Lithuanic also . Haxthausen
states that they are weaklier in body, and worse-lookingin the face, than the others.
The Little Russians coincide with the Polish frontier,as it stood originally ; the Ukraine and the south-west
Governm ents being their chief area. They have the creditof being as m uch better-looking than the m ajority as the
White Russians are worse . They extend into Austria,and in Hungary
, Bukovinia, and G allicia, are known as
M THE sm vom m s.
Rusniaks or Ruthenians. Malorussian is their Muscovite nam e. A good deal m ore than I can either confirm
or contradict, has been said about their separate nation
ality. It lies, I im agine, m uch within the sam e lim i ts as
that of the English and the Scotch—Kiev being the
Malorussian Edinburgh .
Sm olensk,Mohilev, Minsk, V itepsk, G rodno, Vilna,
and Bialystock are the White Russian ; Pultava, Khar
khov,Tshem igov, Kiev, Podolia,V olhynia,Ekaterinoslav,
Kherson,Bessarabia
, and Taurids are the Little Russian
Governm en ts ; the rest being Great Russian .
Great Russians
Little Russians
Whi te Russians
Total
The Little Russians are the m ost purely Slavonic.
From Kiev northwards and from Ki ev eastwards, ran the
lines of Slavonic occupancy ; the valley of the Dnieper
leading across the water-sheds to those of the Volkov
and the Volga. O f som e of the special Slavonic pepulations who thus extended them selves, Nestor gives the
nam es. These were the Polyane, the D erevlyane, the
Dregovitshi, the P olotshane, the Syevera, and others.
The Desna, the Sula, and the Polota, are the rivers upon
which they were m ore especially located ; the present
G overnm en ts of Kiev, O rel, K a1uga, Sm olensk (partly),N ovogorod (partly), being the em inen tly Russian locali
ties. The Poles and Lithuanians pressed upon them on
the west ; the P ripecz being a Polono—Lithuanic river,rather than a Russian one. A s to the southern Govern
m ents , they were Turk . S o was the greater.t of the
Volga. The Ugrians,in Nestor’s tim e
,still predom inated
THE SLAVON IANS . 15
on the Oka and the parts beyond the Valdai hills. There
were som e Scandinavians in the north but how they
becam e Slavonized is uncertain .
V olhynia and Podolia were the battle-helds between
the Russian and the Pole ; the valley of D on , a battle
field between the Russian and the Turk . O f the Ugrian
struggles in the north the history is obscure ; though such
struggles there were. N ovorogod was the point from
which the line of conquest in this direction originated ;Olonets , Archangel, Vologda, and Viatka, the parts re
duced.
The Slavonians of Russia outnum ber all the others puttogether. They are alm ost all, however, Russians. If
we look for representatives of the different divisions o f
the fam ily we m ust look elsewhere . We m ust look
towards
Austria.—The Tebekaof Bohem ia are Austrian . S e are
the Tsheks of Moravia. S e are the Slovaks of Hungary,on the north . S o are the Croats of Hungary and Croatiaon the south . S o are the Carinthians. S o are the Slavo
niens of Carniola and Styria. S o are those of Dalm atia.
So are the Poles of G allicia. S o are the Rusniaks, orLittle Russians, of G allicia and Bukhovin ia.
Turkey.—Bulgaria belongs to Turkey . Turkish Croatia
is what its nam e denotes, an Ottom an dependency . U pper
Moesia is but a part of Servia yet it is (which Servia is
not) Turk . S e isMahom etan, but Slavonic, Bosnia.
Montenegro.—Montenegro, C zernogory, or the Black
Moun tain , lies between wind and water. It professes to
be independent but is in a state of chronic warfare with
the Albanian part of Turkey, is m enaced by Austria and
subsidized by Russia. It belongs to the Greek Church.
San ia.—Independent .
P russia.-To Prussia belong the Poles of the Duchy of
16 THE SLAVON IANS .
Posen . To Prussia, too, belongs the fragm entary pepula
tion of the K assub, of Pom erania,occupan t of a portion
of the Rugenwalde.
Kassab P aternoster.
Oytsche nasch, ktory ies w niebie. Swietsono badsch im ie twe.
Prsydsch twe krolestwo. Twa sic wola stani, isko w niebie, take yna siam i . Chleb nasch powschedny day nam dschisia. Y odpuschnam nasche winy iako y m y odpustscham y naschim winowsytsom ;
a nie v odach nae w pokussenie ; ale nae sbaw oh sljego. Bo twe iesta
krolestwo, twois m os, y potschesnosch (chwals) as na wieki wiekow.
Am en .
To Prussia, too, belong the Serbs of the circle of Kotbus, divided only by their political relations from the
Slavonians of
S ax ony.—These are the Serbs of Lusatia
, few in
num bers, yet once occupants, not only of the whole of
Saxony,but of m uch of the country beyond. It was
their ancestors who, as the Vandali S ilingi (Z lmw oz), or
the Vandals of Silesia, are j oined with the Goths who
conquered Spain . It was the ancestors of these obscureSerbs of Lusatia who gave the nam e Andalusia (the
Vandalland), to the finest province of the peninsula.
H anover.—The Linones of Luneburg are now com pletely
Germ anized .
In the sam e works wherein the eas tward prolongationof the Slavonic area is investigated, I have given reasonsforbelieving that the southern Slavonians, of the very earli
est historical period, extended as farwestward as the Keltic
frontier in other words, that the Tyrol, the Vorarlberg,Bavaria, W urtem berg, a nd even parts of Switzerland and
Savoy, were what Bohem ia and Carinthia are now,i . e.
Slavonic occupancies. That the m ovem ent of the Sla
vonians in general has been from west to east, and fromsouth to north
,is certain . In the tim e of Charlem agne,
there were no Germ ans to the east of the Elbe. In the
18 PANSLAVON ISM.
Still, there is nothing that can worthily be called a
national Slavonic literature . Why ? The full details I
am not prepared to give . I can only indicate two or
three of the facts which have had m ost to do with the
hindrance of one.
In the first place, the civilizing and the christianizing
influences have had a divided origin . There were the
Greek creed,the Greek alphabet, and the Greek way of
thinking for the Servians and Russians. There were the
Rom an alphabet and the Latin m odels for the Bohem ians
and Poles. A Polish literature can scarcely be said to
have had an existence, so thoroughly has Latin been the
vehicle of Polish thought.
In the second place, the great m aterial expansion of
the Slavonian tongue has been towards the parts m ost
rem ote from Europe, and from the quarter where the civi
lization is the least European . It is Russia that, at the
expense of the Ugrians, has spread itself abroad. It is
the Slavonism ofMecklenburg, Pom erania, Brandenburg,Bohem ia, and Austria, which, under the pressure of
Germ anism ,has receded, and is receding .
Thirdly, the Slavonic stock is m ost irregularly distributed, as m ay be seen from the following tables.
POLITICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE SLAVONIC STOCK .
Russia Austnu. Prussia Turkey Cracow Saxony
Great RussiansLittle Russians l0.370,000W hae Russians
gulgprm ns
5 01“a an
Bosm ans
Creations
Can ntlnam m
Poles
Tshekhs
Slm aka
U pper Sorahtans
Lower Sorabm ns
PAN SLAVON ISM. 19
RELIGIOUS DISTRIBUTION OF THE SLAVON IC STOCK.
Greek Unlted Greek Bom n
Church. Church. Catholic. m edan
m ans
Can nthians
Is this great language always to stand dum b in the
world of thought I can only answer this by stating, that
there is such a word as Panslavonism . It is the creationof a literary m an , and by the writings of literary m en
the doctrine which it em bodieshas chiefly been developed.
It m eans that, with such a slight difference as actually
exists between the extrem e form s of the Slavonic speech,9. literature should be developed, which all Slavonians
should read that in Austria and Posen it should replace
the Germ an ; and that in Servia and Russia i t should
be national .
But P anslavonism has a political, as well as a literary
bearing . This varies with the coun try . In Poland, it
m eans absolute equality between the Pole and Russian ,
the two separate nationali ties being m erged under the
great generality of Slavonism . In Russia it m eans the
propagation of the Greek creed, and the displacem en t of
such languages as the Turk and Rum anyo by the Russian
or Servian . In Servia and Montenegro, it m eans dislike
to all things Ottom an ; and in Hungary, the denial of
the right of predom inance to the Magyar m inority . It
m eans, in short, di fferent things in different places. I t
m eans,however, m ost especially, the non-recognition of
the assum ed superiority in literature and science on the
c 2
20 PAN SLAVON ISM.
part of the Germ ans, and the developm ent of the Slave
nic press, whose dom ain shall be co-extensive with thelanguage. It began , as has been stated, in Bohem ia, wherethe Slavonic civilization is the highest, and where the
Germ an contact is the least satisfactory to the Slavonian .
m s sxlrsm a. 2 1
CHAPTER III .
The Skipetar, or A lbanians.
AT the presen t tim e the Albanian population is one of
the m ost isolated in the world ; being surrounded by
Turks, Greeks, and Slavonians. But as the Turks, at
least,are intrusive, and as the whole
,o f the country to
the north has , from the beginning of history,been the
scene of continual invasion and displacem ent, the pre
sum ption is in favour of the ancestors of the present
Skipetar (for so the Albanians call them selves) having
once extended further northwards in the direction of
Ugria, as well as further east in the direction of Cau
casus.
Albania extends from Montenegro to the Gulf of Arta.
Eastwards it reaches the back-bone of Turkey,or the
watershed between the sm all rivers which em pty them
selves into the Adriatic and the larger ones which fallinto the JEgean .
The occupants of this district fall into the followingdivisions, clans, or tribes.
1 . The G hegh, containing
a. The proper Ghegh, conterm inous with the Slavoniancountries of Mon tenegro, Bosnia, and H erzegovna,
bounded on the south by the river Drin .
b. The Mirdit, south of the Drin , in the province of
Kroia.
22 THE SKIPE'
I‘AR,
2 . The Toski.—In the m outh of a G hegh, Toski is the
nam e for the South Albanians in general . The true and
proper Toski, however, in the lim ited sense of the word,are a tribe of the river V oyutsa. Another tribe which
a G hegh would call Toshi, but which the Toshi, in the
lim ited sense of the word, call Lyap, calls itself Arb ;its occupancy being the ancient Chaonia. The Dzham i
touch the Greek frontier, Parga and Suli being two of
their towns.
The Skipetar of the parts about Berat, on the G hegh
and Toski fron tier, are said to be, in respect to their
dialect, interm ediate, or transitional—Ghegh, however,rather than Toski .The G hegh proper, and theMirdit, are m ore dark than
fair, and m ore Christian than Mahom etan ; som e belonging
to the Greek Church, and som e being Rom anists.
The Toshi have often light com plexions and grey eyes.
Like the Lyap and Dzham i, they are chiefly Mahom etans .
The Christian Toski are, alm ost wholly, of the Greek
Church .
The tribe system is, perhaps, stronger in Alban ia than
in any part o f Europe ; the Highlands of Scotland not
excepted. This engenders no sm all am ount of private
war, arising out of blood-feuds . A Skipetar, even in tim e
of peace, goes arm ed . Indeed, he belongs to a country
that, though European, and (as such) supposed to be civi
lized, is to be com pared with Circassia or Kurdistan,rather than with Scotland or Switzerland. The worst of
the Turk garrisons, whether in Asia Minor or in Africa,are com posed of Albanian, or, as they m ore usually
called, Arnaout soldiers ; and it is through these hard and
unscrupulous m en that the Pashas do their worst deeds.
The state of hostility between theMontenegriners and the
A lbanians of their frontier is chronic.
on ALBAN IAN S . 23
Though shepherds, robbers, and soldiers, the Albanians
m ust not be looked upon as exclusively landsm en . Those
of the islands exhibit great naval aptitude. As sailors
they are both bold and skilful.They m arry young ; and becom e betrothed still younger .
W hen this is the case the principals have but a sm all
voice in the m arriage prelim inaries. The parents effect
these long before the sons and daughters are adolescent.What Hahn calls Doric love, and considers innocent andproper
,deserves a coarser and m ore disreputable nam e .
The best traits in the Skipetar character are their loveof liberty, their love of their country , their courage
,and
their confidence in each other. Hence their chief repre
sen tatives in history have been warriors ; first and forem ostof whom stands George Castriotes, Little Alexander, or
Scanderbeg. That there was Skipetar blood in m ore
than one of the heroes of antiquity is nearly certain .
There was Skipetar (it would then be called Illyrian)blood in the veins of m ore than one of the kingsof the H ellenic world. Pyrrhus, for instance, and the
Tem enids of Macedonia. were, probably, m ore or lessSkipetar.
It is the opinion of Hahn that the G hegh divisioncoincides with the Illyrians, the Toshi wi th the Epirots of
antiquity .
There are Albanians beyond the boundaries of Alban ia,i . e. in Greece, in the Banat, in Turkey, in Italy, and in theOttom an garrisons wherever they exist. In like m anner,there are m any parts of Albania which are other than
Skipetar . The parts about O chrida are a Bulgarianoccupancy . G reek districts indent the northern, Servianthe southern , fron tiers. Besides these, there is m ore thanone Rum anyo or Wallachian settlem ent
,both on the
frontier, and in the heart of the country .
THE SKIPETAR
In Greece, A ttica, Megara, Salam is,Piraeus
Boeotia
Phokis
Valley of SperchiusEubaaa (South)Andros (N orth)Argos
Korinth and AchaiaAcadiaHydra
Spezzia
In Austria, Clem entines of N inketze
and H erkovtze in Syrm ia
Erizzo, a suburb of Zarain Dalm atia
Pervi , near P 010. in Istria
Russia (Bessarabia)
Italy, Calabria UlterioreCalabria CiterioreBasilicataCapitanata
Terra d’
O ttranto
Abruzzo Ul terioreSicily
26 THE SKIPE'
I‘AR.
logy it gives us but little . A t the sam e tim e, there is no
lack of Skipetar superstitions. There is the belief in the
evil eye ; in the vam pire ; in m en with tails ; and, ap
patently, in lycanthropy. There is the belief in fairies,both m ale and fem ale, fair in form , am iable in dis
position . O n the other hand, there is the fear of the
Kore, a m alignant baby-eater. The tutelary spirit of the
house takes the form of a snake, that lives on the walls,shows itself but seldom , and rustles behind the wainscot
when danger approaches. W hen all the m ales of the
fam ily di e,it leaves. The Kutshedra causes droughts.
The Sukyeneza has four eyes. The Lubra, like the Kore,feeds on the flesh of infants . The O re takes note of
the prayers and wishes of m en . Mauthia shines brightin a dress of gold and jewels. D if is endowed with m orethan m ortal strength.
The area of the Skipetar has , doubtless, been greater
than i t is. In the direction of the southern Ugrians, and
the m ost south-western D ioscurians, i t probably extended
farnorthwards. I think this, because the displacem ents in
Thrace, the valley of the Danube, and Russia, are enor
m ously great—and not only are they this, but they are old
as well . The Geta were possibly, the Scythians were
certainly, intrusive—even in the tim e of Herodotus.
Again, all Greece, theMorea included, seem s to have once
been Skipetar . This, however, was before the occupancy
of the Hellenes ; the origin of whom is suggested in the
next chapter.
THE ITALIAN S AND HELLENBS . 27
CHAPTER IV .
The Latins or Italians, and the Greeks or H ellenea—The Germ ana—TheKelts.
—The Euskaldunac, or Banks.
The I talians and Greeks.—Respecting populations so
well known as the Rom ans and the Athenians, the Latins
and the H ellenes, the Ital ians and the Greeks, I havelittle to say in the way of ordinary detail . Their earlycivilization
, and their influence on the world ’s history, are
palpable and patent. The physical conditions, both in
the way of clim ate and sea-board, under which this civi
lization was developed, are am ongst the earliest teachings
in geography. Their southern physiognom y has been,over and over again, contrasted with the blonde com
plex ions and light hair of the Germ ans ; and their great
in tellec tual aptitudes have been adm itted to either aecom
pany, or represent, a fine, and alm ost faul tless, organ
ization.
No one asks the descriptive ethnologist for a history of
either Rom e or Greece. Both Rom e and Greece, however,have their ethnologies. In noticing these, I shall lim it
m yself to the three questions which,in the present state
of our inquiries, are the m ost im portant. These are
I . The relations of the Greek and Latin groups to
each other.
1 1 . The relations of the division which the two groups
constitute to the other fam ilies of Europe .
28 THE ITAL IAN S AND HELLENES .
III . The relation of the m odern Greeks and the m odernItalians to the ancien t.
I . The relations of the Greek and Latin groups to each
other.-Roughly speaking, this is represented by the
relations of the Latin and Greek languages ; languages
which have long been adm itted to constitute branches of
the sam e stock, or sub-sections of the sam e section , rather
than separate classes or separate sections. The exact
value of the class thus constituted is another question.
The current phraseology sufficiently indicates likeness as
well as difference, difference as well as likeness. What isthe geography, what the history that accoun ts for this ?Whence cam e the Greek that it is so like the . Latin,whence the Latin that it is so akin to the Greek ? Som e
where or other the two m ust have been in close geo
graphical contact. A t present they belong to two differen t
peninsulas, with the sea between them in one direction ,
and a vast block of A lba nian and Slavonic territory in
the other. W hat was the original continuity ? I havegiven elsewhere' m y reasons for m aking even the m ost
ancient Hellenes not only foreign to the soil of G reece
(which was originally Skipetar), but also Italian in origin ;a doctrine which im plies not only a m aritim e m igration,but also the high probability of the Hellenes having
been , to a great exten t, a population o f half-bloods ;Italian on one side, A lbanian , Illyrian, or Epirot on the
other . This is because no m ode of m igration is less favour
able to the purity of the m igrants than a sea-voyage ;where space is lim ited and fem ales an encum brance.
L et Greece under the leadership of Agam em non be as
truly Helleni c as Ken t and Essex were Anglo-Saxon inthe reign of Alfred . What does it prove in the way of
the occupants being aboriginal ? A s little as the English
Ethnology of Europe, page 97, &c.
THE ITALIANS AND HELLENES . 29
character of the counties in question at the tim e referred
to . Four centuries (or even less) of m igration m ay easily
give all the phenom ena that occur ; for the area of
Hellenic Greece is sm aller than the kingdom of Wessex
or Northum berland, and the country but little m ore im
practicable.
II . The relations of the I talians and H ellenes to the other
fam ilies of Eum pe.—If Apul ia, Calabria, and Sicily were
the occupancy of the ancestors of the Hellenes, it follows,from the position of those coun tries at the extrem ity of the
peninsula, that the connection of the Greek language with
the other tongues of Europe m ust be indirect, or through
the Latin . If so , the Greek is what is called Indo
European only so far as it is Rom an, Oscan, Um brian,or the like.
Again , the Greek blood m ust be far less Hellenic thanthe language, the Greek relations, in the way of blood
,
being, m ore or less, Skipetar. In other words, the con
nection between the Kelts and Germ ans of G reat Britain
(whatever it was) repeats itself in that of the A lbaniansand the Hellenes.
The Greek language being spoken at the extrem ity of
an area, has no congeners except on thei
north. In this
direction it is succeded by the Latin and its allied form s
of speech,which lead up to the other three great m em bers
of the division called Indo-European , viz . the Keltic,the Germ an, and the Sarm atian . I ts connections with
these are by no m eans equal . In Keltic elem ents the
Latin has been shown to abound ; but it has also been
shown that these elem ents are intrusive, i . e. that they are
Latin in the sam e way that the Norm an elem ents of our
own tongue are English . In their gram m atical structure
the Kelt and Latin are widely different.That the Latin should be m ore Slavonic than Germ an
30 THE ITALIANS AND HELLENES .
is what we expect dpriori . The untenable doctrine that
the Slavonians of Carinthia and Carniola are recent
settlers is, or ought to be, abandoned. This being given
up, the southern Slaves and the northern Italians are ingeographical juxtaposition .
III . The relation of the m odern Greeks and the m odem
I talians to the ancient. The Greeks .—Why is it that
when we com pare a m ap of m odern with one of ancient
Greece, such a sm all proportion of the old classical nam es
can be found ? Such is, undoubtedly, the case. Y et,
subject to Turkey as Greece, un til the present century,has been ,
the m ajority of the new nam es is not Turkish.
O n the contrary, it is chiefly Slavonic .
A s early as A . D . 582, m ovem ents set in towards Greece,Thrace andMacedon being overrun by Slavonians. The
details here, however, are obscure, and there is an occasional confusion of the Slaves with the Avars. The latter
nation , however, seem s to have m ade no notable settlem ent
in Southern Greece at least. In the latter half of the
seventh century, Thessaly, Epirus, several of the islands,and parts of Asia Minor, were overrun . In the ninth,Macedon is called Sklavinia. In the eleventh, Athens issacked, and the inhabitants driven to take refuge in the
isle of Salam is . Under Constantine P orphyrogeneta,
the presence of an Hellenic population is an exception .
In Macedon ,”he writes, the Scythians dwell, instead
of the Macedonians.
” Again , the whole country isSlavonized .
”
But the m ost rem arkable passage is the following,which shows that a Slavonic population is so far the
rule that where an approach to the ancien t papulation isfound it is dealt with as a rem arkable phenom enon ; and
that by a Greek writer : It m ust be known that the
inhabitants of the settlem ent (xéa'rgov) Maine, are not of
THE ITA LIANS AND HELLENES . 31
the race of the aforesaid Slaves, but of the old Rom ans,
and even till the presen t tim e,they are called by their
neighbours Hellenes, from having been originally pagans
and idolaters like the old Hellenes.—De Adm . I mp . i . 50.
Latin writers, equally with the Greek, considered
Greece to be Slavonic Inde (i . e. Sicilia) navigan tesvenerun t ultra m are Adrium ad urbem Manafasiam in
S clavin ica terra.
”By Manafasia
,is m eant Napoli di
Malvasia in the Morea.
More than this. The details of som e of these Slavonicpopulations are given ; so that we know that there were
Ezeritm and Milengi in the Morea, with Dragovitw ,
Sagudatw, V elegezetm , V erzetae, and others in Northern
Greece .
S o m uch for the Slavonic, the m ost im portant of the
foreign elem ents, in the m odern Greek blood . Others
there are besides viz . Alban ian,Italian
,Turk, Bulgarian,
Wallachian , Arab, and even French, and Catalonian .
To say that there is no blood-connection at all betweenthe presen t Greeks and the old Hellenes, would be an
over-statem ent . It is no over-statem ent,however
,to
say that the foreign elem ents of interm ixture are both
num erous and im portan t. They are, probably, at their
m ax im um in the Ionian Islands, and in Bm otia ; at their
m inimum in the land of the old Lacon ians, the truly
Hellen ic character of the Z akones having long com
m ended attention .
T7143I talians .—Ligurian ,
Etruscan, and, m ore or less,Keltic in the north ; Keltic, to som e extent , in even the
Um brian , Sabine, and Sam ni te countries ; and Greek in
the south ; Italy, in even the tim e of the Rom ans, m ust
have been m ore Italian in language than in blood . And
so it is now—the m ost Italian parts of it bei ng the m oreinaccessible districts of its m iddle third of the peninsula,
32 THE ITALIANS AND HELLENES .
the country of the Marsi, Peligni , Vestini, and sim ilar
allied populations. Y et even here there has,in all pro
hability, been adm ixture from the tim e of the Republic
to our own . Thus, in the second century of our era,
Frontinus tells us of the Cornelian and B& bian Ligurians
in Sam nium . These were the descendants of a colony
transplanted from Liguria by P . Cornelius Cethegus and
M. Bwbius Tam philus. In the sam e Sam nium (saving
its Kelt elem ents one of the m ost Italian parts of Italy),there was a Bulgarian colony in the tim e of the Lom bards .
We know of these. O f how m any other sim ilar inter
m ixtures m ay we be ignorant ! The constitution of the
Rom an arm ieswas pre-em inently heterogeneous ; so m uch
so, that, in speaking of a soldi er of the Em pire, it is
better to call him a legionary than a Rom an—so easily
m ay he have been a Briton , a Gaul, a Ger man, a S la
vonian , an African .
O f the se-called barbarian inroads, som e were Sarm a
tian , e. 9 . that of the Vandals and Gepide ; som e Turk,e. 9 . that of the Huns, Avars, Heruli , and Shiri ; som e,
perhaps, m ore or less Ugrian , i . e. that of the Bulgarians.
The Germ an settlem ents, however, are the m ost im portant.The conquest by Theodoric was not only perm anent, buti t was the first of three from the sam e stock . Themselves, probably, of m ixed blood, having taken it up,during their various settlem ents on the Lower and MiddleDanube, from the Slavonians and Turks of the coun trieswith which they cam e in contact, the Ostrogoths, to the
am oun t of not less than two hundred thousand, settled inthe m ost favoured parts of the country. When Italyis recovered by Narses and Belisarius, m ore than one
hundred and fifty years after, they are only ejected frompower, no t bodily put out of the land .
The Lom bard dom inion rapidly succeeded the Ostro
34 THE ITALIAN S AND HELLEN'
ES .
In ContessaMezzojuso
Palazzo d’ Adriano
Piana de ’ Greci
S . Cristina 720
Besides these, there are several other villages where the
blood is A lbanian , the language Sicilian .
Is the intercourse between the two sides of the
Adriatic , which these Albanian colonies im ply, recent
or old ? Both . Migrations from the opposite coastm igrations other than Greek—m odified even the early
populations of Italy . The Chaonian nam e was com m onto both sides of the Gulf. Again , the G alabri, writes
Strabo, are a people of the Dardaniatae , in whose landis an ancient city.
” Word for word, G alabri is Calabri .
Without being identical , the nam e of the Italian
Iapyges (whi ch was to all intents and purposes another
nam e for Calabri) is closely akin to Iapodes ; so that, in
Italy, we have Calabri called also lapyges, and, in Illyria,Iapodes near a population called G alabri .
Again , the Sallentines were partly Cretans, associated
with Locrians and l llyrians.
Again ,the district wherein the legends concerning
D iom ed prevailed is also the district of the Daunii ,whom Festus connects with l llyria.
I conclude the notice of Italy with the following
table, which gives the foreign elem ents of the coun tries
south of the Alps,along with the islands of Sicily,
S ardinia, Corsica, andMalta ; all of which are, m ore orless, Italian , though it is doubtful whether they can all
be properly called Italy . Malta, for instance, is Arab in
speech, English in its political relations.
THE GERMANS .
AREAS .
1
The Germ an area, as i t exists at the presen t m om en t,
1 . The Germ ans of the Germ an em pire, the Dutch of
Holland, and a portion of the Swiss .
2. The Germ ans of the Baltic provinces of Russia ;by which is m ean t Kurland, L iefland (Livonia), and
Estonia.
3. The English and Lowland Scotch of the British
Islands, their colonies and dependencies, and the UnitedStates of Am erica.
4. The Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes ; alongwith
5 . The occupants of the Fero Isles and Iceland .
Add to these detached settlem en ts in Hungary, Italy,Russia, and elsewhere .
The m ost northern occupan ts of the Germ an area are
the Norwegians of the parts about V ardii and H am
m erfest,within the Arctic Circle. The m ost southern are
the Germ ans of the Sette and Tredici Com m une, in Italy .
The Swiss occupy the Alps. The Hollanders lie on or
below the level of the sea. If we take in the EnglishD 2
36 THE GERMANS .
colonies, the di fferences in the way of latitude and
clim ate becom e still stronger.
In England no spot is a hundred m iles from the sea.
The sam e m ay, probably, be said of Norway . In
Saxony and Bohem iawe have the least m aritim e localitiesin Europe .
The Germ an populations are,to a m an, Christians ;
there being no such a com bination as a Germ an languageand a Mahom etan creed. They are also Christians of
theWestern Church ; their present alphabets being exclu
sively of Latin origin .
O f their original paganism , all Christian nationsretain m ore than they care to own . The Germ ans,
however, retain less than the Sarm atians.
The Germ an civilization is m ore uniform than the
Slavonic, and the literature m ore developed .
O f the little real self-governm en t that exists in the
world the Germ ans have well-nigh the m onopoly . It isnot, however, on the soil of Germ any proper that it has
its growth . It m ust be sought for in Norway, in Great
Britain , and in the United States.
The particular form s of speech that have developed
them selves into literary and national languages are the
English, from the Anglo-Saxon ; the Dutch of Holland ;the Germ an the Danish (which is the literary language
of Norway as well as Denm ark) ; the Swedish ; and the
Icelandic, —the provincial dialects being num erous. In
Germ any these fall into two divisions —the Platt Deuts ch(Low Germ an) and the Hoch Deutsch (High Germ an) .
The Dutch of Holland belongs to the form er ; the lite
rary Germ an to the latter. The difl'
erence between them
is less m arked in reality than in books. The Hessian is
the m ost northern of the High Germ an dialects, of which
one of the extrem e representatives is the Bavarian . The
THE GERMANS . 37
Frisian of Friesland, on the other hand (unless we treat itas a separate language), belongs to the L ow Germ an
division as did the Old Saxon and the Anglo-Saxon of
Hanover and Holstein, the m other-tongue of the English .
The Frank of the Carlovingian period was interm ediate .
The Norse, or Scandinavian languages, form a separatedivision . They all have a m iddle or passive voice. Theyall have a post-positive article. Thus—j eg kalle I call
whilst I am called is expressed by j eg Italics. Also—eu8 0!
a sun . The sun is soI-eu (solen) . There are other
distinctions, but these are the chief.A s a general rule, the Germ an populations call them
selves by the sam e nam e that they are called by us of
England, e. y . a Swede calls him self a S venske ; 8 Dane,a Danske a Norwegian , a N ordm and ; a Swiss, a
Schweitzer. There is, however, one rem arkable ex cep
tion . The nam es Germ an and Germ any are foreign to
the Germ ans proper . They know them ,indeed, to a
great extent, because it is generally known that Germ ania
was the Latin for Germ any. The native nam e,however
,
for them selves, is Deutsche, and, for their country,Deutschland . The French called them Allem ands, fromthe A lem anni ; the Italians, Tedesci, from Theotiscus, a
Latinized form of D eutisc , or Deutsch ; the Slavonians,N iem ce. Meanwhile, the G erm ans call the Slavonians
W ends. Another Germ an nam e for populations other
than Germ an is Welsh,from wealh, m ean ing a foreigner,
and, in som e cases, a slave. In the eyes of the old
Angles, the older populations of our island, whether
Rom an or British, were Welshm en , and their coun try
W ales. In the eyes of a Germ an proper, Italy is
Welschland, and the Italians W elschm en . S o are the
French of the parts about L iege, being known as W al
loons . I t was, however, the Germ ans of their neigh
38 THE KELTS .
bourhood who gave the nam e. The Valais, or Wallis
district, in Switzerland, is Welsh . O f the two Danu
bian Principalities, the western is nam ed Wallachia.
W allachia, however, is no native nam e, but, word for
word, W ales, or W elschland.
The Germ ans are m ore blonde than dark, and are,
probably, the tallest -and the heaviest m en in the
world. Clear pink and white com plexions are com m on
am ongst them . In the towns, however, brown hair and
dark eyes preponderate . In Friesland and Sweden the
num ber of light-haired indi viduals is the greatest. V Vhe
ther there is anything like purity of blood anywhere to
the north of the Baltic, the east of the Elbe, the south of
the Mayne, or the west of the Germ an Ocean, is doubtful .
Scandinavia was originally F in ; Britain ,Keltic ; the
rem ainder Slavonic .
The Kelts.-With the exception of a large district
between the Loire and the Pyrenees, which was Iberian ,and an irregular tract along the Rhine, the whole of the
ancient Gallia was Keltic . S o was, part, at leas t, of
Helvetia, or Switzerland ; part, too, of Batavia, or Hol
land. How m uch of the Piedm ontese Alps was Kelti c
is uncertain . It is only certain that, at a very early
period, the Kelt frontier was advanced far into Italy ;into the valley of the P o, into the valley of the Tibur.A strong case m ay be m ade out for there having been a
Kelt population in Um bria, in the Sabine district, and inSam nium . Much of the blood of the Rom ans was
Kelt ; and so is m uch of the Latin language . The
further m igrations of this population into Illyria, thevalley of the Danube, and Asia Minor, though generally
believed in, stand on very insufficien t evidence. I em
satisfied that the population which gave its nam e to
ancient Gaul was different from the one which, according
TH E KELTS . 39
to Tacitus, spoke the Gallic language in the parts about
Moravia and Upper Hungary ; one being Gallic, theother Gallician—as different from one another as L ithuaniane and W elshm en . Isolated settlem ents
,however
, of
true Gauls seem to have existed in Pannonia. Though
less ubiquitous than they are generally supposed to have
been , the Kelts of Gaul were a conquering and an in
trusive population . The details of their settlem ents inancient Spain and Portugal are obscure. The im por
tance of those in Italy has, probably, been undervalued.
The other great Kelt occupancy was the British Isles.
The Kelts of G aul, with the exception of a rem nant
in Brittany, have been first Rom anized,then m odified
by the Goths and Franks of Germ any . Fm m the
Rom ans they have taken their language ; from the
Germ ans the nam e France.
The Kelts o f Britain, with the exception of the
Welsh, the Manxm en of the Isle of Man , the native
Irish, and the Scotch Highlanders, have, after having
first been m odified by the Rom ans, been G erm anized by
the A ngles . In Britain both the nam e of the coun try
(England) and the language is Germ an .
The blood, however, of even the m ost English parts o f
England m ust needs be m ore Keltic than the tongue ;inasm uch as the probability of any notable am ount of
Germ an fem ales having been brought over in the ships ofAngles is sm all . A t the presen t m om ent, the diffusion
of Keltic blood over the dom ain of the English languageis great ; the Irish m igration into Am erica being the chief
agen t.
The Kelts, however, with their full and com plete cha
racteristics of language and nationality, are a fragm en tary
population . They fall into two branches
l . The British, represented by the Bretons of Brittany
40 THE KELTS .
and the Welsh. The first of these constitute the A rm o
rican, the second the Cam brian, section ; the division
being chiefly philological . To the latter belonged the
now extinct language of Cornwall .
2 . The Gaelic .—This di vision com prises theManxm en ,
the Irish Gaels, and the Scotch Gaels.
The languages of the two divisions are m utually unin
telligible. All the Gaels, however, can understand each
other ; and, with care and attention , a Welshm an m ay
understand a Breton . To the eye, the affin ity between
these two languages is greatly disguised by the difference
in the orthographies. So is the affinity between theGaelic
and British branches in general.
The early civilization of the Kelts of Gaul , at least,was on the com paratively high level of the Iberians of the
Spanish peninsula and of the northern Italians. They
dwelt in towns, cultivated the land, subm itted them selves
to powerful chiefs, were capable of form ing alliances and
organizing cam paigns. The chief creed was Druidism .
O f their ancien t paganism they retain in their present
Christianity as little as any population inEurope. Deuce,m eaning the devil, is Keltic .
The Kelts of Gaul were a light rather than a dark
population . A t the present tim e there are two types.
In South Wales brunette com plexions and black hair arecom m on . S o they were in the tim e of Tacitus. S o they
are in Brittany . In the Scotch Highlands red or sandy
hair is com m on . The com bination of truly blue eyes andblack hair, which m any say is a Kelt character, I have
rarely m et with anywhere. Under sim ilar conditions,there is but little difference between the Kelt and the
Germ an . In Cornwall and in N orth Wales,hundreds of
individuals of pure Keltic blood are not to be dis
tinguished from the m en of Hanover and Holstein .
42 THE BASKS .
The general nam e for the num erous ancient popula
tions, occupants of Hispania and Gallia, who
reasonable grounds, believed to be represented by the
presen t Basks, is Iberia, or Iberian, from the old nam e of
the Spanish peninsula. It is in the present Bask that
m any of the geographical nam es of the ancient Iberia are
significant.
SPANIARDS, ETC . 48
CHAPTER V .
Populations, other than Italian, speaking a Language derivedthe Latin .
TH E populations other than Italian , and, as such, the
occupan ts of a soil whereof the original blood was different
from that of the pure and proper Italians, but who ,
nevertheless, have been sufficiently Rom anized to speak a
language of Latin origin, are the following
l . The S ardiniam and Corsicans.—The exact relations
of the earliest occupants of these islands is unknown .
Before the Rom an conquest, Carthaginian influences hadbeen extensively at work . Since the break-up of the
Rom ans, Spain has told m ost on Sardinia, France on
Corsica. The language of both islands is, however, m oreItalian than aught else.
2. The Spaniards and P ortuguese.—The aborigines of
the Spanish peninsula were of the Iberian fam ily, repre
sen ted, as has been stated, by the Basks. There appears
also to have been certain Kelt occupants. A t any rate,there is the nam e Celtiberi . As it was in Sardinia, so itwas in Spain . Before Rom e
,Carthage had effected
settlem ents . Neither were Greek elem ents wholly want
ing. Since the Rom an period, the Goths and A rabs havebeen the chief in truders.
The Catalonian and Valencian form s of speech are
44 THE FRENCH .
Provencal rather than S panish proper . The Spanishproper is the Cas tilian dialect. G allicia is Portuguese inlanguage ; the Portuguese itself being rem arkable for itsexhibition of nasal sounds ; which, wanting, for the m ost
part, in Italian and Castilian , appear in the French.
The m ost Arab part of Spain is G renada ; Cataloniathe m ost Germ an . Andalusia is V andalusia, the coun try
of the Vandali S ilingi or Vandals of S ilesia. The
rem ains of an Alan (and, as such, a Turk) invasion have
yet to be discovered .
Next to the Italian the Castilian is the m ost like the
Latin .
O f the Spaniards beyond the frontier of Spain , the
great areas are Central and South A m erica ; then , at a
long interval , the Philippine, and Marianne, and Caroline
Islands.
The Portuguese are to be found in Brazil, Africa, and
India, and other less im portant localities.
Both Spaniards and Portuguese have largely m ixed their
blood with that of the populations with which they have
com e in contact.The French.
—The ethnological basis in northern and
cen tral France was Keltic, in southern , Iberian . The
extrem e form s of speech are the Provengal dialects of the
south on the one side, and theWalloon of the parts about
Liege on the other. In parts o f Belgium the earlier papu
lation was G erm an . Speaking, however, generally, we
m ay say that the French blood is Keltic and Italian ;the superadded elem ents being chiefly Germ an , Gothic,Frank, Burgundian, & c.
The chief occupancy of the French beyond the frontier
of France is Lower Canada ; after that, Algeria.
What applies to France applies, in the m ain , to Swit
zerland and Savoy ; though I think that, in som e of t he
rm : ROMANYO . 45
Alpine localities, the original population was Slavonic .
Differen t from one another as are the French o f Parisand the Italians of Rom e, there are Piedm on tese dialects of which the position is equivocal ; so thoroughly isthe French like the Italian , or (changing the ex pression)the Italian like the French . Mutatis m utandis, the sam e
m ay be said of the Catalonian of Spain , and the Provencal.
The Rum anyo of W allachia,Moldavia, and Bessarabia .
The nam e by which a W allachian , a Moldavian ,or a
Bessarabian designates him self, is a nam e which we find,
in som e form or other, widely spread elsewhere, in a
variety o f form s, and with no slight latitude of m eaning.
It is the nam e the Gipsies give them selves ; which is
Rom m ani . It is the nam e of the m odern Greek lan
guage ; which is Rom aic . It is the nam e of the language
of the Grisons ; which is Rum onsch. It is the nam e of
the old Rom ance language of France. It is the nam e of
that part of European Turkey which corresponds with
ancient Thrace, and of which Constantinople is the capital ,viz . Rum elia. It is the nam e of a large portion of A sia
Minor, Roum . It is a nam e as honourable as it is widely
spread ; for wherever we find it it rem inds us of the old
sovereignty of Rom e .
The language does the sam e,as m ay be seen from the
following extracts .
sum o.
Bela in larga valle am bla, Paella in large valle am bulabat,Erba verde lin calci ; H erbam viridem leniter calcabat,
Canta, qni cantand plunges, Cantabat, et cantando plangebat,Qnod t6 ti m unti resnnh. Ut om nes m ontes resonarent
E3 in gennnchi se punch, Illa in genus se ponebat,Ochi in ens indirepta; Oculos sursum dirigebat ;
Eece, asi vorbe faces : Ecce, sic verbs faciebatDom n e, dom ne . bune dom ne. Dom ino, dom ino, bone dom ino.
46 THE RUMANYO .
am m o.
Nucu, fagu, frassinu Nux , fague, fraxinus,Mult se certs. intra séne. Multum certant inter se.
Nuce, dice frassinu, Nux , dicit fraxinusQuine vine, nuci cullege, Quisquis venit, nnces legit,Cullegend si ram uri frange Colligendo ram os frangit :
Vaide dar de pelle a tua l Va itaqua pelli toes IDar turage, m i vecina, At to rage, m i vicine,
Que voi spune in m énte tene Quae exponam m ente tene ?
Multe fere saturasi ; Multas feras saturasti,Qui prébéne nuam blasi ; A t haud bene am bulasti ;Quum so an gem apropiat Quum geluappropinqus t
La pam ent te eu8 1 culcat, Ad pavim entum te deculcsnt
S i in focuto an 81 aruncat, &c. Ad focum proj iciunt.
The previous specim ens are in Rom an letters. The
Rom an alphabet, however, is strange to the Rum anyos.
They took their Christianity from Constantinople ; so that
the creed is that of the Greek Church, and their alphabet
is Slavonic, like the Servian and Russ. This is as if the
Latin were written in Greek characters. Were i t so, it
would be (what the Rum anyo actually is) strangely dis
guised.
It was the legions of Trajan, and the colonies in troduced by that conqueror, that carried the Latin language
THE RUMANYO . 4-7
into the Rum anyo area, which, in the second and thirdcen turies, was cc-extensive with the ancien t province of
Dacia,—Rom anized by Trajan ; abandoned by Aurelian .
After its abandonm ent hordes of barbarians overran it,
displacing, in som e districts, the Rom anized population,
in others m odifying it. The invaders who did this werechiefly of the Turk or Ugrian stock, Huns, Bulgarians,Avars, P etshineks, and, lastly, Magyars. Even beforethe tim e of Aurelian these foreign elem ents had beenpartially introduced. Som e of the Germ ans of Moesiam ust have been in som e part of the ancient Dacia ; i . e.
on the Sereth and Pruth—not to m ention the original
inhabitan ts, who, in m y m ind, at least, were Lithuanic .The Rum anyo are dark-skinned, black-haired, and
black-eyed ; m ore tall than short,with prom inent features,
and faces m ore long than round. Their resem blance to
the figures on Trajan’
s colum n has either been observed or
im agined. Their Christianity is still redolen t of heathenism .
A t the head of their Pantheon stand S m ou and S m eone,
m other and son . Sm ou, the son, can change his shape,
and visit m en in any form he likes. H e does so som e
tim es, and m akes love to m ortal m aids incognito. H is
dwelling is underground. Here his m other, S m eone, keeps
house for him ; upon the whole, being the better disposed
being of the two : for S m ou, though possibly m ore good
than bad, is fickle and odd-tem pered. It is his m other
who keeps him steady and good-hum oured.
S m ouis as m uch good as bad ; but Balduruis a being
of unm odified evil. The fens, the bogs, the rocks, the
glens,and the caverns, are his residences ; and when m en
find any of these m ore suspicious-looking than usual,they trem ble lest Balduru should lay hold of them .
Vilva is Wallachian, and Slavonic as well ; in nam e,
wholly ; in attributes, but partially . In Servia she is the
48 THE RUMANYO .
dark-eyed m aiden of the night, with hair black and
flowing, and eyes black and bright. In Wallachia she
is half dragon and half-snake .
Sina is the Goddess of Hunting ; Sina, who is also
called Dina and Diana. She m ay safely be identified
with the Latin Diana. But it is by no m eans so safe to
derive her from Italy. The Bohem ians, far'
beyond the
influences of Rom e,had also a Diana, of which the clas
sical m ythologists take too little cognizance .
The Mum a padura, the m other of the woods, is m ore
good than bad, m ore kind than vicious, m ore old than
young. When children lose them selves in a forest, she
protects them .
The water, like the wood, has its divinities. When the
Wallachian m aid fills her vessel, she pours out a spoonful
or two for the water goddess.
The Morii are ghosts in general. S o are the S trigoi,
in Latin Strigae. When a child is born , the bystandersthrow a stone behind them , saying, this to the S trigai.
The Sinit (Sanctus) is the festival to the dom esticgenius special to each hearth
,the Lar of the Rom ans,
with his feast-day under a Christian designation .
The Murony is the vam pire, in which every Rum anyo
believes.
Priccolitsh is a Murony under a m odification, being,like the vam pire, a bloodsucker . It is, however, horses,goats, pigs, and sheep, rather than m en , that he drains.
And this he does only at night, and after changing him self
from his usual form of a hum an being into a dog. A
fem ale P riccolitsh is a P riccolitshone.
There are Wallachians beyond the boundaries of W al
lachia. The W allachian colonists, called also Kutzo
Wallachians, are to be found in three localities
In the m ountains between Macedonia and Albania.
50 THE m oscm m Ns.
CHA PTER VI .
The Dioscurians, or Caucasians of Caucasus—The Circassians.
THE m ountain-range of Caucasus m ust not be con
founded with the G overnm en t of Caucasus. Neither
m ust it be supposed that the term Caucasian as applied
to one of the prim ary divisions of the hum an species iseither accurate or convenient. The m om ent we have to
treat of the Caucasus proper, as the occupancy of a very
com plex population, confusion arises.
The m ost northern of the Caucasians proper are the
natives of Circassia. In this word the first C should besounded as in Italian, i. e. as the ch in chest. Manyactually write Tsherkes, instead of Circassia, and it
would be well if the practice were general . In al l pro
bability the ordinary spelling, which is purely that of an
Italian , is due to the Genoese of the Crim ea, who first
gave currency to the nam e.This is not native. It is the Russians and Turks who
talk of the Tsherkes of the Circassian part of Caucasus,not the Circassians them selves.
Word for word, Tsherkes is K irgiz . Should any one
doubt this, let him learn that another Turk nam e, K asak,is also applied to the Circassians.
The really native nam es are Adige and Absné. By
these three divisions of the Circassian population speak
of them selves, and of each other. A collective nam e
THE CIRCASS IANS . 5 1
for the whole group they have not—not, at least, a native
one.
The Adigé.—Word for word, A -dig-é is Z a
'
xas, the
nam e under which the author o f the Periplus of the
Euxine, written in the reign of the Em peror Hadrian ,speaks of one of the tribes of the coast. In doing this,he places them east of their present locality ; which is
m ore inland, to the north of the axis of Mount Caucasus,and on the drainage of the Kuban .
The division of which the Adigé are the representatives,although now exclusively m ountaineers, was once spread,m ore or less, over the plains to the north of the Caucasus,as well as over the hills and valleys of the great range
itself. No wonder. Both Turks and Russians have en
croached on their area, once larger than it is at present .
More than one m ap of the fourteenth century carries a
Circassian population from the S traits of Yenikale to the
m outh of the D on, along the whole eastern coast of the
S ea of Azof and Klaproth believes that the presen t
Kosaks of these parts are, m ore or less, Circassian in
blood .
Equally strong is the evidence to a Circassian popula
tion in the Crim ea. The upper part of the river Belbek,in the south of that peninsula, is called Tsherkes-tiis, or
the Circassian plain , to this day. O n i t stand the rem ains
of the Tsherkes-kyerm an ,or Circassian fortress . The
particular division to which these Tsherkes of the Don
and the Crim ea belonged seem s to have been that of the
Kabards tribes.
The Kabarda .—There is a Great and a Little Kabarda
,
which lie on the Terek rather than the Kuban, and slopetowards the Caspian rather than the Black Sea. The
patriarch, or hypothetical father, of the Kabarda tribes isInal .
52 THE DIO SCURIAN S .
The Absné.—The sea-coast between Sukhum kaleh
and the S traits of Yenikale, along with the val leys of
the rivers that descend from the western slope of Cau
casus, is the occupancy of the Absné . So they nam e
them selves. The Georgians, however, cal l them Mibkhaz and Abkhazi, their country being Abkhazeti.
This ending in -eti appears and te-appears. It is the
Georgian for J am i ; so that Abkhazeti is Abkhaz i
land. A Persian would call i t A bkhaz istan . The
Adigé form is Abazi, and the Adige nam e for the
Absné is Kushkhasip Abasi, or the Abasi beyond the
Mountain , the Transalpine Abasi . That Ah-sne and
Ah-azi are the sam e words is probable . That Abazi andA bkhaz i are the Greek and Latin term s
"
ABaa-yot and
A basci is eviden t.The Great Abasha-land, or Abkhazeti preper, extends
from the frontier of the Adige to Mingrelia and the
Suan country—both Georgian . It contains the following
tribes
N etshkwadzha Bakh
Abasekh Tshegreh
Bzubbeh Kasilbeg
Uhukh Barrakai
Tubi MidavehBakh Beshilbai.
The six tribes of the Little Abaska-land call them
selves Tepanta ; being called by the Adige Baskekh, andby the Turk populations of their neighbourhood Al tekezik Abasi . Som e are subject to Russia ; som e in
dependent.It is in Circassia where the feudal structure of society
is the m ost strongly m arked, and where the relation
between the vorlch, or noble, and the pshi, or retainer, is the
THE C IRCASSIAN S . 53
closest. The Circassians, too, are m ost in the habit of
selling their daughters to the harem -m asters of Constan
tinople and Egypt. I f a Circassian m aiden stays at
hom e, she is sold in m arriage to one of her own country
m en. If shipped to Constantinople she is sold to a
foreigner.
The divisions of the Circassians are pretty distinctlym arked by their dialects.
English. Tsherkel . Kan tshsi , orTurk.
dzustle
shha
shhats
nne
takum ah
peh
dzhadzeh
54 THE DIOSCURIANS .
CHAPTER VII .
The Dioscurians, or Caucasians of Caucssna—rTshetsh and Lesgians.
I H AVE objected to the term Caucasian . The term by
which I propose here, as elsewhere,to replace it is Dios
curian.
D ioscurias is the nam e of one of those towns of the
Caucasian sea-coast which is not only m entioned by
ancient writers, but m en tioned with reference to one of
the m ost rem arkable characteristics of m odern ,as it also
was of ancien t, Caucasus. This is the m ultiplicity of
languages and dialects . The business, says Pliny, of
D ioscurias had to be transacted through the m edium of
thirty interpreters. Now,the num ber of interpreters
that would be requisite for a sim ilar function in m odern
Caucasus, is undoubtedly fewer, the Turkish being pretty
generally understood, and serving as a kind of lingua
franca. Nevertheless, the actual num ber of separate sub
stantive languages, dialects , and sub-dialects , is still con
siderable.
The distribution of these num erous Dioscurians over
their several localities is difi cult or easy, according to the
distinctness or indistinctness of the investigator’s view of
the physical geography of the parts whereof they are the
occupants . O f prim ary im portance in this m atter is the
direction of the axis of the Caucasian range, and next to
this the river-system of the Caucasian drainage .
The axis of the m ountains runs from north-west to
THE rsanrsn AND LESGIANS . 55
south-east, from the m outh of the Kuban and the parts
opposite the Peninsula of Kertch in the Crim ea. to the
Prom ontory of Bakuon the Caspian .
The drainage,therefore, is double ; one portion of the
rivers falling into the Black S ea and one into the Caspian .
The Black S ea influents are the Kuban , and the m inor
rivers Enguri, Rion, and Tshorok, running westward .
The Caspian rivers are the Terek, and, of subordinate
im portance, the Kum a and the K oisu.
There is,then , the double drainage ; and there is, of
necessity, the watershed to m atch . Here the two great
m ounta ins of Elbruz and Kashook take prom inence ; the
form er dividing the Kuban from the Terek ; the latter,the Terek from the Kur.
‘
With these prelim inaries, and with the rem ark that the
Circassians faced the Euxine, and that the Lesgians, when
we com e to them , will face the Caspian, we m ay considerthe in term ediate population of the watershed ; a popula
tion truly inland ; truly cen tral ; a population with ath
nities in the way of language which connect it with both
its eastern and its western neighbours.
This population is called by the Russians Tshetshents,by the Turks, Tsherkes, and by the Andi L esgians, Miz
dzhedzhi . O ne of their tribes is nam ed Kisti , the G eorgian
nam e for their area being K isteti . Guldenstadt has used
this nam e as a general denom ination for the whole group
for which he is blam ed by Klaproth . The word, however,has the m erit of being pronounceable, which is scarcely
the case with Klaproth ’
s choice, Mizdzhedzhi . In the
opinion of the presen t writer, Tshetsh, the Russian word
divested of its non-radical elem ents, is the m ost eligible.
The Galga, Halha, or Ingush division of the Tshetsh,
A good view of the physical geography of Caucasus is to be foundin the fifth volum e of the W estm inster Review, pp. 480—51 9.
56 THE m oscvm m s.
in contact with the Circassians of the Little Kabards , are
the m ost western m em bers o f the group . They call them
selves Lam ur, or Hillm en .
The second section is called
By them selves Arshte.
the Tshetshents Aristoyai .
certain Turk tribes Kara-bulakh.
They occupy part of the valley of the Martan, or
Fartan .
The third section is that of the Tshetsh, or Tshetshents
proper, in contact with and to the east of the Arshte.
English. Tsheteh. lngush. Tsherkel .
steg stag dzugm aile m airilk tle
korte korte shha
kazheresh beshkenesh
berik berglerik lerkm ara m irhs
bagga yist
tsargish tsergish
m ot m otto
kok kog
kuik kulgm alkh m alkh
but but
sets seta
tze tze
khi khtikera kerakhie khietza tza
shi shi
koe koe
dl dl
pkhi pkhi
yalkh yalkh
uor uor
barbar
ish
itt
ish
itt
58 THE m oscvm m s.
Plural. W e.
waigoh‘tx og
'
oh
wailoh ‘treloh
weigre ‘tregre
weilte ‘txolre
waigoih‘tx ogoih
That som e of these form s are no true inflex ions, butappended preposi tions, is speedily stated in the text.
Csrdm al. 0 111111111. Ordinsl.
1 . ch duihre 8 . barl harle2. 51 ailée 9. 11111 issloge3. no p lée 10. itt ittloge4. ahew dhewloée 1 1 . cha-itt cha-ittloge
5 . px i px ilge 1 2. si-itt 51-1151e6 . je
'
tz jeix loge 1 9. tqeexq iqeercloge7. worl 20. tqa
This las t word the author of the gram m ar connectswith the word tga also, over again (auch, wiedenm a) , as
if it were 10 doubled, which it m ost likely is. In likem anner tqeez c is onefrom twenty undeviginti
1 00 Iixaut a 5 X 20.
200 198 18 14] 10 X 20.
300 fix iiwatq 1 5 x 20.
400 tqauziq 20 x 20.
500 tqauzig lim ut a= 20 x 20 100.
1000 sac tqauziqa icaiqa= 2 x 400 200.
The com m onest signs of the plural num ber are -i and
-si. The suffix es -ne and -bi, the latter of which is
found in L esgian , is stated to be Georgian in origin . No
reason,however, against its being native is given .
In verbs, the sim plest form is the im perative. Add to
this -a,and you have the infinitive. The sign of the
conditional is he or h ; that of the conjunctive he or I.The tenses arePresent, form ed by adding -a or -u to the root
i . e. to the im perative form ,and changing the vowel .
THE Tsus '
rsn AND LESGIANS . 59
Im perfect, by adding -r to the present.Aorist, form ed by the addition o f -r to the
Perfect ; the form ation of which is not expresslygiven , but which is said to differ from the present in not
changing the vowel . However, we have the form s wet
fud, we‘
ti found (perfi) z e'
tin found (aorist) . Fromthe participle of the perfect is form ed the
Pluperfect by adding -r.
The future is either the sam e as the present, or a
m odification of it.
I give the nam es of those m oods and tenses as I findthem . The language of the Latin gram m ar has, probably,been too closely im itated.
The first and second persons are form ed by appending
the pronouns ei ther in the nom inative or the instructive
The participle of the present tense is form ed in -in ; as
dago eat, dagu-in eating .
The participle of the preteri te ends in 4 10 ; as trace
There are auxiliary verbs, and no sm all am ount of
euphonic changes, of which one, m ore especially, deservesnotice. It is connected wi th the gender of nouns.When certain words (adjectives or the se-called verb sub
stan tive) follow certain substantives, they change their
initial . Thus ha'
tx leen wa theprophet is, hatx leensi be
the prophets are, waso wa the brother is, wasar be
the brothers are.
A gain—naw j a the ship is, nawr da the ships are
bstiuno j a the wife is, bstee da the wives are.
This is said to indicate gender, but how do we know
what gender is ? The words them selves have neither form
nor inflex ion which indi cates it. S ay that instead of
gender it m eans sex , i . e. that the changes in question are
6 0 m x m osccm m s.
regulated by natural rather than gram m atical characters.
W e still find that the word naw is considered fem inine
fem inine and inanim ate . This,however, is gram m atical
rather than natural, sex das weibliche Geschlecht wird
bey unbekbten G egenstfinden auch im Plural durch
j bei belebten durch a ausgedriickt.” Then follow
the exam ples just given . How, however, do we knowthat these words are fem inine ? It is subm itted that the
explanation o f this very interesting initial change has yet
to be given . It recalls, however, to our m em ory the
practice of m ore languages than one, the Keltic, the
VVolofi'
, the Kafre, and several other African tongues,wherein the change is ini tial, though not always on the
sam e principle.
S o , also, the division of objects into anim ate and in
anim ate recalls to our m ind som e African, and num erousAm erican, tongues.
Such is the notice of the first of theMizhdzhedzhi orTshetsh (we m ay say L esgian) form s of speech of which
the gram m atical structure has been investigated.
The Lesgians.—The L esgian rivers fall in to the Caspian .
Daghestan and parts of Tabasseran are Lesgian . The
drainage of the K oisuand Terek is, m ore or less , Lesgian .
The Eastern Caucasians are chiefly L esgian, the Western
being chicfly Circassians.
The Lesgian area reaches the Persian districts of Shir
van ,so that we hnd it spoken under the Persian nam e
L esgistan, or country of the Lesgians. Lesgian itself
is believed to be, word for word, the Greek 11 117 4 1.
The Georgian form is Lekhi , the Iron Leki , the Arm e
nian Loksi and Leker. A gain, one L ekos, the fifth son
of Targam os, is, according to the Georgian accoun t,the eponym us of the Lesgian tribes. H e dwelt between
Derbend and Tarki .
THE rsnn'rsn AND LESGIAN S . 6 1
Daghestan, Lesgistan, or the country of the Lesgi, isthe ancien t Albania ; the country conquered by Pom pey.
Lesgian, like Circassian, is no native nam e ; for the
Lesgians, like the Circassians, have no nam e which is at
once native and collective. Its details are to be found inthe hilly country out of which the rivers of Daghestan
arise, the actual coast of the Caspian being Turk and
Persian rather than L esgian . It has been already stated
that the Kara-kaitak are actual Turks. The rivers that
m ost help us in our topography are the Aksu on the
north-west, a feeder of the Terek , the K oisu on the
north-east, falling in to the Caspian (both with Turk
nam es) , and the Sam ar,to the south of Derbend .
The Marat division .—In the watershed between the
Aksu and K oisu (Turkish term s) lie the tribes o f the
Marulat. Word for word,Marulat, the plural of Marul ,from Mehr a hill, is the Greek Mévgam . The Marulat
tribes are
KhunsagKaseruk
H idatle
MukratleAnsokul
K arakhle
Gum bet
Arrakan
The Andi and Kabuteh are outlying m em bers of this
group . S o are the Dido and Unso, whose districts lie as
far south as the upper Sam ur.The Kaei-humuh lie to the east of the K oisu, in the
Kara-kaitak district, and in part of Tabasseran .
The Akush.—The Ahush and Kubitsh lie between the
Koisuand the upperManas and the Buam .
The Kura—In South Daghestan .
The Lesgians are called
By the Circassians Hannoatshe.
Tshetsh
The Turk character of som e of the nam es of their
tribes is rem arkable. It is probable that in the las t part
of the term Karakle (o f which H iddalte and Mukratlem ay be variations) we have the Turk oglu: son. Bur
tuna, though the nam e of a river, is, apparently, Turk.
Tshari is decidedly so . O ne of the Tshulym tribes are so
nam ed . But the m ost im portant nam e is Chunsag, the
nam e of the Cum anian Turks of Hungary, whose district
now bears that nam e . Between the Danube and Theiss
lie the Great and the Little Chunsag, e. the Great and
Little Cum ania. Hungary was once an occupancy of
the Avars ; of the Avars who cam e from the Russian
Governm ent of Caucasus ; allied to the Alans, allied to
the Cum anians, allied to a population m en tioned butrarely, but still m en tioned as being both Caucasian in itsgeography and Turk in its ethnology—the SevirNow one of the term s applied to the Marul L esgians,adopted by Klaproth, but preterm itted by the present
wri ter because it appears to be other than native, is Avar ;whilst the nam e by which the Suani, who also call theK aratshai Ows (A s) , designate the Iron is S awiar. I think
that som e of the Dioscurians are Turks who have nu
leam ed their language .
English. Am . Antshnkh.
Man (hom o) bthardzh 15 111
H ead
6 4 THE m oscum m s.
CHAPTER VIII .
The Dioscurians, &c. —The Georgians—The Lani.
THE m ost northern , and at the sam e tim e the rudest,of the Georgian populations, are the descendants of the
Suan i, lying inland, on the south-eastern frontier of the
Absné Circassians, at the head-waters of the Z khenistz
khali, Eguri, and Egrisi, between Sukhum kaleh and the
Phasis. They call
Them selves Suan .
The Abkhas Mibhhaz .
K artuelians Mkarts .
Mingrelians Mim rel.K aratshai Owe.
Iron
The las t two nam es, as has been shown, are im portant
instrum ents of ethnological criticism .
The JlI ingrelians .—Like the Circassians, theMingrelians
face the Euxine, belonging to the drainage of the Phasis ;the upper portion of which is
Im eritian.—Im erethi is the land of Im er
,or Iber ;
word for word, the ancien t Iberia. To the east of Im e
rethi lies the watershed of the Phasis and Kur, the
occupancy of the
K artuli, Kartueli, or Kartulinian branch of the G eor
gians. The K artueli form of speech is the Georgian of
6 6 THE GEORGIANS .
our ideas of the Circassian conform ation are based. But
Circassia (and this m ust be borne in m ind) is a land of
castes—o f high-caste nobles and of low-caste plebeians.
It is a land o f caste and feudalism war being, at one and
the sam e tim e,the occupation of the nobles, and the
m eans by which the greatest num ber of individuals are
brought in contact with the nations of Europe. The
evidence of those who have form ed their opinions from
residence in Caucasus rather than from the slave-m arkets
of Constantinople is by no m eans over-favourable. Pallas,as quoted by Prichard, writes that the m en , especially
am ongst the higher classes, are m ostly of a tall stature,their form being of Herculean structure. They are
very slender about the loins, have sm all feet, and nu
com m on strength in their arm s. They possess, in general,a truly Rom an and m artial appearance . The wom en are
not uniform ly Circassian beauties but are, for the m ost
part, well-form ed have a white skin , dark-brown hair, and
regular features. H e adds, I have m et with a greater
num ber of beauties am ong them than in any other nu
polished nation .
”
This is the language of fair and m oderate encom ium .
Reineggs, however, so far denies their claim to superior
beauty, as to write that he knows not what can have
given occasion to the generally-received prejudiec in
favour of the fem ale Tcherkessians. A short leg, a sm all
foot, and glaring red hair, constitute a Tcherkessian
beauty .
”
The m ain difi'
erentice, however, of their organization lie
in the statem ents of Klaproth—viz .,that they have
long faces,and thin and straight noses .
”
Again , he writes that the Abassians, a tribe of the
Circassians, are distinguished by narrow faces ; heads
THE GEO RGIAN S . 6 7
com pressed at the sides ; by the shortness of the lower
part of their faces ; by prom inent noses, and dark brownhair.”
A few of the Georgians proper are Mahom etans ; but
they are scarcely the Georgians of Georgia. They are
those of A bbasabad in Khorasan , where they were settledas colonists by Shah Abbas. A few of these only adhere
to their original faith .
6 8 THE IRON .
CHAPTER IX .
The Dioscurians, &c.—The Iron.
TH E distinction between the nam e by which a population
designates itself, and the nam e by which it is designatedby its neighbours, always im portant, is of pre
-em inent
consequence in the ethnology of the Iron ; as was sug
gested when the Alans, or O si, were under notice.
The population which 110W com m ands our attention
calls itself Iron ; but is called by the Georgians O si .
This nam e the Russians have adopted ; so that, in theireyes, the Iron are Asetinz i, or m en of O sethi O si-land.
The population which the Greeks, Arabs, and Italians
called Alan , called them selves A s. They settled on the
Georgian side of the Iron country, or (perhaps) on the
Iron side of Georgia. They, probably, adopted, m ore
or less, the Iron language, so as to appear, in the eyes of
the Georgians, Iron ; the actual Iron appearing as O si.
A t any rate, O si (as has been stated) is the Georgian
nam e for the Iron though by no m eans the native one.
By a blunder (for it is no less), excusable only becauseit is com m on ,
Klaproth identifies the two term s, and, by
treating the Iron as if they were actually O si or A s,transfers m uch of the real , and som e of the supposed,history of Alania
,Bellad-A llan, or Alanland, to Iron
istan , or the country of the Iron . H e also gives undue
prom inence to the foreign, or wrong, nam e telling na,
THE IRON . 6 9
indeed, that it is other than native, but, nevertheless,
using it as the ordinary denom ination . Doing this, he
has given currency to an exceptionable appellation .
The following is Klaproth ’
s doctrine
The Osset are the Yas of the Russians ;A s or AlanMedes of Sarm atia ;Medes of H erodotus .
Be it so . That the Osset are the Yas and As is true.
But what is the evidence to their being Iron
TheMede affinity rests on a different basis, i . e. that ofthe native nam e
, which is, doubtless, a very interesting
one . Iran is a nam e for Persia. The title of the S as
sanian kings, as deduced from both coins and‘
inscriptions,
is Mallca Malham'
Irdn, or Kings of the Kings of Iran,
Malha Irdn wa Aniran,or K ing of Iran and Not-iran .
W hether the Iranian elem ent of the Sassanian em pirewasMedian or not, is another question .
I can give but little inform ation concerning the Iron .
Their language, of which there is a dictionary by Sjogrenin Rus sian characters, falls into at least two dialects, oneof which is the Dugorian . The people are Christian
,and
to a great ex ten t Russianized. T he great m ilitary roadruns through their country, which lies to the north of
Tiflis. In his accoun t of Caucasus, Haxthausen gives
several Iron legends . They do not,however, illustrate
ei ther a pagan or a heroic age .
70 THE ARMEN IANS .
CHAPTER X .
The Hail: orArm enians.
TH E nam e by which the A rm enians are known in
Europe is, I think, of Syrian origin . The populationsto which it is applied call them selves Haik . Their chiefoccupancies are the Turkish province of Erzeroum ,
and the Russian district of Erivan,this being a new
accession to the Russian em pire ; having, till lately, belonged to Persia. It is in Erivan where the chief m onastery, E tshm iaz in , the residence of the patriarch, lies.In Erivan also stands Moun t Ararat, the centre roundwhich the legends and superstitions of Arm enia m ost
especially collect them selves. The chief town , however,is Erzeroum . Here the native population assim ilates
itself in dress and m anners to the Osm anli Turks ; from
whom the Arm enians differ in language (though m ost o f
them can speak Turkish) and creed.
The Arm enians are a pre-em inently Christian nation,
wi th a native alphabet, a canon contain ing several books
which the Western Church considers apocryphal, a ritual
m ore Greek than Latin , and a system of m onasteries that
rem inds us of the Buddhism of Tibet.
The influence of Arm enia upon the world’s history
has been inconsiderable ; lim ited, very nearly, to the
neighbouring country of Georgia. The land itself has
had periods of independence and even power. As a general
rule, however, its political relations have been those of
Persia. A t present,as has been stated, they are Persian,
Turk, and Russian .
rm : ARMEN IAN S . 7 1
But there are Ar menians beyond the lim its of Arm enia.
There is a colony in Persia near Isfahan, founded by
Shah Abbas, the founder of the Georgian colony inKhorasan . There are Arm enians in India, and m any
thousands in Constantinople. In European Russia theircensus is as follows
In the Governm ent of Astrakan
Bessarabia
Ekaterinoslav
S t. Petersburg
S tauropol
Tauris
Kherson
Total
But the m ost im portant settlem ent is that of the Mechi
tarist m onks on the island of S t. Lazarus, in Venice .
Here is the cen tre of the Arm enian literature ; with its
library, rich in MS S .,som e published
,som e unpublished .
Nine-tenths of the Arm enian com positions that appear
in prin t proceed from this Venetian press.In figure the Arm enians are m ore m assive than the
Persians. They have been likened to the Jews, the
Turks, and the Afghans.
In the towns they show great com m ercial aptitude,
and, with the Jews and the Parsis, both m ore or lessstrangers to the coun tries to which they naturally belong
,
m ay be classed am ongst the com m unities who m ore es
pecially attach them selves to the business of the banker
and m erchan t,rather than the soldier
, sailor,or agri
culturist. In Arm enia, however, they cultivate the soil,which is sub-Alpine in character. Erzeroum lies between 6 000 and 7000 feet above the level of the sea.
Their language has been considered to be what is called
72 THE ARMENIANS.
Indo-European , on, however, insufficient grounds. I ts
nearest affinities are what its geography suggests, i . e.
with the Iron and Persian , and (m ore rem otely) with the
Arabic on the south, and theUgrian dialects on the north .
A t the Sam e tim e it is by no m eans closely connected withanything.
Enghsh.
Man (hom o)
tsaste
findzh tshkhwiri
Beard tsveri
Water tshur dun tskhaliziun m it
S tone khar dor kwa
ear khogh m ta
tsugn kef tevsi.
Before their conversion ,the Arm enians were, m ore or
less, fire-worshippers. In the eighth and nin th centuries
Nestorianism took strong root am ongst them , and m any
are Nestorians now . Som e are Rom an Catholics. O ne
74 THE sam e PO P ITLATIONS .
CHA PTER X I .
I N O W m ake a som ewhat sudden transition , and prepare
m yself to give a sketch of the ethnology of south-westernA sia and A frica, before I consider the rem aining populations of Asia, viz . the Persian and the Indian .
The Sem itic group .—A certain group of populations,
currently believed to have been the descendan ts of Shemrather than of either H am or Japhet, were called by (I
believe) E ichom ,Sem itic. They spoke languages all
but m utually in telligible . They were on the confines of
Africa ; but they were notNegro . They were, in respectto their physiognom y and their influence on the world'shistory
,what is called Caucasian rather thanMongolian .
They form ed a natural group . Whether it were a large oneis a differen t question . In biblical criticism they were all
im portan t. Their language was that of the Old Testam en t,
theTalm ud, and the Syrian fathers. Itwas, in another form ,
that of the Koran . I n other words, it was the language o f
the Jndaie portion of Christianity, and of the prim ary
source of Mahom etanism . It was also the language of the
earliest alphabet of Phenicia and the Punic colonies. It fell
in to the Aram m an,the Arabic , and the E thiopic divisions.
The A ram m an contained the Hebrew, the Sam aritan , the
Chaldee, and the Syriac of Edessa, Palm yra, Dam ascus,
and other im portant and in teresting cities . It waswritten when G reece and Rom e were unlettered. It
sounded strange to the A fricans of the parts about Car
THE ARABIANS . 75
thage, strange on the shores of m any a Mediterraneanisland, strange in Spain . It was the language of enter
prising m erchants, bold m ariners, m onotheist priests. It
was as m uch (and m ore) the language of the proper
historian as of the ethnologist. Y et, like the Latin and
the Greek, it will draw but little attention to the detailsof the m en who spoke it—little in the presen t work.
The presen t work is descriptive rather than historical . It
is descriptive rather than historical because it deals with
the existing rather than the by-gone state of things. It
takes the populations of the world as i t finds them ;
noticing them m ore or less fully in order that the description m ay serve as a basis for a certain am ount of palwon
tological research . It relegates the earlier periods of
their history to the civil historian . It does m ore. It
passes eicco pede over the fam ilies which are supposed to
be generally known . How little it said about the
Greeks ; how little about the Rom ans, the Slavonians,the Germ ans !
The presen t work says next to nothing about the Jews.
It fails to hnd them as a pure Jewish population on
Jewish soil . It finds them spread over m any countries, and
the writer of it believes that, in a general way, their his
tory and distribution is understood . O f the Chaldee nam e
the briefest notice would have to be preceded with pages
and pages of prelim inary criticism . The Sam aritans it re
cognizes as the occupan ts of a single district. The Syrians
are eo nom ine and cd tinged nearly in the sam e category .
The Arabians .—The influence of the Arabian fam ily
upon the world ’s history, an terior to the tim e of Mahom et,is hard to ascertain . It appears
,however, to have been
far from inconsiderable . The notices in Scripture suggest
the likelihood of the tribes o f the Desert, at least, having
been m uch what they are at present ; saving, of course, the
76 THE ARABIANS .
fact of their being pagans rather than Mahom etans .
They were independent and predatory . They were probably occupants of som e districts in E gypt ; of som e in
Syria ; of som e in Persia. A s a seafaring populationthey were known but little . The Mediterranean was the
highway of the Greeks and the Phenicians ; and the
nature of both its trade and its colonies is well under
stood . Not so the details o f the com m erce with Indiaand the eastern coast of Africa. The Indian Ocean and
the R ed S ea m ay have been traversed by fleet after fleet
of adventurous A rabs and yet no record has com e downto us telling us what countries they visited, or with what
populations they m ixed their blood. That there was som em aritim e enterprize am ongs t the A rabians of the southernpart of the peninsula is certain . H ow early it exhibited
itself, and how far it went, is another question . It isassuredly unsafe to assum e that the Arabs were ex
elusively a population of landsm en . They are not so now.
They were not so at the beginning of the historical period.
Their early religion was what is called Sabaaanism ;
the cultus of the heavenly bodies being its chief charac
teristic . I t was, however,by no m eans free from idolatry ;nor is it certain that it was the creed of the whole peninsula. N either can we say what it borrowed from ,
or
what it gave to, the neighbouring countries, e. y . E gypt,
E thiopia, Chaldaea, Mesopotam ia, Judwa, and Persia.
In all these regions there are traces of influences from
A rabia anterior to the tim e of Mahom et. With Maho
m et,however, begins the aera of the Arab conquests, the
Arab creed, Arab science, Arab literature. Before the
tim e of the Prophet there were letters in Arabia. Before
his tim e there was a partial am elioration of the original
paganism ; there was an incipient Christianity. The
field, however, was narrow ; and there was but little of
THE ARABIAN S . 77
what was Arab beyond the frontiers of Arabia—littlecom pared with what there has been since .
A t the present m om en t the Arabic alphabet is in useam ongst all Mahom etan nations ; being that of the
Turks, the Persians, the Malays, a portion of the Indians,
and som e of the Africans—som e even of the Negroes,som e even of the Negroes of Am erica. It was not,
however, indigenous to Arabia ; but, on the con trary, of
Syrian origin—as was m uch of the early Arab literature.
The Arab fam ily is all but absolutely Mahom etan .
There were, however, Mahom etan Slavonians in Bosnia ;and, in a like exceptional m anner, there are ChristianArabs in Malta. A t any rate, the language of that
island is Arabic .
The physical influence of the Arab stock upon the
populations beyond Arabia is to be found in the history
of the early conquests of the Prophet and his successors .
It gives us,however, but a part of the whole ; though it
carriesus as far as the Pyrenees on one side and beyond the
Indus on the other. The actual range of either the Arab
creed or the Arab com m erce extends farther—farther byfar. A s far as twelve degrees
,south latitude, Arab trade
has advanced in Africa. There are A rab settlem ents inBokhara and Khorasan . There are Arab habits and
Arab letters in and beyond the Malayan Peninsula.
Arab coins of the Caliphet have been dug up in largequantities in Siberia. The Mam m oth of the Lena is
,
word for word, the Behem oth of the Nile.
There are several principles upon which the great m ass
of the Arab fam ily, as it exists at present, m ay be divided.
There is the difference between the Christians and the
Mahom etans ; the form er, as has just been stated, being
extrem ely exceptional, and probably m ixed in blood .
Then there are the num erous form s of Mahom etanism
78 THE ARABIANS .
itself, som e old, som e new . There is the old schism
between the Sunnites and the Shiites ; the m ajority of
the A rabs being Sunnite—not, however, exclusively.
The sporadic intercurrence of Shiites exhibits itself on
the very soil of Arabia, and in the very city of the
Prophet. Then there is the m odern sect of theWahabis,puritans, and reform ers, num erous in northern and
eastern Arabia, num erous beyond the confines of Arabia.
In the way of politics, there are the Arabs of an
organized governm en t like that of the Im am of Muskat,the Arabs of the sea-port town of D zhidda, who are
tri butary to the Porte, the nom inally dependen t Arabs
o f E gypt, the actually in dependen t tribes of the Desert.
S ocially, there are the Arabs of the towns, who are m er
cantile rather than agricultural ; the Arabs of the villages,who are fellahs or cultivators ; the Arabs of the sea
coas t, who are fishers ; and the Bedawy, or Bedtiins, who
are spread over the Desert—sheep-breeders, cam el
breeders, breeders of horses, warriors, robbers.
Lastly, there are the Arabs of the A rabian peninsula,and the Arabs of the parts beyond Arabia,—i . e. Syria,Palestine
,Persia, E gypt, Barbary, and m any other coun
tries ; wherein ,however, the population is less im portant,
the characteristics m ore uncertain , the blood less pure .
Such, am ongst others, are Spain and India, along wi th
Sum atra, and m ore than one other island of the Indian
Archipelago .
Those travellers who have gone m ost m inutely into the
details of the geography of the peninsula and the genea
logies of the Arab tribes, lay considerable stress upon a
distinction , which, though it m ay possibly be real , is
certainly different from the form in which it is usuallyexhibited. The Arabs of the south differ from the
Arabs of the north, the form er being the descendants of
THE ARABIAN S . 79
Kahtan rather than Adnan, the latter being the descen
dants of Adnan rather than Kahtan . Meanwhile, Adnanis of the blood of Ishm ael ; whilst Kahtan is, word forword, the biblical Y oktan . Adnan, too, is akin to Yarab.
This im plies that the m ost Arab elem en ts of the A rabianstock are those of the north . Be this as it m ay, the
histories o f the two regions are different. O f the northernArabs the blood is that of the tribes allied to the Naba
theans and Idum eans, the social and political relations
being with Syria, Palestine, Persia, and E gypt. ToSouth Arabia belonged the im portant em pire of the
Him yarites, or H om eri tes, occupants of a double line of
coast a line which on one side faced E thiopia, and, onthe other, fron ted the Indian Ocean. India and Abyssinia are, or were, to the K ahtanians what Assyria and
the Holy Land were to the Ishm aelites. Further notices,however, of this difference will appear as we proceed.
I t is convenient to begin with the northern branch, the
particular district in which it is first noticed beingN edzhd.
—N edzhd is Central Arabia. The frontier
town,however, of even Central Arabia is treated by the
writer who has best described it as Syrian, i . e. as belong
ing to the Syrian Desert. A lgawf, writes Wallin ,is
som etim es called Bab cl N edzhd, or the Gate o f N edzhd,
being the first place in that district. I ts architecture is
Syrian . The physiognom y of the population is Syrian .
The intercourse with Syria is great. W e have a full
accoun t of A lgawf’
s very rem arkable constitution . It
consist of twelve quarters, or suh, each eulc being divided
and subdivided . Thus A lgharb (a suk) has its six sec
tions. O f three of these the chief occupan ts are Sham
m ar Arabs of the tribe H am filet A lm unfisibe. The
inhabitan ts of a fourth were originally Ruwala nom ads
of the Bucze tribe ; those of the fifth, Sirhan Bedli ins.
80 THE 1 11 1 8 11 11 8 .
Artisans from all parts of Syria and Arabia occupy the
sixth . In S ilk Ibn Alder the population is m ixed,but the m ain tribe is an old one. It cam e from the
S .E . , i . e. from the Shakra. Gubbé lies between Shakra
and A lgawf. Ou the way the Shakra m igran ts seem
to have passed through Gubbe. A t any rate, a few
fam ilies , older than the rest,profess a Gubbe origin .
And the Gubbé people believe that their Algawf offset is
in possession of certain old books in an unknown language. Two other suits are Syrian . In Khadm a the
blood is Bedti in , and the habits as nom ad as residence
in a town allows them to be . Ten fam ilies, the Muta
walladin, are m ore or less African . Algarawy consists of
four fam ilies of artisans ; Sham m ar in origin . Who
founded A lgawf Solim an , the son of David, 800 years
(sic) after the birth of Christ. This prom inence of
Solom on belongs to N orthern rather than SouthernArabia. Every quarter has its own head, who decidesdifferences. The sovereignty, however, is with the Sham
m ar chief, to whom they pay tribute ; as they do to the
Bedtiin sheiks of the parts around. A t presen t the A lgawf
people are Wahabi . In the tim e of Mahom et they wereChristians, Jews, and pagans. The evidence in favor o f
their having been the first is the strongest. The worshipof an idol nam ed W ud (love) , is the fact from which (if
real) we infer their paganism . Such are details of one
town in Central Arabia. They serve to illustrate the
general character of the others. The division into suit is
com m on , though so m any as twelve is a rarity.
The Dzhebel Sham m ar,or the H ills o f the Sham m ar,
are the occupancy of the m ost im portant tribes of the
N edzhd, bigoted W ahabis, but ignorant. The A labde
and A lgafar are the chief tribes of the Sham m ar nam e
on Sham m ar land . Two other, however, of its great
82 THE 1 111 8 11 Ns.
converted into settlers. In the tim e of Mahom et the
first of these was that of the Koreish ; and of Koreish
fam ilies, real or supposed, som e few are still to be found.
The Mekkawy tattoo their faces ; the m ark that they
use being a sign of their origin . The Mekkawy skin
is darker, and the Mekkawy figure som ewhat lighter
and m ore wiry than that of the m en of Medina. In
Medina, however, the population is m ixed also ; the
representatives of the true Arab stock being the m em bers
of the 0 6 0 8 , K ezredzh, and Beni Hossein tribes ; the
latter being Shias rather than Sunni tes. Another section
of the Medina Arab is called Khalifyi ; being descended
from the Abassides. In the other towns o f the west
coast, Mokha excepted, where the foreign interm ixture is
considerable, the blood is com paratively pure. It is, as a
general rule, that of the neighbouring Bedtiins, converted
into settlers.
S outhern Arabia Yem en, Hadram aut, Om an. The
Arabs of Southern Arabia are the occupants of that
favoured part of the peninsula known to the ancients as
Arabia Felix . They are in contact with the Indian
Ocean as well as the Red S ea. They are divided by a
m inimum am ount of water from the Abyssinian part of
Africa. They are opposite to a considerable portion of
the S om auli coast. They are the children of Kahtan .
More or less H im aryite, or H om arite, in blood, history,and civili zation, they are occupants, at the present tim e,
of Mokha, Sana, Rodda, and Lobais , as townsm en , and
of the southern third of the peninsula as Beddins .
There are hilly districts in the Kahtanian area, and the
Arabs of the hills are interm ediate in character to the
Arabs of the town and the Arabs of the Desert ; rude
in m anners, and i gnorant in respect to the details of
their creed . The form ula there is but one G od, and
THE ARABIAN S . 83
that Mahom et is his prophet, contains their wholedoctrine. O f these tribes, a few out of m any arrest
attention . The Merekede, a branch of the Asyr, are
accused of the habit attributed to the Jakuri Hazaras,i . e. that of prostituting their wives. O f the Beni Kelb
,
strange stories are believed in respect to their rudeness
and the inarticulate character of their language. Theybark like dogs (Kelb) rather than talk . They probably
use an extrem e dialect. The D owasér are blacker than
their neighbours. The Beni Yam , like the Beni Hossein,!
are m ixed in creed, the Bedti in fam ilies being Sunnite,the settlers Shia.
Aden, the first town on the Indian Ocean, and now
a British possession, has a m ixed population . It wasonce a Turk occupancy. It contains Jews, Banians
(from India) , S om aulis, and other Africans. The Jews,to the am ount of about 300, occupy a separate quarter,are artizans, are carriers, are labourers, but not soldiers.The tribes of the parts around are the Futhali (robbers),the Bareiki, the Beni Nayi, the Beni Dum m iri
, the
Kaseidi, the Ben i G oseidi, the Mahudi, and, further
inland, the D zhafi'
a, the H eshed, and the Bekeyl to the
east of Sana.
Further to the east, on the sea-coast, at least, and forthe parts about the town of Makulla, the physiognom y
changes, and the m en are black and undersized, alm ost
as black and far shorter than the Som auli,who, atMakulla,are num erous. Makulla is the port of Hadram aut, avalley som e sixty m iles in length, running parallel with
the coast, with num erous towns and villages, ruins and
inscriptions. The tribes further to the east are those of
Mahara, A d, and A m elik. A t Hasek is the tom b of
the prophet Hud, the fourth in descent from Shem . To
the back of Hasek lie the Mahrah and Gara tribes,whose
G 2
84 THE ARABIANS .
language is believed to bear a special aflinity to the lan
guage of the Him yarite inscriptions.
sodah
lebhem .
Further east lie the D iyabi occupancies ; the occupan
cies of a group of tribes or sub-tribes. Their govemm ent is patriarchal . Instead of Sheiks they have Abu,or elders, whose othee is, for the m ost part
,hereditary,
but whose power is only what the voice of the m ajority
in their m eetings for the discussion of business allows .
There are seven of these Abu to the Diyabi . There
would be but one Sheik . For all thefts within his dis
triet the Abu is answerable, and, if the thief cannot,the Abu m ust, m ake reparation to the parties injured.
I f, however, the thief have property, the Abu claim s a
third of it over and above the am ount restored.
It was through the D iyabi coun try that Lieut. W elsted
THE 1 8 1 111 1 118 . 85
passed on his journey to the ruins of N akeb el K adzhar.
The A rabs referred them to their pagan ancestors. Do
youbelieve,”said one, that these stones were rai sed by
the unassisted hands of the K aflirs ? No ! no ! they haddevils, legions of devils, to aid them .
" Wall inscriptions in a sim ilar character were found at Hasan Gorab .
There, however, they were ascribed to the Feringees
(Franks) .
From Cape Isolette, eastwards, dwell the Beni Gencha ;whose Sheik lives at Sur. They fall into two classes.
The first is that of fishers ; generally a despised one.
To the north of D zhidda they are despised. The Huteimof the Peninsula of Sinai are despised . The Gencha,however, are not despised, and with the Bedti ins of
their neighbourhood they eat, they associate, and theyinterm arry. The pastoral tribes are
,to a great exten t,
troglodytes. The date is their chief food.
Now com e the tribes of D zhailan, Om an , Dhorrah,
and Batna,Om an being the province in which the m etro
polis of the Im am of Muskat is situated . TheMuskattisare a m ixed population—Persian, Biluch, Jewish, Indian,A frican—African m ost especially ; inasm uch as theAfricanisland of Zanzibar belongs to the Im am . The towns, inthe strict sense of the word, for these parts , are few .
Muskat is built of brick and stone . S o is Rostak . S o
are few, or none, of the others. O f the Bedti ins, the
m ost im portant are the Beni-Abu-Ali, said to com e
from Nedzhd,—Wahabis and enem ies to the Beni-Abu
Hasan .
About Dzhebel Akdan the m ountaineer character predom inates, and the people, closely attached to theirnative valleys, rarely m ix with either the Bedti ins or thetownsm en .
A t the narrowest part of the entrance to the Gulf be
8 6 THE ARABIANS .
gins the pirate coas t, and extends about 300 m iles northwards. Though now reduced in power, the tribes of this
part have been form idable from the dawn of their history.
Ibn Haikal shows how old he considered their habits to be,when he writes that before the deliverance of the Israelites
from the bondage of E gypt a pirate king seized all the
ships that passed his port. India was harassed by them .
The Portuguese were harassed also . To the Im am of
Muskat they have always been troublesom e . In 1809
they brought upon them selves the heavy han d of the
English rulers of India ; and R8 8 in Khaim ah and Leit
on the island of Kishm , were destroyed.
The evidence of Lieut. W elsted to the existence of
either a real or supposed superiority on the part of the
Pirate Coast A rabs to both the Bedtiins and the towns
people is decided . The form er are tall,fair, active,
and m uscular . W hen not at feud with their neighbours, or when a north-westerly gale prevents themfrom putting out to sea
,they em ploy them selves in
fishing and di ving for pearls ; the season for the latter
occupation being from J1111 6 to Septem ber. In orderto hold his breath the longer, the diver places across
his nose a piece of elastic horn ; which com presses thenostrils.
O f the northern portion of the peninsula I have little
to say ; believing that, upon the whole, the character ofits inhabitants is that of the Arabs of N edzhd.
O f the Arabs of the Syrian Desert som ething has been
said already ; those of the extrem e south have been
stated to be conterm inous with the tribes of Algawf.
Have we not written that that town was, in the eyes of
the Syrians, the Gate of N edzhd, i . e. the frontier townof Arabia ? Have we not also written that the A lgawf
physiognom y is, m ore or less, Syrian ? The distinction
THE ARABIAN S . 8 7
im plied by this term m ay now be illustrated. Syrianfeatures, E gyptian features, Jswish features, are oftenassociated by writers upon Arab tribes. The creed isMahom etan , the language Arabic, the fram e Syrian
, & c .
This m eans that it exhibits a departure from the Bedflin
type, which gives spare and wiry rather than squareor m assive figures ; the latter being found am ongst theundoubted Syrians, the Syrians who exhibit
,over and
above this particular physiognom y, the other characteristics of a language allied to that of the Syrian fathers
and a Christian creed. How far they m ay denote Syrianblood
,disguised by the use of the A rabic language, is
another question . Mutatis m utandis, the sam e applies to
the E gyptians and the Jews. It is only certain that theA rab language is extended far beyond the dom ain of the
Arab blood .
The tribes of the Syrian Desert belong also to the
cultivated di stricts of Syria ; inasm uch as, on the frontier,a definite division between the fix ed and locom otive
populations finds place . Som e keep to the cultivated
country throughout the year. Others change their occu
pancy wi th the season .
O f the locom otive tribes, the m ost im portant divisionis that of the A enaze, Anase, or A neze, of which the
Wuled Ali, the E1 Hesch e, the Renalla, and the Besher
are sections ; falling into subsections, viz . the Wuled Ali
into five, the El H esene into two,and the Besher into six .
The parts about Palm yra, or Tadm or, are in the Anaze
coun try. To the north-east, in the parts about Hom s
and Ham s , lies a Turk district ; the tribes whereof are
called by the Arabs RI Turkm an .
To the southern section o f the perm anen t settlers
belong the Arabs of the Holy Land, a m ixed population
both in blood and creed . About K erak, at least, near
88 THE 1 8 1 1111 118 .
the Dead S ea, som e of the tribes are Turk, som e
Christian .
In Hauran , Auranitis, Batanwa, or Bashan , the E1
Feheily, the S erdzye, the Ahl Dzhebil , and the Kerad
tribes are interm ediate in character to the m igran ts and the
settlers. The true agriculturists, however, of the district
are the Druses ; the H aourans being pre-em inen tly a
Druse occupancy. The parts between Hauran and
Dam ascus belong to the Ledzha tribes, one of which, at
least, El Turkm an, is, what its nam e denotes, Turk.
In the Oases the population is m ore perm anent than
locom otive. In Khaibar the com plex ioh of the occu
pan ts is very dark ; a fact which Burckhardt expressly
attributes to the heat and m oisture of the locality. H e
adds that Jewish blood is believed to run in the veins of
the Khaibar fam ilies ; also adding that their language is
decidedly Arab , as is every other character .
The peninsula of S inai and E gypt—The southern
tribes of the peninsula of Sinai are, m ore or less, fisher
m en ; and, as such, a despised rather than a respected
population . In the north they form an extension of the
tribes of Syria.
In E gypt the dialect changes. The Maazi tribes,however, to the south-east of Cairo, speak after the
m anner of the true Arabians, which the H owatut, to the
north, and the Beni Wassil and A touni, to the south, donot. About K osseir, in 26
°N .L . , the blood changes, and
that notably ; and the nam es Bishari, Bedzha, and
Ababda com e in -all the nam es of tribes which are, at
leas t, as m uch Nubian as A rab . O f these the Ababde
are Arab, the others Nubian , in language . The northernAbabde belong to E gypt, the southern to Nubia.
A nd now either the foreign elem ents increase, or the
character changes. The Arabs of Syria and Palestine were
90 THE SYRIAN S .
huts thatched with reeds in m oist and m alarious localities.
The Beni Rechab bear a nam e which rem inds us of the
Rechabites of Jerem iah (chap . from whom they
m ay or m ay no t be descended . I f, however, their nam e
m ean sons of the stirrup, asMr. Loftus, who visited
them , suggests, Rechab is no true eponym ic term , and
Rechabites m ay ex ist wherever stirrups are in use. Re
chabites are m entioned by Benjam in of Tudela. Their
occupancy, however, lay in Yem en. A s for those of
Mesopotam ia, they claim to be old inhabitants of the
country ; though, in m ore details than one, they differ
from the surrounding tribes . Their prince or chief is anEm ir
,not a Sheikh. They are sullen and inhospitable ;
addicted to plunder ; Jewish in physiognom y, and as such
contrasted with the undoubted Arabs of their neighbour
hood, the Kuzzeil, the Beni Lam ,the Afl
‘
edzh, and the
Montefidzh.
The Syrians speaking Syriac.—A few fam ilies, occupants
of L ibanus, are stated by trustworthy travellers to be not
only Syrian in blood (as are m any apparent A rabs), but
Syrian in speech as well .
A few others in the sam e category m ay perhaps befound in Mesopotam ia. I am unable, however, to state
whether the fact of their being able to speak Syriac
(supposing it to be real) is evidence to the present exist
ence of the Syriac as a living language . It m ay be
spoken as Latin is spoken by certain Poles and Hun
garians, i . e. as a dead language learned from books.
The scriptures of the Mendwans of the parts about
D isful in Khuzistan are in Syriac.
In Syriac, too, are those of the Maronites, the
Malabar Christians, and the Caldani, or Christians o f
Kurdistan, whose com plexion is com paratively fair,whose eyes are gray, and whose beards are often reddish .
THE SAMARITANS . 9 1
Arabic.
Ten
The Sam aritans .-The national existence of the Sam a
f itana term inated D .C . 721, when the ten tribes were
conquered by Shalm aneser. The extent to which this
conquest put an end to the blood and language is an
other question . Som e Sam aritans were, doubtlessly,transplan ted into som e localities beyond the frontier of
Sam aria. Som e as doubtlessly rem ained on their native
soil . A t the present tim e a few fam ilies calling them
selves by the ancient nam e are to be found in the
neighbourhood of Nablus. They preserve a copy of the
Pentateuch of considerable but un investigated antiquity .
A few ,too
,are said to dwell in Cairo .
CHAPTER XII .
The Sem itic populations.-The Abyssinian of Tigré and Am hsra.
The Agon —The Fd asha—The Gafat.
ARABIA leads to Africa ; less, however, through the
Isthm us of Suez than by the way of Abyssinia. ForAbyssinia is in its essen tials a truly Sem itic country ;Sem itic after the fashion of Syria or Arabia i tself.Whether it were always so is another question .
The country is m ountainous, and, where not m oun
tainous, a plateau. It scarcely touches the sea ; the
eastern slopes o f its eastern range being the occupancy of
the Danakil .
The Tigré Abyssiniam .—Tigré, on the north, is rich in
the rem ains of an tiquity ; the parts about A xum , its
ancien t capital , being of the m ost im portance. The lan
guage is a derivative from the ancien t Geez , in which
was m ade the E thiopic translation of the Scriptures.
Allied to the Hebrew andArabic, it differs in its alphabet,which is syllabic.
A m hara.—S o is that of the neighbouring province of
Am hara ; the language whereof, with the sam e general
affinities as the Tigré, is less closely a representative of
the old E thiopic.
Bo th the Am haric and Geez are written from left
to right, not from right to left, like the Arabic, 81 C .
94 THE ABYS SIN IANS .
Middle-sized, and well m ade, the Abyssinians vary in
colour. Som e are perfectly black ; but the m ajority
have a red tinge ; and so com e-out brown, nut-coloured,or copper-coloured . The features are often European ,
i . e. an aquiline nose stands out in prom inent contrast tothat o f the typical negro . The checks are often sunk, sothat the face looks elongated. The hair is dark and crisp,not to say curly . The lim bs are well form ed.
A s is the Arm enian in Asia, so is the Abyssinian in
Africa. Both are Christian populations in con tact with
Mahom etans . Both hold exceptional creeds. It was
about A .D . 330 that Frum entius introduced the Gospelinto E thiopia. It is still retained. Abyssinia, however,is the rudest of all Christian nations.The Agawe.
—Except that they are som ewhat stouter
in m ake, the physiognom y o f the Agows is that of the
proper Abyssinians. They differ, however, in language.
They also differ in civilization . The little Christianity
that is to be found am ongst them is scarcely two cen
turies old. Dam ot and Lasta are the chief Agow pro
vinces .
THE ABYSSIN IANS . 95
The Falasha.—The Falasha dialects are Agow rather
than either Tigré or Am haric, the Falasha populations
being som etim es highlanders, like those of the m ountainranges of Sam ien , som etim es lowlanders, like the m en of
Bem ben. The Kim m ont hills to the north-east of
Gondar (in the Am haric coun try) are Falasha. The
Falasha greatly resem ble the Jews in their habits and
custom s, and, by m ore than one writer, have been treated
as actual Israelites. It is only certain that they exhibitm any Jewish characteristics.
Gafat.—The Gafat language, akin to the Am haric, is
rapidly disappearing. The Am haric displaces it ; whilst
the Galla, in m any places, displaces the Am haric . A
sm all district in the province of Dam o t is the Gafat
locality .
Abyssinia, as we have said, is the rudest of all Christiannations . I ts Christianity is not only im perfect and partial,but is com plicatedwith Judaism andMahom etanism . The
hom ely narrative of Nathan iel Pearce, an English sailor
who was left in the country, at his own desire, by Lord
Valentia, and who resided in it m ore than ten years,tells
us that although the Abyssinians are Christians, they arein som e ways like Jews, and som e ways like savages. For
why they are like Jews is, they keep holy the Saturday aswell as the Sunday, both equal alike. They also keep thethree fast days of Nineveh, which they call the feast of
Annernoi, or Jonah the pm phet ; and have a holiday
yearly for Abraham and Sarah. And for why they are
like savages, they eat the flesh whilst the blood is still
warm in the veins. They keep very strict in their fasts ;the fast of our Saviour or Lent, is fifty-six days,which begins in March and ends in May ; the fast o f
N ineveh—the fast of the Apostles—the fast for the
death of the Virgin Mary, & c. The priests of their
96 THE ABYSSINIAN S .
separate parishes have a great feast at the end of every
fast. "
A n account of one follows. It shows onunex ception
able evidence that the brutal habit of eating the warm ,
raw, and still-quivering flesh of an im als is Abyssinian.
The assem bled guests take the sacram ent, kill a cow , and
before the anim al has done kicking, and the blood still
running from its throat, the skin is nearly off one side,and the prim e flesh cut off and with all haste held before
the elders of the church, who out about two or three
pounds each, and eat it with such greediness, that those
who did not know them w0uld think they were starved
but at all tim es they prefer the raw to the cooked
victuals.
”
Som e of the wom en tattoo them selves. In no countryare they m arried earlier. In no country is m arriage m ore
a m atter of bargain . In no country is disparity of age
less heeded . A m an of sixty m ay m arry a child of eight.
I have known ,” writes Pearce, several girls given to
m en of that age, who have been born since I have been in
the country which is not yet ten years. Som e girls have
children at thirteen or fourteen years of age. Youm ay
by chance find a girl who is stil l a virgin at eleven or
twelve years in the provinces of Tegri and Inderta (Eu
derta), but I can venture to say there is not one in the
Am m errer (Am hara) country above nine or ten . The
king will give his daughters to any of his chiefs he thinksproper at the age of eight or nine . I when a stranger
am ongst them , used to think i t im possible that a child of
that age could be fit for m arriage ; but I since hnd thatit is their natural custom .
”
With all this, the analogue of the European nun is tobe found in Abyssinia ; inasm uch as a wom an, on for
swearing m arriage, m ay wear a skull-cap like a m an, and
98 THE ABYSSIN IAN S .
Takely Georges. N o , I have not ; but, after you
were gone, and before I had eaten or drunk, I scraped itfrom the tongue that m ade it, and this before all m y
house. Such are the m ethods by which perjury is or
ganized in a land of nuns and priests . If what I now
swear to be not true, m ay God blow m y soul away from
m e as I blow away the fire from this candle.
”The sweater
then suits the action to the word, blows out the light, and
keeps or forgets the im precation as i t best suits him .
A s in m any other parts of A frica, it is considered a
m isfortune for a wom an to bear twins. It is not thought
natural to breed like a dog and children have been put
to death in order that the reproach of so doing m ight be
avoided .
Bad am ongst the bad are the practices to which the
Abyssinians resort in war. They always m utilate the
dead body, and wear the parts cut off as a trophy .
Som etim es they m utilate the living m an . Pearce, who
was constrained to join in one of their wars, kil led som e
of the enem y in the presence of the ras, but would not
be so inhum an as to m angle a dead body ; for which the
m s was m uch displeased.”
THE cow s. 99
CHAPTER X III .
The Copts.—’l‘he Bishari.—'l‘he Nubians—The Populations, &c., of
Kordovan, of Darfur, of Sennam —The ao-called N egroes of Abyssinia—The Gulls Fam ily, i. c. the Danaki l, the Som auli , and tho
Galina Proper.
The Copts .—The Copts are the descendants of the
ancien t E gyptians. A s a separate population, with the
full characteristics of language and nationality, they are
wholly or nearly extinct. Much of their blood runs in
Arab veins ; and m any a true Arab, on the strength of hisfram e being som ewhat less wiry and spare than ordinary,has been put down for an individual of m ixed blood .
The analysis, however, is difi cult. A s a spoken lan
guage the Coptic is extinguished . A s a written one it still
exists . The Copts, who are Christian ,still read a Coptic
version of the Scriptures and other Coptic ecclesiastic
writings. Many of the scribes or clerks of Cairo are Copts .
In form they are som ewhat m assive,with fleshy lim bs,heavy
features, noses m ore flat than prom inent,eyes som ewhat
oblique (so , at least, it is said), thickish lips, dark com
plex ions ; m ore yellow or brown than either black or
white. The Copt language has been called sub-Sem itic .
It m ay be this without ceasing to be African . Indeed,it has num erous African affinities.
The Bishari .—The true E gyptian area m ust not be
supposed to transcend the eastern boundary of the valley
of the Nile ; the coast of the Red S ea being other than
E gyptian . In the parts about K osseir a new elem ent
appears—new to the reader, old to the soil . The fam ily
to which the ruder aborigines of north-eastern Africa
11 2
100 THE BISHARI .
belong now com es in to view. The Ababde are Bishari,the Bishari Ababde, with this difi
'
eren ce—the Bishari
preserve their own language, the Ababde speak Arabic .
Such , at least, is the com m on statem en t ; though I am
unable to give the evidence on which it rests . I only
know that the presum ptions are in favour of its being
true . The Ababde lie nearest the Nile ; the Bishari
nearest the sea. Both are to be found in E gypt ; both
in Nubia. The Ababde, the northern m em bers of the
fam ily, differ from the Arabs in colour and in the tex
ture of their hair, which is either elaborately frizzled oi'
curiously curled.
The Bishari proper are succeeded by the Adareb, whose
best-known occupancy is the country about Suakin . O ne
o f these tribes reaches as far inland as the neighbourhood
of Shendy. In Suakin the principal people affectArab origin ; indeed, Burckhardt com m its him self to the
doctrine that, word for word, Adareb is Hadram aut.
The Taka Tribes.—The parts between the Mareb and the
Atbara or Tacaz ze are the occupancy of the Hadendoa,Ham m adab, H allenga, and other tribes, known by the
general nam e of Taka, Bishari in form ,features, and
com plexion . They feed sheep and cam els, hunt ostriches,collect senna, m ake occasional razzias upon Sennaar andDongola, quarrel wi th the Ababde where the ground is
debateable,deny that they eat raw flesh, but own to
drinking warm blood.
The Barea.—The Barea
, whose nam e is other thannative
,lie on the north-western frontier o f Abyssinia.
They are but im perfectly known , and not fully described.Mansfield P arkyns
’
s is the work wherein they appear
with m ost prom inence. It describes them as form idablefrontagers to the Abyssinians of W alkait, being bold,active, and predatory warriors.
102 THE SENNAAR TRIBES .
attention . A s long as the Nile runs parallel to the sea,and keeps a straight course, the ethnology of the parts to
the east of its valley is sim ple . South , however, of Nubia
it m akes a bend westward . It also receives feeders from
the eas t, and the ethnology is com plicated accordingly.
There is aw ider tract of alluvial soil, with a blacker set of
tribes to occupy it. The dark skin of the Sheyga A rabs
has already been m entioned. It is as black as that of the
natives ; though who the natives are cannot exactly be
said. There has been conquest and intrusion in Sennaar.
The in trusive tribes, however, com ing, as they are be
lieved to have done, from the neighbouring di stricts, are
not likely to have been very different from the aborigines.
The proportion they bear to the aborigines and Arabs is
uncertain . The chief population is called Funge. W e
have no specim en of the Funge language ao nom ine. I t is
probably akin to that of the Fazoglo tribes, whose
language, as known through a vocabulary of Tutshek’
s, is
that of
The Qam am yl of Cailliaud .
More rem otely connected with both the Fazoglo and
wi th each other are the languages nam ed by R iippel
S habzin to the south of the Sennaar and Kordovan
frontier.
Denka.—The Denka are pagans and idolaters.
Shilak.—The Shiluk are pagans of the Bahr El
Abiad ; skilful in the m anagem ent of canoes, who have
woolly heads, and swear by the sun .
The Tam ali coun try lies to the south of Obeid, between
1 1°and 12
°
N .L . It is divided in to two kingdom s of
unequal si ze, the sm aller of which is the superior. Its
nam e is Tum ali Tokoken , and i t is the seat of a W ofter,
to whom the Ellot of Tum ali Dehili is subordinate, but
who is him self subordinate to the king of Takeli, who
THE TAKELI TRIBES . 103
is a vassal of the Viceroy of E gypt. The Tum ali of
Tutshek is all but the Takeli of R iippell, of which theDai, or Daier, is a dialect.
Kolangi.
kordu
uilge
oshi
knddo
eka
otu
se
nnndo
ondosales
h ger
Fertit still further to the
Fuoglo. Denha.
m eloko m oedallo nam
are ninu
1m m oum
Mouth antu tok
Tooth dovidit-nfuti ledzhTongue halla leb
Ear yet
H and ruib
Foot kwenFire m aidWater fiou
Sun akolMoon fai
Star iso kuol
Tree engoule tiem
Stone bele kur
Within the fron tier of Abyssinia, yet other than
Abyssinian , are
104 THE m zznm ,arc .
The D izzela.—This is the nam e of a tribe occupant of
a portion of the Agow country .
The DalIa .—This is the nam e of a population on the
Tacaz ze .
Both the D izzela and Dalla are called Shangalla or
Shankali ; but this is a general term applied by the
Abyssinians to the blacker and ruder populations of the
western part of the country . That the languages, at
least, are different, m ay be seen from the following list
English. Dizzela. Della.
Man kwa
Wom an dukkaH ead annasunga
tum
ills
bellesette
salle
bnssum e
erdebardsquonqueda
quuntelle
Ten chikka quullakudde.
About 17° N .L . the Bishari populations are succeeded
by the m ost northern m em bers of the great
Galla or I lm orm o fam ily, containing
1 . The Danakil .
2 . The S om auli .
106 BISHARI, NUBIAN ,
nyta
okiga ukuna
M 01 8 3
°Y8 0
sem a
m ashakka wah
instiga terah
windzhega shunda
tonsyt ika turns
am anga. beyadzhollaga. ills
“83
werka ills.
onogha belletoskoga. Bette
kcm soga salle
didzha bnssum e
gordzhoga orde dzhakolodga. bards tnrbah
idonoga kwonkwedah seddet
oskoda kwuntelle suggnl
Ten togaseram a dim aga. kwullakndde kudnn.
Within the Galla area, as elsewhere in northern and
eastern Africa, the great adm ixture of Sem itic elem ents
m akes the analysis of both the blood and language of the
num erous tribes a m atter of no little difliculty . O n the
Bishari frontier, for instance, the Shiho form of speech ism ore Danakil than Am haric ; whilst the Arkiko is m ore
Am haric than Danakil .
Danakil. Shiho.
8 111 1110 am m o
8 8 11113
afa
into
bndena
aero
alsa werne
AND GALLA LANGUAGES 107
Water
Eight
Ten
The Hurur vocabularies of Salt, Beke, and Burton,though to a great extent Sem itic, have several Galla,Som auli, and Danakil nam es for even the m ost fam iliar
objects, e. 9 .
Arabic.
arm ba lishan
sham s
and others. These elem ents require a careful analysis ;and even the Sem ite portion , when separated, requires a
second elaboration . The E thiopic words have to be kept
apart from the Arabic.
THE TIBBU, ETC .
CHAPTER XIV .
The Tibbm—The Bom fii and H owssa groups.—The Sungai .
The Am azig .—The Fula.
The Tibbu.—The eastern part of the great northern
desert is the occupancy of the Tibbufam ily, divided, like
all the groups that have hitherto been noticed,into tribes
and sub-tribes. They have not been very fully described.
Lyon, who saw m uch of the fam ilies about G atrone,
speaks in high term s of their physical form . The fem aleswere light and elegan t in shape
,with aquiline noses
,fine
teeth, European lips, delicate feet and ankles, jetty skins.
The m en were slender and active . The tribes of the south
of Fezza n are com paratively quiet and settled . Those of
the desert, however, are thieves and pagans. They dwell
in huts m ade of skins of anim als and grass or palmleaves, som e being troglodytes. The fem ale slaves sell ata high price, on account of their beauty ; the m en at a
low one. They are ill-adapted for hard or continuouswork . Dates and flesh are their chief food. They also
eat the seeds of the khandal or colocynth apple .
Parts of Kanem , and certain districts along the shores
of Lake Tshad, visited by Dr. Barth, are Tibbu; theTibbuarea being in con tact with that of
The Borm ii, or m en of the im portant kingdom of
Bom u. As is the geography, so is the ethnology. Along
with others, I expect that the m ore we learn concerning
these two populations, we m ore closely we shall connectthem . A t present, however, the relations between the
tribes of the desert and the occupants of that long zone
1 10 TH E AMAZIG .
Nubians were also called Barabbra or Berberin ? A t the
sam e tim e,it is from the Am azig, or Kabail, Berbers that
the States of Barbary take their nam e .
The Am az ig area is the largest in Africa, extending
from the confines of E gypt to the Atlantic Ocean . More
than this—the Canary Islands, un til the exterm ination or
fusion of their aborigines, were A m azig. This we know
from the fragm ents of the Guanch language which te
present the language of the opposite coast.
Again—the ancient Mauritanians and Gaetulians were
not only the occupants of the Am az ig area, but of A m
zig blood . O f A m az ig blood were the native tribes with
which the Greeks of the Cyrenaica cam e in con tact. O f
Am az ig blood were the native tri bes with which the
Phenicians of Utica and Carthage cam e in contact. The
subjects of Mas inissa and Jugurtha occupied localities of
which the ancien t nam es are explained by m eans of the
m odern A m az ig.
A t the present tim e there are five nam es for five divi
sions of the A m az ig populations, and seven nam es for
the A m azig form s of speech. How far either series is
natural is another question .
The K abails, who speak the Kabail language, arethe A m azig of the northern part of Algiers rather
than Mo rocco .
The Showiah are the Am az ig of Morocco rather
than Algiers. They occupy, however, som e of the cen
tral di stricts of Algiers ; their language being the Showiah.
The Shiluk lie to the south of Morocco, their lan
guage being the Shiluk.
The Berbers belong to the south-eastern parts ofAlgiers, to Tunis, to Tripoli , and the corresponding partsof the Sahara. Their dialects are the Larua and
Z enaitia.
Lam a is the nam e of the Am azig of the Isle of
THE AMAZIG . 1 1 1
Dzherba, and of theDzhebel N fus in Tunis . In Tripoli
it is spoken in the town of Z uara. In A lgeria it islim ited to som e of the oases
,being especially stated to
be spoken at W aregla, Tem asin , and Tuggurt, collectively
called W adreag . Carrette observes, as Hodgson had
done before him,that the A m azig population of W ad
reag is extrem ely dark—alm ost as black as that of thenegro, the features being other than negro . The Arabsof the sam e district are only brown .
The oasis of Twat is the locality of the Z enaitia formof speech .
(5) The Tuarik, who, perhaps should be less tren
chantly separated from the Berbers of W adreag and
Twat , are the occupan ts of the rest of the Sahara, are
bounded on the east by the Tibbu, and on the south bythe Nigritian , or Sudanian , populations.
The oasis of Siwah, the ancient Am m onium , is Am az ig .
The part of the A m az ig area which is best known is
(as m ay be expected) Algeria. For this we have the
following statistics, taken from an elaborate work of
Carrette on the origin and m igrations of the principal
tribes of Northern Africa.
P RO V IN C E O F
An nzig .
Circle of R6 ne
Lacalle
L’
Edough
Guelm a
P hillipville
Constantine
Setif
Kalifat of Medzhana
Eastern K abilia
C O N STAN T IN E .
Arabs.
49, 18 0
1
1 12 THE AMAZIG .
PRO V IN CE O F A LG IERS .
Arabs.
Subdivision of Algiers
MilianaMedea
O r1eansvi11e
The Sahara .
Total
P RO V I N CE or O RAN .
Arabs.
Subdivision of Oran
Mostaganem
Tlem cen
Maskara
The Sahara
Total
REC AP ITU LATIO N .
Arabs.
Province of Constantine
Algiers
Oran
Total
From Carette we get the following contributions
to the history of the nam e . The Arab are
chiefly founded on the word Berber. O ne is to the effect
that when Afrik, the son of Kis, the son of Saifi, in
vaded Africa from the Him yarite parts of Arabia,and
heard what he thought was the patois of the native
tribes, he exclaim ed,
“ What a herberai ” (i . e. jargon) !
Another derives the Berbers from Ber, the son of Kis,
a king of E gypt . A third m akes them a colony of
Am alekites, who m urm ured (berbm a) at being taken so
far from their country . A fourth gives the Berbers and
1 14 THE AMAZIG .
com m on in the history of the Desert tribes, he broke thepower of the Alm oravids, the power of the Alm oravidsitself being Am az ig. If he really com posed a work inthe Am azig language, on the nature of G od
, and the
duties of m an to m an , it m ust be the oldest com position
in any African language, save and except the E thiopicand E gyptian . However, he died A .D . 1 130, and ap
pointed Abd-cl-Mum ed, warrior and insurgen t, as his
successor ; warrior, insurgent, and conqueror. H e te
duced the power of the Alm oravides, and the power of
the Arabs. H e invaded Spain, conquering Grenada.
H e was a conqueror and an adm inistrator as well ; thefounder, too, of the Alm ohad dynasty, which lasted till
A .D . 126 9, when it was overthrown by the Beni Mrin of
the Z enate division .
I have m en tioned the Alm oravids and their power.
W ho were they ? Word for word, Al-m oravid is Mara
bout,a Marabout being, in Morocco and the Mandingo
coun tries, aMahom etan priest . TheAlm oravid is by farthe m ost im portant of all the Am azig dynasties ; and in
a notice of the Am az ig populations as an influence in the
world’s history, the Alm oravid kings are to Africa what
the lines of Tshingiz -khan, Tam erlane, or Togrul Begare in Asia. It was the Alm oravids who m ost especially
carried Mahom etanism into N igritia, Sudan is , or the
black districts of Africa, as opposed to E gypt and
Mauritania. Tim buktuis an Alm oravid foundation .
This presum es that the details of Carette in the di fficul tseparation of the Am azig from the Arabs are to be taken
as they are found. I have neither the will nor the wayof taking ex ceptions to them in general . I only confess
that, at tim es, I see a difference between the evidence and
the doctrine . How little, too, is the criticism that hasbeen expended on the detai ls of AfricanMahom etanism ?
THE FULA . l 15
O ne contribution towards a clear view of them is the
history of Am azig. Another is that ofThe FuIa.
—Towards the end of the last century a vast
num ber of wandering pastoral tribes spread over that
part of Cen tral Africa whi ch is called Sudania, andunder
went a change in respect to their social and political
organization, which Prichard com pares with that of the
A rabs at the tim e of Mahom et. Manyw but not all—of
them em bracedMahom etanism , and that with m ore than
ordinary zeal and devotion . They visited the m ore civi
lized parts of Barbary, they perform ed pilgrim ages to
Mecca, they recogni zed in one of their sheiks, called
Danfodio, a prophet with a m ission, to preach, to convert,to conquer. Under his inspiration they attacked the
pagan populations of the countries around Guber to the
north, and Kubbi to the south, Z am fra, Kashua, and
parts of the Houssa coun try to the east. Their war-crywas Alla Akbar ; their robes and flags were white, em
blem atic of their purity . Kano was conquered without
a blow, so was Yaouri , so was the town of Eyo or
Katunga on theNiger, so was part of the Nufi or Tapua
country—even the frontier of Bornuwas violated.
Danfodio’
s death, which took place in 18 18 , was pre
ceded by fits of religious m adness ; not, however, before
he had consolidated a great Fellatah kingdom ,and
becom e the terror to the States around. It was in vain
that a portion of his conquests revolted. The present
Sultan of Sakkatuis the m ost powerful prince of Africa,whether pagan orMahom etan .
Most of these Fellatas are Mahom etans,som e retaining
their original paganism ; but whether pagan or Maho
m etan, they are still the sam e people. Their features arethe sam e
, their pastoral habits the sam e, their language
the sam e . This is one of the m ost isolated tongues of
1 2
1 16 THE FULA.
Africa ; with plen ty of m iscellaneous, but no very defi
nite or special , affinities.
In Borgho, i . e. in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa,visited by Lander, there are two populations, one speaking
a language akin to the Yoruba, one akin to the Fellatah ;so that there are Fellata offsets in Borgho . But here,according to Lander, they have been in the country from
tim e im m em orial . Here, too, they hold them selves as a
separate people from the Fellatas of S akkatu, dom inan t
and powerful as that branch is, and respectable as would
be the connection . Such , at least, is Lander’
s statem ent.
Their nam e,too
,undergoes a slight m odification ,
and is
Filani . They have neither idea nor tradition as to their
origin .
All this looks as if Borgho were the original country
of the Fellata stock , the starting-poin t from which
they spread them selves abroad . I f so, their m ovem ent
m ust have been from south to north .
But we have yet to hear the whole of their history.
Under the nam es of Fula, Fulahs, Foule or Peule, theyappear elsewhere . Where ? A s far north as the Wolof
(or Jolof) country—as far north as the parts betweenthe Senegal and the desert—as far north as 17° N .L .
Here, between Galam and Kayor, is a vast Fula district—the district of the Fulas of the S iratik. Here
,on the
south bank of the river,lie the Fulas of Foutatorro, an
elevated tract of land form ing the watershed to the
Senegal and the Gam bia.
Thirdly, far in the interior, on the high ground over
which Park passed from the drainage of the Senegal to
that of the Niger, is a Fula-da, or coun try of the Fulas,between Bam buk and Bam barra.
Fourthly, there are the Fulas to the south of Bam
m akoo, in the parts called W asselah, on the Niger itself.
1 18 THE EULA.
borders of the Senegal between Podbon and Galam , are
black with a tinge of red or copper colour ; they are in
general handsom e and well-m ade ; the wom en are hand
som e, but proud and indolent.” Hence, to the Fula
jallo Fulas the very definite and suggestive term Red
Peuls has been applied ; to which the nam e Black
Peuls stands in opposition, this m eaning the Fulas of
the north bank of the Lower Senegal .
Fulah.
The extent to which the tribes of the present chapter
agree or difi'
er is a question of no little interest. S o is
the nature of their historical actions and reactions upon
each other . That these have been considerable is certainand it is also certain that the results have been im portan t.
Herein lies the justification of the m anner in which theyhave been grouped . I an far from being certain that it
is strictly ethnological. The H owssa populations are
black, and have been com pared to negros. The A m azig
are liker to the Arabs.
The A m azig are Mahom etans. Many of the H owssa
people are pagans. In all this there is difference . A t
THE EULA . 1 19
the sam e tim e there has been historical contact, and inthis historical contact lies the natural character of the
group . Tim buctoo is said to be an Am az ig foundation .
I t stands, however, on Sungai soil . Sackatustands on
H owssa soil but the dynasty that rules it is Fula.
Again—the earliest division of the Am azig tribes, evi
dently that of a logograph, rather than an actual observer,is that of Ebu Khaldun . H e arranges the population
under one of two divisions ; (1) that of the Brani, and
(2) that of theMedgras. This division is said to have
had its origin in Eastern Algiers. In the province of
Constan tine is an ancient m onum ent believed by the
natives to be the burial-place of their oldest kings . I t
is calledMedgrfisen. The valley of one of the rivers of
Mount Aures (the Mons Aurasius) is called Wadi Branis.
The nam e Bran is occurs again in Morocco . K sila, the
m ost im portant Opponent of the early Mahom etan in
vaders, is said to have been a king of Aurba and Branis.
The subdivisions of the Brani were
1 . Azdadzha. 5 . Ketam a.
2 . Masm uda. 6 . S enhadzha.
3. Auria. 7 . Aurira.
4. Adzbisa.
O f theMedgras, also called El-Beter,1 . Addasa. 3. Dari ia.
2 . N fusa. 4. Lenta.
The subdivisions are again subdivided ; e. g
The Aurira are divided into the Hauara, the Meld (or
Lehana) , theMkhar, and the FeldanThe Hauara fall into theMhla and K em lan
The Meld into the S tat, U rfel,Mserta, AkilThe Mkhar into the Maus, Zem ur, Kebba, and
Merisa ;The Feldan into the Kem sana, Urstif, Biata, and Bel.
120 THE m enu) AND m osm o.
Word for word, I believe Brani to be Bom u. Does
this, then, m ean that the history of the Algerian Bran i is
the history of a Kanuri population ? Not necessarily.
All that it necessarily m eans is that the gloss Brani was
widely diffused .
Again—the darkness of the Tuarik skin has long com
m anded attention . What does it com e from ? From a
southern occupancy, or from negro interm ixture ? O r
from both Future inquiries m ay give the answer .
The following is Dr . Barth ’s accoun t of the oasis of
Ghat. A freem an in the Berber there spoken is A m o
shag, freem en being Im oshag. A n unfree person ,
on the
contrary, isA m ghi, of which the plural is Im ghad . Thislatter term , which the author first m istook for a Gen tile
nam e,afterwards proved to be a com m on term for subor
dinate populations in general . That there was a differ
ence in form and feature between the Im oshag and the
Im ghad is expressly stated . It is also stated that this was
greater with the wom en than the m en . Many of these
were alm ost black , and (as such) m ore or less like negros.
The evidence that any difference of language coincided
with this difference is by no m eans decided . Many o f
the pe0p1e, indeed, seem to be bilingual ; but by far the
greater part of the m en do not even understand the
H owssa language . Do the wom en I am persuaded
that they were originally Berbers who have becom e de
graded by interm ixture with black natives.
” This m ay
or m ay not be the case.
The Im ghad, capable of furn ishing about 5000 m en ,
are divided into four sections—the Batanatang, the Farkana, the S egigatang, and the W arwaren . They live inthe parts around Ghat rather than in the town i tself.A m az ig of Morocco.
—Except in the parts along the
Mediterranean there are A m azig tribes over the whole of
122 THE GUANCHES .
Euglish.
H ouse
H og
Green F ig
Sky
Valley
The parts between Morocco and the drainage of the
Senegal are chiefly Arab perhaps wholly so in regard to
language. A t any rate, the A m az ig elem ents have yet to
be investigated .
The Tibbu language , originally placed in the sam e
class with the Am az ig, has sin ce been separated—in m y
m ind, prem aturely.
THE W OLOF, m e. 123
CHAPTER XV .
The Wolof or Jolof. Serere.—Serawuli .—Felup .—Balantes.—Biafar.
N alu.—Sapi .—Bagnon—Ba.go.
-Bisasse .
The W olofi—The Lower Senegal is the occupancy of
the Wolofs, or Jolofs, who are black-skinned, tal l, and
well-m ade. The lips are but m oderately thick, the fore
head being prom inen t ; som etim es rem arkably so . Mahom etanism has, as yet, m ade but little progress with theWolof. At the sam e tim e they are intelligent and ener
getic . From the parts about Lake Kayor to the north
of the Senegal , as far as to the parts about Cape Verde,
the Wolof language is spoken . Akin to it is that of
The Sereres, the actual occupants of Cape Verde ; who,like the Wolofs, are black pagans, with m aritim e apti
tudes. Both Wolofs and S ereres m ay be foun d in
London, having com e over as sailors ; the form er being
the com m oner.
Not so
The S eruwali .—The S erawuli lie to the back of the
Wolof area, and are awholly inland population ; pastoralrather than agricultural ; black, well-m ade, and energetic .
Khlle states that they are divided into six tribes, viz . ,the G adsaga, the G idem ara, the B anyaga, the D zafunu,
the Haire, and the Gangari . Galam , K aarta, L ndam ar,
and parts of the Bam barra coun try, are, m ore or less,S erawuli .
124 THE FELUP, ETC .
Serawuli .
yahare
yim o
norona
yaretaro
rakekam benene
kin
im beWater dsi
banefillo
sikuo
narato
karago.
The Felup coun try is a low alluvium between the m ouths of the Gam bia and C asam anca : the
people being rude and savage . They file their teeth, andoccupy but a sm all area. What applies to them applies
,
generally, to the populations of the coast from the G am
bia to the Mandingo fron tier. Several m utually unin
telligible languages are spoken within a com paratively
sm all area. Such is that of
The P apel, at the back of the Portuguese settlem ents
at the m outh of the Cacheo also on one or m ore of the
Bissago islands. Such is that ofThe Bagnon, another population of the Cacheo. Such,too
,is that of
The Balantes or Bulanda, spoken in part of the Bissago
group, and also on the con tinent.
English. Felup. Bulanda.Man ancius
Wom an aseh
H ead fokouenyundo
gizil
126 THE BIAFADA .
The Naluhas both Bagnon and Bulanda affinities.
THE m snm oos. 127
CHAPTER XVI .
TheMandingo Group.—Bago of Kalum —Tim m ani.—Bullom .
-TheVei
Synabafim —Susu, &c.—Sokko, &c.
—The Krum en.
TheMandingos, Bem lm k, Bam barra, and Dzhallunha popu
latiam .—The western portion of the Sungai areaisbounded
by the m ost inland m em bers of the great Mandingo fam ily,som e of which are to be found on the D zholiba, som e on
the upper feeders of the Senegal , som e on the Gam bia,som e on the sea-coast, along whi ch they ex tend from the
parts opposite the Isles de L os to Cape Moun t ; further
too than this if,by m oderately raising the value of the
class, we include the Krum en am ongst the Mandingos.
However, the m ost inland portion of the Mandingo
coun try is Bam barra on the D zholiba west of which lie
Bem buk and D zhallunkadu, or D zhallunkaland then
the proper Mandingo districts on the Lower Gam bia.
All these populations are Mahom etan , com m ercial, and,com paratively speaking, civilized ; the di fferences of dia
lect lying within a sm all com pass .
I f ao, why place them here W hy not have brought
them in contact with the Am az ig and Fulas of a preced
ing chapter ? The answer to this lies in the fact of the
fam ily being a large one, and of the foregoing characteristics being applicable to only a part of it. Much of
what is Mandingo, in the wider sense of the term , is
pagan, rude, and isolated.A t the m outh of the river Nunez som e of these rude
128 THE MANDINGOS .
m em bers appear on the coast,which continues to be, m ore
or less, Mandingo until we pass Cape Moun t .The Bago of Kalum , opposite the Isles de L os, speak
a dialect, which along with that of the Landom a of Kfille,
is closely akin to
The Tim neh, or Tim m am'
,to the east of Sierra Leone.
Akin to which isThe Bullom , of which the Mam pa or Sherbro is a
dialect.The Vei .—The parts about Cape Mount are the occu
pancy of the V ei .
The existence of what has been called a native alphabet in the V ei language m ust now be noticed . It has
been known about nine years, and has com m anded the
atten tion of m ore than one investigator. The first notice
of it was given in the beginning of 1849 , by the com
m ander of H .M.S . Bonetta, Lieut . Forbes, who enquired
whether the m issionaries of S ierra Leone had ever heard
of a written language am ongst the natives of the parts
about Cape Mount . H e also showed aMS . , which was
soon afterwards in England and in the hands of Mr.
Norris, who decyphered and translated it. Meanwhile the
Missionary Com m ittee appointedMr. Kolle to visit the
country referred to by Lieut. Forbes and to m ake inqui
ries on the spot . This led him to the presence of a V ei
native, nam ed D oaluBukere, about forty years old. H e
,
assisted by five of his friends, invented the alphabet in
question ; the details being as follows
About fifteen years ago he (DoaluBukere) dream ed a
dream ,in which a tall
,venerable white m an , in a long
coat, appeared to him , saying, I em sent to youby other
white m en .
”
DoaluBukere.—What for
Man in the long coat. -I bring youa book.
130 THE vm ALPHABET.
The im portan t poin t connected with its valuation as a
proof of capacity, is the fact, that D . B . had learned,when
a youth, to read English, and, afterwards, Arabic . A m is
sionary had taught him when a boy, and the Koran wasthe creed of his people. When grown to be a m an he
was all but a regular letter-carrier . H is m asters,who
were slavers and traders,despatched him to distan t places
as a m essenger,and he toldMr. Kalle that the com m uni
cation of distant events by m eans of the letters he con
veyed struck him very forcibly. How is this, that
m y m aster knows everything I have done in a distant
place 9 H e only looks at the book, and this tells him
all. Such a thing we ought to have, by which we
could speak to each other even though separated by a
great distance.
”
Kalia Bara, too, speaks of the sense the V ei people had
of the advan tages of being able to write . A t that tim e
m y father D oaluW orogbe began to like books. A nd the
people said the Poro (Europeans) have long heads ; nobody has such a long head as the Poro. But som e o f
our people did not believe this. Then I said to m y
father Why do you call what I m aintain a lie ? Can
any V ei m an write a letter to his friend,and that friend
read it
I think that over and above the wish of the V ei to
have an alphabet, they wished also to have a peculiar one—one that the Arabs and English could not read, though
the Vei could . That their language particularly required
a syllabarium nowhere seem s to have struck them ; nor
does it strike us. The V ei is a Mandingo form of speech,and to the ordinary Mandingo the Arabic alphabet has
long been applied wi thout inconvenience. Upon the
whole, D . B.
’
s alphabet is a cypher, rather than aught else .At the sam e tim e
, the conversion o f an alphabet into a
THE KRUMEN . 131
syllabarium is a work requiring som e thought and in
genui ty .
A t the back of the Bullom , Tim m ani , and V ei districts,lie
The K iw i,
TheMendi areas, wherein are spoken languages akin to
the Pessa, Kossa, and other Mandingo form s of speech .
The details of the south-eastern extension of theMan
dingo area are unknown . It is believed, however, thatthey extend over som e portion of the Kong range , so as
to lie behind not only the K m coun try, but the parts
to the back of the Ivory, and even part of the Gold,
Coast. The dialects o f these districts belong chiefly toThe Sohko, or A sakha, division .
I have just stated that by m oderately raising the value
of the Mandingo class we m ay include within it the K m,
or Krum en , populations. Indeed, the Gio andMano dia
lects of K iille are transitional .
The Km ,Km m en, or Croom en, speak the Dewoi (at the
back of Cape Mesurado) , the Basa, the K m (or K ru
proper) , the Grebo, and the Gbe form s of speech of
Kfille ; akin to which are the Kanga, Mangri , and Gien ,dialects of the Mithridates. They extend from Cape
Mount to Cape Palm as .
The K ruhas been called the Scotchm an of Africa.
H e leaves, without hesitation ,his own country to push
a fortune wherever a wider field is to be found . H e is
ready for any em ploym en t which m ay enable him to in
crease his m eans, and ensure a return hom e in a state of
im proved prosperity . There the Krum an’
s am bition is to
purchase one or two head of cattle, and one or two head
of wives, and to enjoy the luxuries of rum and tobacco .
Half the Africans that we see in Liverpool and London
x 2
132 THE KRUMEN .
are Krum en, who have left their own country when young,and taken em ploym ent on board a ship, where they exhi
bit a natural aptitude for the sea. Without being nice
as to the destination of the vessel in which they‘
engage,they return hom e as soon as they can and rarely or never
contract m atrim ony before their return . In Cape Coast
Town, as well as in Sierra Leone, they form a bachelor
com m unity, quiet and orderly ; and in that respect stand
in strong contrast to the other tribes around them .
Besides which, wi th all their blackness, and all their typi
cal negro character, they are distinguishable from m ost
other western Africans ; having the advantage of them in
m ake,features, and industry. Hence, a Krum an is pre
em inently the free labourer of Africa ; quick of percep
tion and am enable to instruction . H is language has been
reduced to writing by the Am erican m issionaries of Cape
Palm as.
134
English, one.
A vekvom , eton.
Kossa, ita .
Passe, tah.
Kru, da .
Bassa, do.
Popo, da.
Haussa, dea .
English, two.
A vekvom , anyu.
Popo, one .
English, three.
Avekvom ,aza.
Ubobo, ezza .
Kossa, shau.
Pessa, saua.
English, four.
Avekvom , ana.
THE AVEKVOM.
Mandingo, &c., nam'
.
Kru, &c. , nm'
e.
English, five.
Avekvom , enyu.
Fanti, m um .
Ashanti, inm'
.
Avekvom , awd .
Ako, edit.
English, eight.
Avekvom , etye.
Ashanti, auotui .Fanti, auotut
'
.
Apps, tita.
Popo, tutu.
Moko, tua.
The chief fam ily of the interior is one for which Ipropose the nam e
K ouri .—The Kouri area, as I im agine, lies between the
Kong m oun tains and the Niger,beginning where the
eastern divisions of the Mandingo group end. It is also
bounded by the H owssa and Ashanti areas. The country
has not been ex plored by Eumpeans. Word for word,
idu, Grebo.
sis, shia, Grebo.
gise, Grebe.
nyeng,Mandingo gne, Grebe.
usu, F anti .
m uso,Mandingo m besia, Fanti .
isu, Fanti.
nye, Grebo no, Efik.
0 10 , Yelm .
fa,Mand ingo ; pa, Yelm .
THE GOLD COAST TRIBES . 135
I believe Kouri to be G oburi, Gum bt i, K afir, and
Giaour.
The Fantis , A shantis, and other allied populations of
the Gold Coast, com e now under notice . The m ost
general nam e for the language of these parts is,according
to Riis, who has published a gram m ar of it, O tshi. Itis spoken by the A shanti,Denkyira, and Vasa populations ;also by the Fanti ; also by the natives of the districtsnam ed Akim and Akwam (Akwam bu) ; also by those of
Akripon and seven other towns o f Akwapim .
In the O tshi pantheon the suprem e divin ity is called
O njam a, or N yankupong, the latter word m eaning thesky or heavens. Nyankupong is also called O dam angkam a
,
or the Creator ; Am osu, the rain-giver ; A m ovua, the
sun-giver. The spirits of the hill , the forest, the
rock , the river, & c . , are called O bosom,apparently a
derivative from the root sum shadow, Abonsam being
the evil dem on , and Sasabonsam the god o f the earth,
m ore bad than good .
These points are noticed because we are now in a partof Africa where the Mahom etan influences are at a
m inimum ,and where the pagan observances are known to
a fair degree of accuracy. W e are in the region of the
purest, i . e. the grossest and m ost unm odified, fetichismsnake-worship, m edicine-m en , obi-sorcerers, superstitious
ordeals, devil-drivers, and Mum bojum bos. The inhabi
tan ts of a Fan ti village m eet at n ightfall , with sticks and
staves, to yell and howl . By doing this they fancy that
they have frightened the devils from the land, which
when they have done, they feast.
The yam custom is held in Septem ber . The king
takes part in it. S o do his m edicine-m en . S o does
every one else who can . A procession is form ed ; noisy,irregular ; over which the king, seated in a basket, carried
136 THE GOLD COAST TRIBES .
by his slaves , and with an um brella over his head, pre
sides. O n reaching his dwelling, a sacrifice is m ade of
eggs and fowls. It used (as is believed) to have been one
of a hum an being. A yarn is then tasted, and pro
nounced fit to eat. This having been done, the people
consider them selves free to dig for them .
A fisherm an will not go to sea on a Tuesday, nor will
a huntsm an enter the forest on a Friday.
A being nam ed Tahbil resides in the substance of the
rock upon which Cape Coast is built, and watches the
town . Every m orning, offerings of food or flowers are
left for him on the rock. Most villages have a corresponding deity ; and in earlier tim es there is good reason
for believing that hum an beings were sacrificed to him .
I f the survivors of a deceased Fanti be poor, the corpse
is quietly in terred in one of the denser spots of the
jungles ; and if rich, the funeral is at once costly and
bloody ; since gold and jewels are buried along with the
dead body, and hum an sacrifices notunfrequen tly offered.
The adm inistration of justice is rude and sum m ary,the evidence consisting, for the m ost part, in either absurd
ordeals or cruel tortures. The dhoom test is com m on
over all western Africa. A poisonous or an em etic infusion is m ade. Innocence drinks and ejects, gui lt swallows
and dies of, it. That the priest, sorcerer, or m edicine
m an is often the detector of crim e is what we expect.
What is called tying Guinea fashion is one of the
sharpest of their tortures. The arm s are drawn togetherbehind the back by a cord fix ed half-way between the
elbows and shoulders. A piece of wood is then inserted,by m eans of which the cord can be tightened or loosened.
The African analogue of the boot is a block of wood and
a staple. By driving in the staple any am ount of ago
nizing pressure can be applied .
138 THE GOLD COAST ‘
l‘
RIBES .
the m others being perm itted to choose their husband, and
to sell him if he fail to sui t.
There is slavery everywhere. The worst form of
slavery is that of the captive taken in war. H is life is
spared in order that he m ay be sold. A m ilder condition
is that of the adstrictus fam ilies . Here the servitude is
dom estic , and the slave is one of the fam ily. Rem oval
from the native soil is ensured against. Slavery of this
kind is often voluntary . A n able—bodied m an m ay pawnhis body, or borrow m oney on his labour. O f course
debts m ay be worked out on this principle.
The A ccra, Inhra, or, as the natives call it, the Gha
language is nearly related to the O tshi, being spoken
near Cape Castle, the Adam pi or Tam bi‘ being a. dialect
of it.
The K errapay is spoken in Abiruw, O daw, A okugwa
(with Abonse), Adukrum and Apiradi, villages or towns
of Akwapim , other than O tshi ; in which, however, the
O tshi, as the language of the dom inant population , is
generally understood .
D ate and Kubease.—These, like Abiraw ,
& c . ,are Ak
wapim villages, whereof the language is other than O tshi .
It is other than K errapong, K errapay, K errapi, or Kre
pee as well .Euglish.
dodo'
e
N ot Tem bu, which is a Kouri dialect.
Xw pe.
edioéché
j im m l
awn.
walirotev
’
e
sv’
vnvoh
m sh’
nu
baiys
u'
chuor am m a
THE GO LD COAST TRIBES . 139
Akkn h.
yo
bakeob
’
bh o
abbe’
fah’
o
White m an blofonyo
n'yahéchuor echo
echawé
sm ay or hingm agungo
nnrbo
néoneéng
111111.
toé or toy
eku’
m e
en’yo
etta
edi’
wa
en’
nu’
m o
sh’pah
pah’
wo
pah’no
n‘
a’
ing
nu’m ah
This is the nam e for either the chief tribe
or the chief language of Dahom ey. O f all the countriesof Africa, Dahom ey has the credit of being the m ost
truly savage. The greatest o f the fetishes is the snake,which finds its way into both holy and secular buildings,and is feared, fed, and respected . Slavery, like super
stition ,is nowhere m ore general than in Dahom ey . S o
is cruelty both in war and punishm ents . The Dahom ey
A m azons have com m anded attention . The king is said
to have a regim ent consisting of four thousand of his
wives. Strange as this (even allowing for exaggerations)appears to be, it is of a part with the institutions of the
neighbouring coun tries . Where wives are m arried by
the score or hundred, they m ust be utilized . C lapperton
found the queens and half-queens of the King of Eyeo
at long distances from the palace trading for him half
140 THE GOLD COAST TRIBES .
agents, half-housekeepers, with heavy loads on their
heads, just like the wives of ordinary m onogam ists .
The King of Kiam a’
s wives were som ething m ore. H e
showed him self to C lapperton with his train, in which
were six spear-bearers, young girls from fifteen to seventeen years of age, with a fillet round their heads, strings
of beads round their waists, and nothing anywhere else .
The following are translations of som e of the Dahom ey
songs.
1 .
W hen Yorubah said she could conquer Dahom eyW hen we m eet we
’11 change their night into day ;
Let the rain fall :
The season past, the river dries.Yorohah and Dahom ey !
Can two ram s drink from one calabash l
The Yorihshs m ust have been drunk to sayDahom ey feared them ,
They could conquer Dahom ey .2.
There’
8 a difl'
erence between Geso and a poor m m ;
There'
8 a difl'
erence between Geso and a rich m an.
If a rich m an owned all,Gezo would sti ll be king .
A ll guns are not alike ;Som e are long, som e short, som e thick, som e thin.
The Yoribahs m ust be a drunken nation,
And thus we will dance before them .
3.
Gezo is king of kingsW hile Gezo lives we have nothing to fear.
Under him we are lions, not m en.
Power em anates from the king .
4.
Let all eyes behold the king !There are not two but one
One only, Gezo !A
‘
ll nations have their custom s,But none so brilliant or enlightened,
As those of Dahom ey .
People from far countries are here
Behold all nations, white and black,Send their am bassadors .
142 THE 1 0 1m m snoop .
m an whether it be hum an or not. Som ething m ust be
offered up ; if a m an ,a crim inal .
The land rises gradually from the sea, being strong and
clayey, until it reaches a granite range of hills, between
400 and 800 feet above the level of the narrow, winding,and well-watered valleys. The hillier the land the scantier
the wood. The wom en , who are, as usual,slaves and
drudges to the m en, are coarse-looking and plain . The
m en ,however
,have less o f the characteristic features o f
the negro than any I (i . e. Captain C lapperton) have
yet seen ; their lips are less thick, and their noses m ore
inclined to the aquiline shape than negroes in general .
The m en are well m ade, and have an independent
carriage
In the province of Wawuthe nam e Cum brie appears
word for word, in m y m ind, K aflir. When C lapperton
asked the Sultan of Bowssa who were first inhabitants of
the country, he answered The Cum brie ; his own an
cestors having com e from Bornu, and the Sultan of Nike
being descended from a younger branch . I understand
this to m ean that certain elem en ts of the Bowssa civiliza
tion cam e from the east,i . e. partly from Bornu and
partly from H owssa ; the H owssa language being under
stood by even the Cum brie.
The details of the G ha and Yoruba have been exhibi
ted by native ethnologists ; strange as the term m ay
appear. More than one paper on the form er nation has
been published byMr. Hanson, m ore than one edi tion of
a Yoruba gram m ar byMr. Crowther. O nMr. Hanson ’
s
notices m ore will be said in the sequel . Mr. Crowther’s
gram m ar gives us the following legend and proverbs
It is said by the Yorubans, that fifteen persons were sent from a certain
region ; and that a sixteenth, whose nam e was Oham bi (an only child),and who was afterwards m ade king of Yoruba, volunteered to accom pany
THE YORUBA GROUP . 143
them . The personage who sent them out presented Okam bi with a sm all
piece of black cloth, with som ething tied up in it ; besides a fowl, a servant, and a trum peter. Okinkin was the nam e of the trum peter. Ou
opening the gate of this unknown region, they observed a large expanseof water before them ,
through whi ch they were obliged to wade . As they
went ou, Ohinhin , the trum peter, rem inded Oham bi of the sm all piece of
cloth, by sounding the trum pet accord ing to the instructions he had pre
viously received from the personage above m entioned. The cloth beingopened, a palm -nut, which was deposited in it with som e earth, fell into
the water. The nut grew im m ediately into a tree, which had sixteenbranches. As the travellers were all fatigued from their long m arch in
the water, they were very glad of this unexpected m eans of relief ; and
soon clim bed up, and rested them selves on the branches. W hen theyhad recruited their strength, they prepared again for the journey yet
not without great perplexity, not knowing in what direction they shouldproceed . In this situation, a certain personage, O kikisi, saw them from
the region whence they set out, and rem inded Ohinhin , the trum peter,of his duty ; on which he sounded again, and thus rem inded Oham bi ofthe sm all piece of black cloth, as before. Ou open ing it
, som e earth
dropped into the water, and becam e a sm all bank ; when the fowl whichwas given to Oham bi flew upon it, and scattered it and wherever theearth touched the water, it im m ediately dried up. Okam bi then de
scended from the palm -tree, allowing only his servant Tstfi, and his trumpeter, to com e down with him . The other persons begged that them ight be allowed to com e down ; but he did not com ply with their re
quest until they had prom ised to pay him , at certain tim es, a tax of 200
cowries each person .
Thus originated the kingdom of Yoruba, which was afterwards calledlife; from whence three brothers set out fora further discovery of bettercountries.
1 .
Marks m ade with buje do not last m ore than nine days,Marks m ade with inabi do not last m ore than a year.
2.
The farm -house will be after the farm ,
The ridge of the roof will be after the house.
3.
If youhave no m oney (to give), youm ay pay visits ;
If youcannot visit, youm ay send kind m essages.
4.
A pleader (with the gods) wards ofl' death,
A pleader (with the judge) wards ofl' punishm ent ,
If the heat is oppressiveA fan wards off that.
144 THE YORUBA GROUP .
5.
However a ruined m ud wall m ay be garnished, the trouble will beuseless ;
But all trouble bestowed upon things m ade of wood is advantageous.
6 .
The owner m ay broach his cask of liquid, or barrel of powder ;But he who is sent with it dares not breach the cask.
7.
He who sees another'
s faults knows well how to talk about them ;
But he covers his own with a potsherd.
8 .
Ordinary people are as com m on as grass ;
But good people are dearer than an eye.
9.
Let the white pigeon tell the woodpecker,Let bird tell bird.
10.
When there are no elders, the town is ruined ;W hen the m aster dies, the house is desolate.
1 1 .
Beg for help and youwill m eet with refusals ;Ask for aim s, and youwill m eet with m isers.
1 2.
W e wake, and find m arks on the palm of our hand,W e do not know who m ade them ;
W e wake, and hnd an old debt,W e do not know who contracted it.
13.
If a needle fall from a leper's hand, it requires consideration (topick itup)
If a great m atter is before the council, it requires deep thought.
1 4.
N o one can cure a m onkey of squatting ;So no one can deprive a m an of his birthright.
1 5.
A pistol has not a bore like a cannon ;A poor m an has not m oney at his com m and as the rich.
1 6 .
A wild boar, in the place of a pig, would ravage the townAnd a slave m ade king would spare nobody.
146 THE m os.
English .
ode
OW O
ato
ene
etc.
The Iho Group .—Conterm inous with the Yoruba area
lies that of the Ibo group, on each side of the Nun stream
of the Niger. Here reside several of the kings and king
lings with whom our treaties have to be m ade against the
slave trade kings who give licences to trade, and who
m ake the access to the in terior part of the coun try prac
ticable or the con trary. There are kings and cabooceers
-viceroys with kings over them—so that there is a sort
of feudal chain of vassalage and sovereignty. King
Em m ery , for instance, was, at the tim e of the Niger
Expedition , the chief of a village on the river Nun , him
self being a subject to King Boy of Brass Town . Then
there was the kingdom of Iddah , with its subordinate
kingships, whi lst Kakanda and Egga were the dependen
cies of a really consolidated m onarchy at Sakkatu.
A t best, however, the African m onarch, except in
the Mahom etan kingdom s, is but a sorry potentate ; a
drunken, sensual , slave-dealing polygam ist. W hen Drs.
Mcw illiam and Stanger visited this sam e King Em m ery,his dress was a uniform coatee that had belonged to a
drum m er in som e English regim ent, a plain black hat,
THE 130 8 . 14-7
and a blue cotton handkerchief for the lower m an—a
blue cotton handkerchief for drawers, trousers and stock
ings, collectively ; the dress of the ordinary natives being
lim ited to a sim ple shirt, with a cloth round the m iddle .
In this we get one of the m easures of the am oun t of
English influence and trade.
The huts are of clay, arranged in squares rather thanin rows ; andwhen the soil is low and liable to be hooded,they are raised som e feet from the ground on a founds
tion of wooden pillars ; in which case a ladder leads tothe principal opening. The king’s palace is an assem blageof such huts ; a m iniature town ; one side of the square
which they form being the wom en’
s quarters. Here
reside the num erous wives, half-wives, and ex-wives ofthe sovereign
,the num ber of which is always conside
rable, since the rank of the m an regulates it. The fol
lowing table gives na, in the first colum n, the nam es ofthe di fferen t m em bers of the Court of King O bi of Iboin 1840 ; in the others, their age, and the num bers of
their w ives and fam ilies
W ives. Cm nnnm t.
Age. Living Dead . Linus.
Ajeh, king’s brotherAm orara, judge and king
’s
!m outhO zam a, headm an
Om enibo,headm an
Am ebak, headm an
Magog, buglerAm bili, headm anOgrou, headm anObi. king
The nearer the sea the greater the am oun t of negrocharacteristics.
The Ibos of the Delta are extrem e negros. Not so ,however, the inhabitants of Iddah, where the greater
L 2
148 THE AKELI .
altitude of the district and the superior dryness operatein their favour . The people are in general well-m ade ;the features are m ore softened and rounded than the Ibus.
Their lips protrude, but are less thick ; the foreheadam ple, though retreating . Altogether they have a lookof superior intelligence .
”
When they touch the Yoruba and Nuh districts, the
Ibo tribes com e within the weak influence of an im perfeetMahom etanism . A s a rule they are Pagans. They
are succeeded by the tribes who speak
The E117: and its allied dialects, occupan ts of the partsabout the old Calebar River, but closely related toThe A ttam or O tam populations of inland districts, the
exact boundary of whose area is unknown . O n the
south the B111: and A ttam tribes are succeeded by
The Bim bia, Dualla, and Isubu tribes, closely akin to
which are
The A m boise Islanders and the Ediya of Fernando P o,m en whose skins are yellow or coppery, rather thanblack the island being volcanic .
The Benga.-The Benga inhabit the Islands of Corisco
Bay and the two capes by which the bay is bounded.
They am oun t to about 4000. Their language is spoken
by a num ber of allied tribes to the north and north-east.
To theMbiko, Dibwe, Belengi, and the population ex
tending southward it is unintelligible. The language of
these is probably that of
The Mpongwe, or tribes of the lower G abfin, to the
back of which lie
The Aheli, whose language is the Bakeli , and whose
skins are lighter than those of the coastm en , darker than
those of the m ountaineers of the interior. Their bodies
are said to be disproportionately long to the extrem ities .
They fall into divisions and sub-divisions ; are often at
150 THE m us GROUP .
CHAPTER XVIII .
The Kafir and H ottentot Fam ilies.
A N D now we are again on the sea-coast, just south of
the equator, and in the parts between the Gablin and the
Congo . The details here are obscure ; but as we m ove
southwards they im prove. The European influences
change. With the parts to the north of’ the equator theEnglish have m ore to do than the Portuguese ; though
the influence of that nation is, even there, considerable .
W e know this as a m atter o f fact. We m ight, however,even without evidence, infer it. The oldest Europeanwords in the jargon of the W est Africans are Portuguese,e. g . savey (know) , caboceer, fetish. English, however, is
rapidly gaining ground . The m issionaries by whom the
Bakeli,Mpoongwe and Benga languages have been re
duced to writing are Am erican, the Christian ity which
they in troduce being Protestant. In Loango,however
,
it is the Rom anist creed from the Portuguese teacher.
In Congo the Portuguese influence increases ; and in
Angola i t is represented by the im portan t m etropolis of
San Paolo de L oando . It extends as farinland as Cassange
and as far along the coast as 15° S .L . , there or there
abouts.
Beyond this both the political and ethnological rela
tions run south, i . e. in the direction of the Cape, where
Dutch and English influences replace those of Portugal .These last, however, will reappear when the Cape has
been doubled and the Kahr and Z ulu districts, on the
THE I( AFIR GROUP. 15 1
eastern side of Africa, have been passed. Inham bane and
Sofala are Portuguese. More to the north, Arabia
m akes itself fel t. Have we no t spoken of the African
possessions of the Im am of Muskat on the Z anzibar
coast and in the area o f the Suwaheli, or S ohili
With these prelim inaries I proceed to enlarge on the
word K aflir, K afi'
re, or Kahr . It has two m eanings. It
m eans,in its m ore lim ited sense , the Kaffres of Cafi
'
raria,
chiefly of the Am akosa tribe, the m en who have given so
m uch trouble to the Cape colonists . But i t also has a
wider or m ore general signification , and in this case itserves as the designation of a large fam ily of allied p0pulations—a very large fam ily—one of the largest in
A frica.
The connecting link between its num erous branches is
the language, of which the structure has (am ongst others)the following characteristics . Suppose that in English,instead of saying
Man’
s dog, we said dan dog,Sun
’
s beam—bun beam,
Father’s daughter—dather daughter,D aughter’s father—faughter father
in such a case we should accom m odate the sound of the
word in the possessive case to that with which the word
in the nom inative case began . And if we did this, we
should assuredly do som ething very rem arkable in the
way of speech. Now the K afl'
re tongues all do this.
It is done by the Am akosa, the Z ulu, the Fingo , the
Bechuana. It is done by the languages of Benguela,Angola, Congo, and Loango, 85 0 . I t is done by the lan
guages on the eastern coast as well , as far as the Equator.
I t is done, so far as we know, by the languages of the in
terior. It is certainly done by the languages o f the
Great Lake Ngam i .
152 THE m rm GROUP .
The Kafi'
re division,then , is a large one ; and i t is
based chiefly on sim ilarity of language . In physical
form , the range of difference is great. Som e of the
K afi'
res are negro, others brown in colour, and with lipsof m oderate thickness.
Outhe other hand, m ore than one good writer has en
larged upon the points of contrast ; and such there cer
tainly are, if we take the m ore extrem e form s—the typical Kafl
'
re and typical Negro . In the latter, for instance,the skin (as aforesaid) m ay be brown rather than black .
Then the cheek-bones m ay project outwards and where
the cheek-bones so project beyond a certain lim it, the
chin appears to taper downwards , and the vertex upwards.
When this becom es exaggerated we hear of lozenge
shaped skulls. Be this as i t m ay, the breadth in them alar portion of the face is often a rem arkable feature in
the K affre physiognom y . This he has in com m on with
the Hottentot. Som etim es, too, the eye is oblique ; the
opening generally narrow .
In going over the details of the great Kafir fam ily itis convenient to take them in the following order
l . The Portuguese districts of the western coast ;from the Equator to 16 ° S .L .
,there or thereabouts.
2 . The corresponding portions of the eastern side of
the continent, i . e. the coasts of Z anzibar, and Mozambique, along with the Portuguese districts on the P acific,
or the coun tries of Botonga,Sofala, Im ham bane, & c .
3. The Z uluand Kafir coun tries.
4 . The in terior.
1 . The P ortuguese area on the west.—In m aking the
southern boundary of the G abtin tribes the frontier of
the Kahr area, I consul t convenience rather than accu
racy. The line m ust be drawn som ewhere, and when,although drawn where it is, it is, to a great extent, arti
154 THE KAFIR GROUP.
general but while these characteristics place them in thetrue negro fam ily, the reader would im bibe a wrong idea,if he supposed that all these features com bined are often
m et with in one individual . A ll have a certain thicknessand prom inence of lip, but m any are m et with in every
village in whom thickness and projection are not m ore
m arked than in Europeans. A ll are dark, but the colour
is shaded off in different individuals from deep black to
light yellow. A s we go westward, we observe the light
colour predom inating over the dark, and then again,when we com e within the influence of dam p from the
sea air, we find the shade deepen into the general black
ness of the coast population . The shape of the head,with its woolly crop, though general, is not universal.
The tribes on the eastern side of the continent, as the
Cafi'
res, have heads finely developed and strongly Euro
pean . Instances of this kind are frequen tly seen, and after
I becam e so fam iliar wi th the dark colour as to forget
it in viewing the coun tenance,I was struck by the strong
resem blance som e natives bore to certain of our own no
tabilities . The Bushm en and Hottentots are exceptions
to these rem arks, for both the shape of their heads and
growth of wool are peculiar—the latter,for instance,
springs from the scalp in tufts with bare spaces between,and when the crop is short, resem bles a num ber of black
peppercorns stuck on the skin, and very unlike the thick
frizzly m asses which cover the heads of the Balonda and
Maravi . With every disposition to pay due deference tothe opi ni ons of those who have m ade ethnology theirspecial study, I have felt m yself unable to believe thatthe exaggerated features usually put forth as those of the
typical negro, characterize the m ajority of any nation of
south central Africa. The m onum ents of the ancient
Egyptians seem to m e to em body the ideal of the inhabi
THE KAFIR GROUP. 155
tants of Londa, better than the figures of any work of
ethnology I have m et with .
”
The Kisam a on the Coanga are still independent. The
few seen by Livingstone rem inded him of the Hottentots.
The L ibollo, their neighbours, are also, as yet, nusub
dued, as are m any others besides.
2. The intertropical area on the eastern side of Afia'
ca.
—This extends from the equator to the tropic of Capri
corn , or a little beyond. I t com prises the coasts of Z an
zibar, andMozam bik
,where the influences are Arab, and
where the population is called Suaheli, Suwaheli, or
S cheli, the language being the Kisuaheli . The m ost
northern tribes are
The P ocom o,on the riverMaro, or P ocom osi, who ex
tend, perhaps, as far as the equator.Then on each side of 5° S .L . , to the north and west
of Mom baz i tself, com e the Wanike, the Wakam ba (orMerrem engo) , the W ataita, five days inland, the Taviati,further westward still
,ending with the Msegua and
Msam bara, of the parts opposite Pem ba Island and theriver Pungani .
The W anilca,im perfectMahom etans, m arry early, are de
scribed as drunken , thievish , and irascible, as disfiguringtheir bodies by hling their teeth and scarring their skins,as holding feasts, and pouring the blood of a slaughtered
bullock over the graves of their dead.
The W akam ba are herdsm en , when at hom e, traders
when abroad. They sell rather than barter, i . e. they
know the use and value of m oney. They have long hair,which they twist into strings, Galla fashion, are patriar
chal in their governm ent, brew from the sugar-cane, and
shoot with poisoned arrows.
These tribes are native, and com paratively unm ixed.
They all lie som ewhat inland, and, so doing, m ust be dis
156 THE KAFIR GROUP.
tinguished from the population of the coast. This is of
two kinds—native and Arab . The native is, in the es
sential elem ents of physical form and language, the sam e
as the tribes just enum erated ; or, if not actually the
sam e, closely allied. Their nam e is, word for word, that
of the S om auli under a m odified form , and of Arab
origin or application . Their creed is Mahom etan . In
short they are Pocom o, W anika, & c converted and
turned m aritim e. Between them and the A rabs there
are all degrees o f interm arriage and in term ixture. Som e
o f the m ost abnorm al and strange-looking blacks of the
streets of London are S ohili half-bloods . Their face is
full and flat, their skin brownish-black, their hair long
and crisp rather than woolly, their extrem i ties long, their
nostrils patulous.
The island of Z anzibar is an Arab rather than an
African settlem ent, belonging to the Im am of Muskat,who claim s no sm all portion of the opposi te coast. The
population of the town is estim ated at the
chief language being A rabic, the creed Mahom etan , the
governm ent despotic. The slave-trade wi th foreigners is
professedly forbidden under pain of death ; the citizens,however, m ay purchase for their own use . The Africans
thus brought over are called Sidis, orMut im a. Am ongs t
them are to be found representatives of m ost of the tribes
of Eastern A frica. A few children are annually exported
to Persia.
The fringe of the Z anzibar coast is S ohili the natives
being to be sought inland.
The fringe of the Mozam bique coast is also S ohili .
O f the populations o f the interior,o f which theMaktia
are the chief, i t is safe to say that they are closely allied
to those of the parts behind Z anzibar ; and they seem ,
from specim ens of their language and descriptions, to be, at
THE KAFIR. GROUP .
Sofala.
tantatushinom oe
zero
fum bam oe
gum i kum e.
Sqfala is the country of the Som ali and Suhawili,
under a slightly-altered nam e . I ts nam e alone is sufh
cient to indicate an Arab influence, whi ch, originally,was greater than at present. A t present, the Portuguese
possessions, beginning on the Mozam bique coast, com
prise all the Sofala country, and som ething beyond it.In Im ham bane we leave the tropic of Capricorn, and a
little further to the south hnd ourselves in the neigh
bourhood of Dutch and English rather than Portuguese
colonists .
The Arabs who called the northern and equatorialtribes of the eastern coast Som ali and Suwahili, called
those of the extrem e south K afirs or Infidels ; from
which we infer that, where the Kahr area begins, the
Arab influence either ends or decreases. It either endsaltogether, or is too weak to effect proselytism .
South of Delagoa Bay lie the Tam bukis, succeeded by
the Fingos and Zulus, or Am azulus,for the parts about
Port Natal . Then com e the K afirs.
The extrem ity of the African continent is Hottentot ;so is the greater part of the coast between Cape Town
and W alwisch Bay. H ottentot but, m ore or less, Kahr
also ; as will be seen in the notice of the populations of
the interior. This m eans the populations beyond the
range of the Cape colonists , the populations of LakeNgam i, the populations of the parts between Cassange
,
and the Lower Z am besi—Cassange as a Portuguese settle
m en t on the west, the Lower Zam besi as a Portuguese
settlem ent of the east. It is needless to add that thes e
THE KAFIR GROUP . 159
lines give na the route of Livingstone. They also involve
notices from Galton, Anderson , Cum m ing and others.
The populations of the areas thus illustrated fall into two
prim ary divisions ; (l ) the Kahr, (2) the Hottentot. O f
these
The Kafirs presen t them selves under two types. Som e
are brown rather than black . Others, like the Angola
and Mozam bique tribes, are black rather than brown .
The languages of all are closely allied . Also the creeds.
A s a general rule the browner varieties are found on the
table-lands ; the blacker along the watercourses.
The Am akosas, Qca—The eastern and north-eastem
frontagers to the colonists of the Cape are the Kafirs
in the lim ited sense of the term , the Koosa (orAm akusa) ,the Ponda (orA m aponda) , the Tem bu(or Am atem bu), as
the case m ay be ; the Z ulu (or Am azulu) being in the
parts about Port Natal, with the Fingoes either on their
frontier or am ongst them .
Am ongst the Kahrs the head m an of the village settles
di sputes, his tribunal being in the open air. From him
appeal lies to a chief of higher power ; and from him
to som e superior, higher still . In this way there is a long
chain of feudal or sem i-feudal dependency.
The wife is the slave to the husband ; and he buys her
in order that she should be so . The purchase im plies a
seller . This is always a m em ber of another tribe . Hence
the wi sh of a Kahr is to see his wife the m other of m any
children , girls being m ore valuable than boys.
W hy a m an should not sell his offspring to the m em bers
of his own tribe is uncertain . It is clear, however, that
the practice of doing so m akes m arriage between even
distan t relations next to im possible. To guard against
the chances of this, a rigid and suspicious system of te
straint has been developed in cases of consanguinity ; and
16 0 THE BITSHUANA TRIBES .
relations m ust do all they can to avoid m eeting. To sit
in the sam e room , to m eet on the sam e road, isundesirable.
To converse is but. just allowable, and then all who choosem ust hear what is said. S o thorough
,however, has been
the isolation in m any cases, that persons of di fferen t sexeshave lived as near neighbours for m any years without
having conversed with each other ; and such com m unica
tion as there has been , has taken place through the m e
dium of a third person . No gift will induce a K ahr
fem ale to violate this law .
The K afirs belong to the hills on the side, rather than
to the plateauin the centre, of the continen t. The great
nam e of the interior is that of
The Bitshuana or Bechuana, whose language is the S e
chuana. They are bounded by the Kafirs on the East,and the G riquas and Bushm en on the south . Ou the
west they extend into the Kalahari, a desert, where they
becom e degenerate and under-sized ; where, too , they com e
in contact with the Nam aqua, and other, Hotten tots.
They either touch the frontier of the O vaheriro or
Dam m aras, in the part between W alwisch Bay and Lake
Ngam i, or are divided from them by a strip of Hottentot
ground . Their lim its on the north are uncertain . It is
only certain that, year after year, they advance them
selves . The Bechuanas of the level country are m ore
brown than black, the true Kahrs being m ore black than
brown .
The tribes and sub-tribes of the Bitshuanas, writes
Livingstone, are nam ed after certain anim als . The
term Bakatla m eans They of the m onkey ; Bakuena,
They of the alligator ; Batlépi, They of the fish ; each
tribe having a superstitious dread of the anim al after
which it is called. A tribe never eats the anim al which is
its nam esake, using the term ila , hate or dread, in refer
16 2 BALORDA AND BATOKA TRIBES .
Z am besi ; the occupants of the Congo districts being
m em bers of the Balonda group . The Balonda or theoccupants of Londa, are woolly-headed blacks of the true
negro type, and they are contrasted in m any respects with
the Bichuana tribes to the south. Their wom en are allowed
no little influence, m ix in their poli tics, and are capable
of succeeding to the captaincy. They swear by their
m others ; the Bichuana swearing by their fathers. Near
every village m ay be seen som e rude idol, the im age of
a lion or alligator, before which they lay offerings and
beat drum s in cases of sickness, or when the chase hasbeen unsuccessful . The Balonda frontier touches Angola.
Such the line which takes us from the Lake Ngam i
westwards. What do we find in the east ? W hat liesbetween the Lake and P acific
The Batoka and the Batonga.—The Batoka are in the
sam e category with the Bayeiye . They lie within the area
of Sebituane’
s conquests ; pagans, savages, head-hunters.
A t a ham let belonging to the son of a chief nam edMoyara, a num ber of stakes are planted in the ground, andI (Dr. Livingstone) counted fifty
-four hum an skul lshung on their points. These were Matabele, who, unable
to approach S ebituane on the island of L oyéla, had re
turned sick and fam ishing. Moyara’
s father took ad
vantage of their reduced condition, and, after putting
them to death, m ounted their heads in the Batoka fashion .
The old m an who perpetrated this deed now lies in the
m iddle of his son ’
s huts, with a lot of rotten ivy over hisgrave. O ne cannot help feeling thankful that the reign of
such wretches is over. They inhabited the whole of this
side of the country, and were probably the barrier to theextension of the Portuguese com m erce in this direction.
When looking at these skulls, I rem arked to Moyara,that m any of them were those of m ere boys. H e assented
BALONDA AND BATOKA TRIBES . 16 3
readily, and pointed them out as such. I asked why hisfather had killed boys. To show his fierceness,
’
was the
answer. Is it fierceness to kill boys Yes, they hadno business here. ’ W hen I told him that this probably
would ensure his own death if the Matabele cam e again,he replied, When I hear of their com ing I shall hidethe bones.
’
H e was evidently proud of these trophiesof his father’s ferocity, and I was assured by other
Batoka that few strangers ever returned from a visit to
this quarter.The Batoka tribes, like the Australian , knock out the
upper fron t teeth of their children when they arrive at
puberty . This is done by both sexes, and though theunder teeth, being relieved from the attrition of the
upper, grow long and som ewhat bent out, and thereby
cause the under lip to protrude in a m ost unsightly way,no young wom an thinks herself accom plished until shehas got rid of the upper incisors. This custom gives all
the Batoka an uncouth old-m an-like appearance. Their
laugh is hideous, yet they are so attached to it that even
Sebituane was unable to eradicate the practice. H e
issued orders that none of the children living under himshould be subjected to the custom by their parents, anddisobedience to his m andates was usually punished withseverity ; but notwithstanding this the children would
appear in the streets without their incisors, and no one
would confess to the deed . When questioned respectingthe origin of this practice, the Batoka reply, that their
object is to be like oxen , and those who retain their teeth
they consider to resem ble zebras. Whether this is the
true reason or not, it is difficult to say ; but it is noticeable that the veneration for oxen which prevails in m any
tribes should here be associated with hatred to the zebra,as am ong the Bakwains that this operation is perform ed
M 2
16 4 THE DAMMARAS .
at the sam e age that circum cision is in other tribes ; and
that here that cerem ony is unknown .
”
The Batoka of the valleys are dark ; those of the hills
light of the colour of coffee and m ilk.
” They sm oke
hem p .
Word for word, Batoka is Batonga. The Batonga m en
of the eastern districts go naked, and when they salute a
stranger roll them selves on their backs and slap the out
side of their thighs. Most of the Kafir tribes are curious
and careful with their hair. With the Bashukolom po a
circle of hair at the top of the head, eight inches or m ore
in diam eter, is woven into a cone eight or ten inches high,with an obtuse apex
,bent, in som e cases
,a li ttle forward,
giving it som ewhat the appearance of a helm et. Som e
have only a cone, four or five inches in diam eter at the
base . It is said that the hair of anim als is added, but the
sides of the cone are woven som ething like basket-work .
The headm an of this village, instead of having his broughtto a poin t
, had it prolonged into a wand, which extendeda full yard from the crown of his head. The hair on the
forehead, above the ears,and behind, is all shaven off, so
they appear som ewhat as if a cap of liberty were cockedupon the top of the head . After the weaving is perform ed
it is said to be painful, as the scalp is drawn tightly upbut they becom e used to it.Tete is in Batonga what Cassange is in Angola, viz . a
town of the Portuguese frontier.
The Dam m aras.—A third line has yet to be followed ;
one from the Lake to W alwisch Bay, illustrated by
Galton and Anderson . O n the sides of this lie the
O vaheriro, or m en of the H eriro language, who, un til
lately,were described as Dam m aras. It is in their habits
that the O vaheriro (with whom we m ay j oin the Ovam
pantieru) and Ovam po chichy differ. Both have a fine
16 6 THE TRIBES .
The Gonaqua occupy the watershed between Great Fish
and the Orange Rivers, of which latter
The Karena hold the m iddle portion the lower being
the occupancy of
The N am aquas .-How far north do these extend ? A t
least as far as the tr0pic ; beyond which the ethnologybecom es obscure. In the firs t place, there are num erous
Nam aquas who are recen t intruders, and, as such , in
contras t with the native inhabitan ts . These are called by
the general nam e of Bushm en ; being, for the m ost part,N areneen , Ounip (or Topners), and Kubabees, all specifi
cally stated to be Hotten tot. The district to which they
belong is, m ore or less, H eriro or K afir. Som e part of
it is called the Dam m ara land.
The authority for the following statem ents is Gal ton .
The native form of the word Dam m ara is Dam up ; the
language to which it belongs being the Hottentot. In
this it has three m eanings
1 . It denotes the occupants of the country in general,whether O vaheriro
, O vam pantieru, or aught else .
It denotes two specific populations
2 . The GhouDam up, and
3. The Soun Dam up, allied in language, appearance,and superstitions, but different in locality.
The G hou Dam up are hill-m en , the range of m ountains between 19° and 23
° S .L . being their occupancy.
They are considered as an inferior population by the
H eriro . The Hottentots who preceded the H eriro de
spised them . This they did so long as they were themselves powerful . Since, however, the O vaheriro have
encroached upon them they have been hum bler and m orefriendly. In som e instances they have been driven to thesam e fastnesses as the D am up, and where this has beendone interm arriage has taken place .
The Soun Dam up lie on the drainage of the Lake, on
THE nor'
rsN'
ro'r rinses. 16 7
or within the frontier of the Mationa (i. e. Bitshuana),to whom they are field-labourers. They are specially
stated to be in the sam e class with the GhouDam up,whatever that m ay be.
Mr. Galton considers them to be degenerate Ovam po .H is evidence requires criticism . H e separates them fromthe O vaheriro and O vam pantieru, with whom they
have nothing in com m on .
”H e connects the Soun
Dam up with the GhouDam up, and likens both to the
Ovam po. Yet he m akes the form er a peculiar race of
negroes, speaking the Hottentot tongue .
”
Whatever m ay be the ethnology of these obscure tribes
it is certain that the northern N am aquas and the Bushm en m ost allied to them are by no m eans the half-starved
Saabs of the desert ; but, on the con trary, an active
people, who not only hold their own against the O vahe
riro, but actually encroach upon their area.
It is probable that there are m em bers of the Hottentotfam ily as far north as 19° S .L .
, and as far west as the
parts about Lake Ngam i .The Oerlam s are chiefly of m ixed blood, Hottentot and
Dutch. S o are
The Griqua, called also Baastaards, a pastoral popula
tion, upwards of in num ber, on the north side of
the great bend of the Orange River. They are the
descendants of Dutch fathers and Hotten tot m others.
A m ixture of G riquas and Hottentots occurs also on
the Kat River, a feeder of the Great Fish River, in the
district of Som erset, and on the Kahr frontier. Here
they are distributed in a series of distinct locations, am id
the dales and fastnesses of the eastern fron tier. Many
of them are discharged soldiers ; so that, in reality, like
the borderers of old, they form a sort of m ilitary colony .
16 8 THE ELO IKOB.
CHAPTER XIX .
Certain populations belonging to the unexplored parts of Africa to theSouth of Abyssinia.
—The Gongs Fam ily.—The Eloikob.
THE following populations agree in the negative character
of being neither decidedly Abyssinian nor decidedlyGalla
,though they exhibit both Galla and Abyssinian
affinities. Neither are their relations to the tribes of the
south ascertained . They lie on or within the frontier of
the terrd incognita. The present position, then, is provi
sional .
The Gonga Group .-Moving from the Galla and Am ha
ric areas towards the interior, we m eet with a populationwhose languages are known through Dr. Beke’
s vocabu
laries under the nam es of Kafi'
a, W oraita,W olaitsa, and
Yangaro . They all belong to one and the sam e class.
This we call Gongs . The Gonga tribes,as noticed by
Ludolf, dwelt to the south of the Bahr-al-Abiad, about
10° N . L . The language of Enarea was Gonga. There,
however, it has been displaced by the Galla.
The E Ioihob. —I describe the population which com es
now under notice by its native nam e,which is Eloikob
partly because, as a general rule, the native nam es are the
best, and partly because som ething will be said in the
sequel respecting the nam e itself. Eloikob is one of those
words, so com m on in the East African, and not wanting
elsewhere, whereof the plural is the sim pler, the singularthe m ore com plicated, form . They are generally col
lectives, the lim itation of them to a single object being
170 THE ELO IKOB .
In the nam e Neiter-kob I see that of the eponym us of
the Eloi-kob ; and that of Enge-Masi that of the neigh
bouringMasai . A t any rate there is the special statem en t
that Moun t O ldoinio Eibor is the prim i tive hom e, or
head-quarters of the form er, Mount Sam bu that of the
latter. To this add that the two tribes, though hostile,are said to be allied in m anners, form , and language .
The nam e of their highest deity is Engar, or Angayai,between whom and the Eloikob, N eiterkob acts as a m e
diator.
The E loikob, who are circum cised polygam ists, of all
things hate and despise the tiller of the soil, so thoroughly
are they a population of herdsm en. Lem asegnot, the
slave to whom Krapf addressed him self for inform ation,boasted that he had defied his m as ter to inure him to agri
cul ture, and had succeeded in his defiance. H e would
rather die than use a hoe.
The Eloikob are either in trusive conquerors in som e
part of their area, or the owners of im ported slaves
since they em ploy the service of, at least, two subordinate
castes, the Elkonono and the W andurobo . The form er
are sm iths, the latter hun ters of elephants and procurers
of ivory. W hether these have a language of their own
rem ains to be proved ; Dr . Krapf writes that it appears
that they have .
”
The Eloikob, them selves, watch their cattle, hunt forgam e, fight against their neighbours . In this they findthe great business of their lives. The wan 'iors of the
nation are the young unm arried m en between seventeenand twenty-five, who rem ain in their parents’ houses, andform a sort of Eloikob m ilitia. A t the head of the Stateare the aged m en who carry neither spear nor shield aboutwith them , but only the bow and stick. The shield andspear are the arm s of the youths. They fight bravely,
rns 151 0 1110 13, m e. 17 1
and spare but few,neither giving nor asking quarter .
They fight, too, wi th skill and cunning, and consider their
spear and club as equal to the m uskets of the coastm en .
Som e of the tribes perforate the lobe of the ear, the
highest aristocrats having the largest borings.
Their festal beverage is a kind of hydrom el or m ead
called olm arua ; honey being abundant in their country .
Butter they use as an ointm ent rather than as food. They
have several dyes.Earthquakes they ascribe to the m ovem ents of a cow
that supports the earth .
They have an ordeal of chewing. When an accused
O leikobani m akes an oath, the priest, m edicine-m an, or
O leikon , boils som e roots, m ixes them with his m eat, giveshim the m ess to eat, and watches whether he swallows
it. Should it stick in his throat he is guilty .
The following are the nam es of som e of the Eloikob
tribes,—Enganglim a, Burrabuyu,Modoni,Tigerei, K iwia,Koppe-koppe, Elburgineji . In a Suaheli account the
W andurobo take the appearance of a separate substan
tive population calledMéuand W am éu.
172 THE DAR-RUNGA TRIBES .
CHAPTER X X .
Certain populations belonging to the im perfectly-explored parts of Africa.
—The Mobba, &c., of Darsaleh.
—The Bagirm i.—The Mandara.
The tribes between theMandara and the Nuh.-The Battas, &c.
EXP LO RAT IO N from the west has reached but little beyond
Bornu exploration from the east but little beyond Kor
dovan . Hence the in term ediate coun tries are known ,at
first hand, only on their frontiers. Nevertheless, som e
thing has been collected respecting the centre, m eans
being supplied by the writings and relations of such
Arabs as have used their opportunities for observation.
I begin with the districts that fill up the parts between
Darfiir and Bornu Darft’
i r being followed by Darsaleh,and Bagirm i ; Bagirm i by Mandara. Mandara will lead
to Adam owa, and the tribes along the Tshari ; which will,in their turn , bring us to the Nuh districts ; these givingan area which has already been noticed .
Darsaleh, Borgho, W aday, or the Mobba country.-Dar
saleh is,like Darfur, im perfectly Mahom etan . Like
D arffir it contains num erous Arab tribes . Whether m any
Fulas have reached it is doubtful .The Mobba is the chief language of the tribes of
Waday proper.TheMenagon,Manarit, Tam a, G norga, Dam s
,Kubu,
Sungori, Mim i , Moewo, Kashem éré, and K orunga (or
Karinga) are m em bers of a group called AbuSharib,the m ost western m em bers of which lie ou, or within , theDarft
’
ir frontier.
174 THE DAR-RUN GA TRIBES .
Shiggegat, the Sebbedi , the S efeddin , the Beni Hassan ,
theMissiriye Zoruk (black), the Missiriye Hom r (red) ,the K ozam , the Zoyud, the D zhattena, the Zabbade, and
the Abidiye, the Nuwaibe Sabalat, the Korobat, the
K olom at, the Terjem , the W elhd Rashid and others.
O f the num erous term s applied to the kingdom undernotice
W'
aday is applied by the Bormu.
Bargu Furiens.
Bareeleh Arabs.Mobba being probably native.
Word for word, I believe that Saleh Shiluk. As
this term appears and re-appears in differen t parts of
A frica, it is, probably, Arab . It by no m eans im plies
affinity between the populations to which it is applied.This m ay, or m ay not, exist.
The phenom enon, of which we have undoubted evi
dence in the Fula and Mandingo countries, is said to berepeated in Darsaleh. A num ber of tribes are red rather
than black . Such are som e of the Darkulla populations.Such, too (as we infer from the nam es) are som e of the
Arabs. Such, too, certain m em bers of the Mobba di vi
sion . That the difference of hue coin cides with a dif
ference of soil and sea-level is probable dpriori whilst
the little evidence we possess on the question is in favour
of such being actually the case.
Bagirm i.—The writers who have been furthest beyond
the frontier of Bagirm i are Denham and Barth . The
latter expressly states that the form of the natives isfavourably con trasted with that of the Kanuri of Bornu.
H e com pares it with that of the Fula, adding that theskin is darker—indeed that it is black. O f their m oralshe speaks less favourably ; and m ore unfavourably still ofthe great ex tent to which slavery and slave-hunting pre
THE MANDARA GROUP. 175
vail. The kingdom is a Mahom etan one ; the creed, how
ever, is rude and im perfect. Much of the original paganism shows through it. Much exists in a purely unm odi
hed form . The general surface of the soil is level, lyingat a height of about 900 feet above the sea, with conside
rable rivers, num erous watercourses, and swam py districtsnot a few . There are large plains of black argillaceoussoil, which lie under water during the rainy season . Thereare large collections of conical huts dignified by the nam e
of towns and capitals. There are cultivated tracts of sor
ghum and other grains. There are flocks and herds of cattle.
These, when the dry season sets in, are rem oved from place
to place in search of water. There is,then , both grazing
and tillage ; the form er giving rise to habits m ore or less
locom otive . Arabs, too, there are from the East, and
Fulas from the west, the form er being called Shiwa.
They chiefly belong to the Salam at, Beni Hassan , W eléd
Muss , W elhd Ali, and D eghaghera tribes. They lived
scattered over the country, occupants, in som e places, of
whole villages.TheMandara group .
—The occupancy of the divisions
and sub-divisions of theMandara group lies to the south
and south-east of Bornu. The only Europeans who have
set foot upon it are Denham and Barth. The latterexpressly states that the inhabitants of Kotoko belong to
the great race of Mass, to which the people of Logon,the Musgu, and the Mandara proper, also belong. Mean
while, his m ap carries Kotoko to the Lake Tsad, whilstthe text gives to that province the Afi
'
adeh language ; the
Afi'
adeh language being Borntii. With these elem ents of
uncertainty I suspend m y judgm ent as to the exact details
of the area under notice. It m ay possibly be prolonged
to Lake Tabad. If so, it is in terjacent to the Borm'
i i
and Bagirm i areas . It is m ore probably, however, a
176 THE muses .
southern language, i . e. a language belonging to the
parts on each side 10° N .L .
Whatever m ay be the ethnology of Kotoko andLogone,provinces in close contact with Bornuand Bagirm i, m ore
or less Mahom etan in creed, m ore or less Fula and Arab
in population , and not deficient in civilization, the dif
ference between them and
TheMusguis decided. The Musgulie between 1 1° and
10° N .L . ,being pagans. The evidence, however, that
their language isMandara rather than Afi'
adeh is capable
of im provem ent. The following extract from Barth
gives us their physical form The village we had just
reached was nam ed Fékala, and is one of the m ost considerable places in theMfisga River. A large num ber of
slaves had been caught this day, and in the course of the
evening, after som e skirm ishing, in which three Bornu
horsem en were killed, a great m any m ore were brought
in ; altogether they were said to have taken one thousand,
and there were certainly not less than five hundred . To
our utm ost horror, not less than one hundred and seventy
full-grown m en were m ercilessly slaughtered in cold blood,
the greater part of them being allowed to bleed to death,a leg having been severed from the body . Most of themwere tall m en , with not very pleasing features. Their forehead, instead of shelving backwards, was generally very
high, and the line of the face straight ; but their thickeyelashes, wide, open nostrils, thick lips, high cheek
bones, and coarse bushy hair, gave them a very wild ap
pearance. The proportions of the legs, with the knee
bone bent inwardly, were particularly ugly ; and on the
whole they were all of a dirty black colour,very far from
that glossy lustre which is observed in other tribes.Most of them wore a short heard. The ears of severalwere adorned with sm all copper rings, while alm ost all of
178 THE muses .
plexion , like rhubarb . A thin m etal plate was stuck
through the m other’s under lip . Other individuals were,m ore or less, copper-coloured. Som e of them were just
Mahom etan enough to be able to repeat a few form ulas,
and to cover the native nakedness of their sem i-adult
offspring with an apron of cotton .
The Babur, akin to the Marghi, are som ewhat less
m odified by Mahom etanism .
The Marghi and Musgu pay great respect to the
m em ory of their ancestors.
There was one object which attracted m y attention in
particular, as it testified to a certain degree of civili
zation ,which m ight have sham ed the proud Moham m edan
inhabitants of these coun tries . For while the latter are
extrem ely negligent in burying their dead, leaving them
without any sufficien t protection against the wild beasts,
so that m ost of them are devoured in a few days by the
hyaenas, here we had regular sepulchres, covered in with
large well-rounded vaults, the tops of which were adorned
by a couple of beam s cross-laid,or by an earthen urn .
The sam e sort of worship as is paid by these pagans to
their ancestors prevails in a great part of Africa, and
however greatly the peculiar custom s attached to them ode of worship m ay vary, the principle is the sam e ;
but I nowhere m ore regretted having no one at hand to
explain to m e the custom s of these people, than I did on
this occasion . The urn m ost probably contains the headof the deceased ; but what is indicated by the cross-laid
beam s I cannot say .
”
S o writes Dr. Barth, who passed through the land of
the Marghi to that ofThe Batta—occupan ts of Adam awa, where his personal
explorations ended . The Batta tribes lay on each sideo f the Tshadda, where they were succeeded by those
THE BATTA . 179
of Ham aruwa, the Dom o and the Mitshi m ade known
us by the expedition of 1854 under Dr. Baikie.
Begarm i. Mandara.
gaba yili
m uksiire
ishe
we
tibi
uktere
sare
erakha
iyagaga
bishiya m otshe
tiri
trioko m otsbekan
kara be
yawi die
pale hidobua pe
kaj i m akinufade fat
ilivi tuf
nkohe tokuldaka
tshilli tokulape
m arta farfat
doso tam bido
Ten dokem i bu.
W e m ay now take a retrospect with a special view tothe general questions connected with the ethnology of
the great continen t over which we have travelled . How
slight the influence of Africa upon the history of the
world has been is known to the m ost cursory reader.
It is only so far as the Sem ite populations are African
that i t has any notable position at all . A little influence
m ay be given to the E gyptians, a little to the Berbers ;provided always that the Alm oravids be as Berber as
they are represented . South,however, of the Berber
area, nothing is to be found in Africa which has everaffected either Asia or Europe, in the way of either con
N 2
180 GENERAL VIEW
quest or civilization . Where the Gallas, the Furians,the Bornfii, the Howssa populations, the Sungai or the
Mandingos have encroached, they have done so at the
expense of their neighbours . O f distan t conquests they
have known but little ; of conquests beyond the Medi
terranean and the Isthm us of Suez nothing. Neither
have their arts or inventions spread abroad . They havehad none to spread . From others they have taken a little.
To none have they given . The’
am oun t of invention
involved in the V ei syllabarium has been considered.Lying beyond the pale of both Brahm inism and Budd
hism, the original m ythologies of pagan A frica have been
affected by only three of the great religions—Judaism ,
Christianity, andMahom etanism . In respect to the firstI am unable to form a satisfactory opinion . There
are Jewish custom s,m ore or less general, and m ore
or less decided, all over Africa. The Falasha of
Abyssinia have been actually called Jews. Upon the
G ha or Akra nation (a nation whose occupancy liesas far west as the Gold Coast) we have a careful and
instructive paper byMr. Hanson ,him self of G ha origin .
It tells na of the existence am ongst his countrym enof, not only the practice of circum cision, but of num e
rous m inutiae as well—too striking to be what is calledacciden tal . How are they to be explained ? H as actual
Judaism ever extended itself in Africa ? Have pointsof Mahom etanism been m istaken for things Judaic ?O r is Judaism itself m uch m ore African than is gene
rally supposed . I incline to this last doctrine. I only,however, incline to it. The details of tribe upon tribeare still desiderated.
Christianity in Africa is both old and new . It is of
old standing in E gypt and Abyssinia. Within the
dom ain of the European m issionaries i t is new . So far
182 GENERAL vm w
-be in Ful-be, the H owssa form of Fula. Be this as it
m ay, it is certain that where nam es of this kind occur,there isMahom etanism on one side, and paganism on the
other. It is also certain that the nam e,in the first in
stance at least, is other than native. It is the nam e by
which such and such populations are designated by their
neighbours rather than the nam e by which they designatethem selves. What applies to Kafir applies to other words
as well . I think that Fulah, Felup ,and W olof are the
Arabic Fellah. I think,too, that S hiluk (Shilah, or Shilha)
and Berber m ust be A rabic Words. They apply to popu
lations which, ex cept that they are in contact with an
Arab occupancy, have nothing in com m on sufficient to
account for the identity of nam e . A s an instrum en t of
criticism , the principle of which the term s under notice
are exam ples m ay be enlarged ou. Here,however, they
are noticed as m easures of the influences from Arabia.
To the settlem en ts effected in Africa by the Phe ni
cians, the Greeks, and the Rom ans,I m erely allude .
They belong to the civil historian, and the archaeologist .
O n those of the Vandals I lay little stress ; though m uch
speculation has been set afloat by them . The light skin
of certain m oun taineers of the Atlas has been referred
to a European origin .
For the languages of Africa a careful criticism is m ost
especially needed . The alliterations of the Kahr lan
guages are so rem arkable that their value as a character
istic has been exaggerated . But they are found beyond
the K afir area. They are found in the Bullom ,the Tim
m ani, and other languages. What do they m ean ? Do
they m ean that, notwithstanding a considerable differ
ence of vocabulary, and decided affinities in another direction , the dialects in which they appear are K afir or
South African ? No . They m erely rem ind the cautious
or AFRICAN srnnoroer. 183
investigator that classes in philology are,like classes in
botany or zoology, unnatural when founded on a single
characteristic .
Another caution . O f the num erous divisions of the
African fam ily that which is the best known to learned
m en is the negro ; inasm uch as nine out of ten of the
Africans seen in either Europe or Am erica belong to it.
The slaves are chiefly negro . Som e, indeed, are Fulas,
som e K afirs—som e, but few . The m ass is from a single
district, the coast of Guinea. That this gives us a fair
sam ple of the varieties of the African physiognom y isunlikely . It m ay possibly give us the exception rather
than the rule . And this is what it actually does. The
extrem e negro is found on on ly a few areas. H e is foundon the coast between the Senegal and the Congo and he
is found to som e distance in the interior . H e is found
in the parts about Lake Tshad, in Sennaar, and in several
isolated spots besides. But he is not found in the vast
tract occupied by either the Berbers of the north, or the
Bitshuanas of the south . H e is not found in the high
lands of E thiopia. H e is not found am ongst the widely
spread Fulas. All these tribes are ex pressly stated to be
other than negro. Then com e the Bishari , the Nuhlans,and the Gallas ; who , by their length of hair and pro
m inence of feature, are easily separated from the true
negro ; though negro-like in m any respects . L et these
represent a second class of Africans. L et them stand
between the typical negro and the Berber.
L et the physical geographer now be called in, and let
him divide the con tinent of A frica into the dry plateaus
and the m oist alluvia. The m en of the Fula type will
belong to the form er, the true negros to the other . To
say that there are no light-coloured m en in swam py localities would be inaccurate . It would also be inaccurate
184 AFRICAN ETHNOLOGY.
to deny that som e negros are to be found on high levels.A s a general rule, however, the negro conform ation and
the alluvial soil go together. Read any work upon the
ethnology of the water system of the Nile . Read the descriptions (not always free from exaggeration) of the fine
Caucasian (so-called) Abyssinians ; of the half-A frican
Copts ; of the negro-like (but not negro) Nubians ; andfinally of the Sennaar blacks.
Mark, on a m ap, the areas over which these several
varieties are spread . Com pare it with the geological
chart of Russegger and the closeness of the coincidences
will, perhaps, surprise you. The blacks are found on the
tertiary and recent deposits . The prim itive and volcan ic
tracts will give the European faces. The interm ediate
conform ations will be found on the sands tones. Read
Livingstone. The sam e results will present them selves ,and the author him self will draw attention to them . The
negro is an exceptional African.
18 6 THE KURDS .
nom inal subjects to either Persia or Turkey . Where thehill ranges are high, and the coun try is im practicable
,
the chiefs are all but independent . Could they but be
united,they would be wholly so for their spirit is high
,
their tem per hot, their character energetic, their habitsm artial . They keep up a chronic state of warfare w ith
each other . They levy black m ail after the fashion of
borderers . Like the Skipetar of Europe,whom they
resem ble in character, they always go arm ed ; ready to
fight, ready to rob ; ready to serve as an escort against
robbers like them selves. They are wiry and bony inm ake
,with extrem ely prom inent features, elongated
faces, and dark skins . Mahom etans in the way of creed,they are but too ready to sharpen their swords for on
slaughts upon their Christian fron tagers ; and of Chris
tian frontagers there are m any . In the north there are
the Arm enians ; the Kurds being num erous in Arm enia,the Arm enians in Kurdistan . In the cen tral districts lie
the Caldani, Christians in creed, Syrians in respect to the
language of their liturgy . In the south there is little
but Mahom etanism ; the Mahom etanism of the Turks
and Arabs o f Mesopotam ia, the Mahom etanism of the
Arabs and Persians of Khuzistan . Lastly,there are the
Kurds o f the Russian em pire in Erivan , in K aradagh,
in Karabagh, and in the south parts of Georgia.
The fam ily, then , com es in contact with Dioscurians,A rm enians, Turks, Caldani , and Arabs on the west
,with
Persians on the east .
The Kurds are a population of tribesm en ; falling into
divisions and subdivisions. Thus the Bulbassi contains,as sections, the K abaiz , the Mauzun , the Mam ash, the
Piran , the Rum m uk, and the Sinn and Taafah . The Bul
bassi chiefs are called Muzzin . When a Muzzin dies,the strongest and bravest of his sons succeeds birth being
THE m ans. 18 7
only a presum ption in favour of the eldest. A chief,once nom inated, cannot be deposed . The wom en m arry
within their own tribe . Blood feuds m ay be extinguished
by the paym en t of so m any oxen . A certain num ber ofthieves is attached to each tribe, whose business is to rob
for the chief.
The Jaf, the Bebber, the S indjavi, the A fshar, are
sim ilarly constituted each with its chief,its district
, and
its private wars.
The southernm ost m em bers of the Kurd fam ily are
exclusively Persian ; L ak tribes, Faili (Feili) tribes, or
Buktiyari tribes, occupants of the parts to the south of
Kirm anshah, which are, for the m ost part, m ountainous.
The analogue of the Tajik (of whom m ore will be said
in the sequel) is to be found in Kurdistan . The exist
ence of the tribe is the rule ; its absence the exception .
Yet certain subordinate populations, the Gursauand the
Kelowspé (white caps), are said to be tribeless. They are,perhaps, extra-tribual, e. beyond the pale of the re
cog nized and ascertained divisions.
A s a general rule, the Kurds are Mahom etans. At
any rate they are m ore Mahom etan than aught else . The
Yez ids are this ; the Yez ids, who have im properly been
called Devil-worshippers. They sim ply conciliate S atan .
H e is powerful . H e is easily offended. Hence, they
speak of him either not at all, or with respect ; eschewing
the nam e in all im precations and oaths ; pained when
they hear others use it.
The nam e Kurd is historical . Word for word, i t is
Gordia i . Word for word, it is Karduehi . Word for
word,it m ay possibly be Khasdi m and Chaldaei . That
the Karduchi, however, of the Anabasis, the m en whose
bows and slings inflicted m ore m ischief upon the Ten
Thousand retreating Greeks than all the arm ies of Arts
18 8 THE KURDS .
xerxes, were the an cestors of the present Kurds, is generally and reasonably believed . Again the fam ous
Saladin seem s to have been a Kurd of the Ayubite
division of the Rawadieei ; as was also the historian
Abulfeda. I write this after Gibbon ; who suggests,however, the likelihood of the blood of both the sultan and
the philosopher having been m ixed. The orthodox Arabs,
who saw with grief and sham e that the tribe under notice
was infected wi th the heterodox doctrine of the m etempsychosis, insinuated that its descent was only on the
m other’s side, and that i ts ancestor was a stranger who
had settled am ongst the Curds.
” This is likely enough.
The nam e Ayub is A rabic . The chief qualities of bothSaladin and Abulfeda were those of an A rab . The Kurd
frontier, in their tim e (as it is now) , was Arabian .
The P ersian proper.—Conterm inous on the west with
the Kurds, the Persians proper extend both eastwardsand northwards their area being one of great m agnitude
and irregular outline . I t contains,as m ay be expected,
a great deal of what is purely Persian . It also com prisesm any tracts wherein the language, at least, is in trusive .
The Persian ,for instance, of Erivan , and a great part
of Aderbijan, is spoken on a soil originally Arm enian ;the Persian of Shirvan on a soil originally Dioscurian .
Daghestan, to the north of the great ax is of Caucasus,is a Persian nam e, m ean ing the land of the Dahm . Yet
its speech is, to a great extent, Persian ; which, to the
north, is succeeded by the Turk o f Tartary . The detai ls
o f its extension in the east will be seen in the sequel .
A t present it is sufficient to say that the blood and lan
guage by no m eans appear to co incide . The form er m ust
be, in Daghestan , m ore or less L esgian in Shirvan , L es
gian or Georgian ; in A derbijan, Arm enian .
The Talish.—Between the m outh of the Kur and
190 THE PERS IAN S PROPER.
fron tier ; is the hilly occupancy of a rude and hardy
population ; is believed to be, in respect to its ancient
history,Mede rather than Persian ; is believed to be the
land in which the religion of the Magi m ost especially
flourished ; is believed to be the country wherein the
local dialects give the nearest approach to the ancient
language. In Dizm ar, for instance, it has been specially
stated that Pehlevi is spoken.
The rem aining provinces belong, m ore or less, to the
great central desert ; for we m ust rem em ber that when
the broken country of the north, the low levels that
fringe the Caspian, and the drainage of the Tigris have
been subtracted, Persia, notwithstanding its ancien tglory,and its poetic associations, is neither m ore nor less than a
barren steppe, to the north of which lies Tartary, to the
south, Arabia—steppe and desert also ; steppe and desert ;the one continuing itself northwards into the tundras of
Siberia, the other becom ing in tertropical , equatorial,A frican .
From each of these quarters exotic influences have
been brought to bear upon Persia ; m orally and m aterially, m aterially and m orally . The blood of m ost, per
haps of all, the Persian dynasties has been Turk . Arabiagave the Koran .
The inhabitants of the towns are, as a general rule, ofm ixed origin . In language they are Persians. They are
also, for the m ost part,Persians in physiog
'
nom y and
habits . Their being, however, all this is perfectly com
patible with their being, m ore or less, Indian ,Turk,
Mongol, Arab , or Dioscurian in blood . In the first
place, the whole land has been overrun by foreign con
querors (chiefly from the north), over and over again . In
the next, it has always been the custom of P ersian and
Turkish sovereigns to found cities, and (as a m eans of
m s PERS IANS PROPER. 19 1
doing so) to transplant populations. Thirdly, there are the
effects of trade ; fourthly, the necessities of governm en t.
These in troduce the foreign m erchan t and the strange
soldier . Hence,the natives of town s like H eraut or
Ispahan are H erautis or Ispahanis rather than sim ply
Persians.
The ex ten t to which nam es like these im ply a dif
ference between the citizens who bear them and the
ordinary Persians of the country around depends upon
the circum stances of each particular case .
The Persian of the villages is called by a nam e whichhas already been noticed—the nam e Taj ik . A Tajik inBokhara is a Persian as opposed to an Uzbek . A Taj ik
in Persia proper is a countrym an as opposed to a townsm an . It is not, however, every occupan t of a rural
district who is a Taj ik . In order to be this he m ust be a
tiller of the soil rather than a feeder of flocks ; a farm er
rather than a grazier ; a m an o f fix ed residence rather
than a locom otive m igran t.
Being this,the chances are that he will be a Persian also
a Persian in language, and a Shiite in creed . O n the other
hand, the m igratory populations of the country
,num erous
as they are, are, as a general rule, not only other than agri
cultural in habits, but other than Persian in language.
The opposite to a Tajik is an Iliyat, the Taj ik being a
Persian, a cultivator, and a Shiite ; the Iliyat being a
Sunnite, a herdsm an,and a Turk , an Arab, or aKurd, as
the case m ay be .
To one o f these three classes can all the Iliyat, or
locom otive tribes of Persia, be referred . The extent,
however,to which they are Kurd, Arab , or Turk ex
elusively is by no m eans accurately known . I am not
aware that, with the ex ception of the A im auks, (who are
scarcely to be . classed wi th the sporadic tribes now under
192 THE PERSIANS PROPER .
notice) there are any actual Mongol Iliyats on Persian
soil . A t the sam e tim e, I believe that there is m uch
Mongol blood in the veins of m en whose language is
other thanMongol .Then there are the Indians of the towns
,especially the
Banians, whose business is trade, and who, as a generalrule, interm arry with one another.
Then there are the gypsies, who , in Persia, as else
where, are Indians in blood, and,to a great exten t
,
Indians in language also . They hang about the towns ; in
this respect differing from the I liyats who prefer the opencountry . They hang about the towns, being, in craft orprofession, tinkers, horse-jobbers, fortune-tellers. They
rarely m arry out of their own hands or taifehs ; are knownunder the nam es Dum an, Kaoli , G t
’
tobaz , and Ghurbat,or Khurbet, and are very im perfectMahom etans.
Kurbat is the nam e of a division of the gypsies of
S yria, whose language , which is reasonably believed to
be nearly the sam e as that of the Khurbat of Persia, is as
follows
H and
Moon
194 THE TAJIKS .
in all of these the Uzbeks are the newer, the Taj iks the
older,population . Whether they are the aborigines
is another question .
The natives of A derblj an were said to represent theMedes rather than the proper Persians. The Tajiks of
the parts under notice are occupants of the ancient
Bactria ; Bactria and Sogdian a. Their land is the Trans
ox iana of the classical, theMahawulnaher of the Arabic,writers. In Bokhara they are called Sarts .
In Persia proper a Taj ik is a Tajik as opposed to an
Iliyat ; the I liyat being an Arab, a Turkom an , or a Kurd,as the case m ay be.
Outhe Oxus a Ta) 1k is a Taj lk as Opposed to an Uzbek
who,besides being a Turk and a nom ad, is also a political
superior.In Afghanistan a Taj lk is a Taj lk as opposed to an
Afghan or Hazareh .
In Biluchistan he stands in contrast to the Biluch and
Brahli i .
The nam es are
In PersiaBokharaAfghanistan 11 .
Biluchistan D ehwaur.
A Taj ik is also called, in the non-Persian countries,a Parsiwan .
Taj iks m ay be found as far from Persia as Chinese Tur
kestan—even further. Dr. Falconer tells m e that, when
in Cashm ir, he m et with one from the drainage of the
Irawadi .
In the villages round all the great towns of Afghanistan
Taj iks abound. Those on the Caubul river are specially
called Caubulis. In
S eistaun the m ass of the population is Taj ik . The very
THE TAJIKS . 195
oldest occupan ts , however, either in fact or by hypothesis,are the fenm en of the great lake. They are said to differ
from the ordinary S eistaunis both in form and habits.
They are big, black , an d ill-featured . They dwell in
hovels of reed . They em ploy them selves in fishing and
fowling . They are probably the ordinary inhabitants
under certain physical conditions—the conditions that, inAfrica, give us negros .
As Aderbijan was Mede, as the Oxus was Bactrian , as
Fars is Persian in the stricter sense of the term , so is
Khorasan Parthian and as the Parthians were, in all
probability, Turkom ans from Tartary, it is likely that the
blood of even the Taj iks is m ixed ; the m ixture being of
ancient date.
I follow Elphinstone in calling the S eistaunis Taj iks.
Whether, however, they have all the Taj ik characters is
doubtful. In the desert district, their occupations and
habits m ust be, m ore or less, those of the Iliyats . It is
only certain that they are Persians rather than either
Afghans or Biluches.
I am unable to say what latitude m aybe given to the term .
As long as we have the Persian tongue, the Shiite creed,and the settled habitation, along with an Iliyat neighbour,with whom he m ay be contrasted, we have a full and perfect
Taj ik. But what if, with one characteristic retained, we
lose another ? What if we have m en whose language and
blood are m ore or less Persian,but whose habits are pas
toral What if we find them the sole occupants of their
area, instead of being in contact with Iliyats ? What if
they be independent What if they fall in tribes
What if their speech he akin to that of Persia rather
than actually Persian What if—we m ay go on asking
questions of this kind far faster than they can be answered .
And after all they m ay be questions concerning nam es
0 2
196 THE TAJIKS .
rather than facts . The fact that we m ust best understand
is the following viz . that there are certain populations in
contact with the Afghans and the Uzbeks who are m ore
Persian than either Uzbek or Afghan . P ro tanto, they
are Taj ik.
In the G ilzye portion of the Afghan country lies the
occupancy ofThe Buruki of Logur and Butkauk. Tradition , or
what passes as such , not only m akes the Buruki foreign
to their present localities, but gives, as the date of their
settlem ent, the eleventh century, it being the Sul tan
Mahm ud who settled them . Whence did he transplan t
them ? This is unknown . Som e deduce them from the
Kurds . They them selves claim an Arab extraction .
They fall in to tribes, each tribe with a chief of its
own, and with separate lands and strongholds. They
are good soldiers, and, as such, respected by the Af
ghans. Eight thousand fam ilies is about the num ber
of the Buruki .
The Purmuli, or Fermuli, whose num bers are about
equal to those of the Buruki, reside in the Kharoti
country ; the parts about O rghun being Ferm uli . Others
live to the west of Caubul. They are brave and war
like, carrying on unceasing hostilities with the Kharoti
tribes around them . Som e, too, are soldiers in the
regular arm y of the Am ir. Many are engaged in trade ;m ore in husbandry. Their origin is obscure .The Shulm am
'
seem to have m oved from south to north,from the banks of the Kortum ,
which was their earliestlocality, to the parts about the Tira range . A t the end
of the fifteenth century they are in Hustnugger, whence
they are expelled by the Eusofzye. There are still afew who retain a peculiar form of speech, of which Ihave not seen a specim en .
198 THE BILUCHES .
CHAPTER XXII .
The Biluch Tribes.
The Biluch.—Biluchistan is the land of the Biluches,
just as Afghanistan is that of the Afghans, and Hindostan
that of the Hindus.
The Biluch are all but Persians in language. Y et they
are not Tajiks any m ore than the Kurds are Ta] 1ks. They
are tribesm en . They are herdsm en . They are,m ore or
less, m igran t, and not a little predatory. In habits they
are Iliyats . The Kurds are this ; and, except that Kurd
istan lies to the west, and Biluchistan to the east of
Persia proper, a Kurd is a Biluch, and a Biluch a Kurd.There are, of course, differences between the two . They
are, however, unim portant. The skin of the Biluch is
dark . The thirtieth parallel, which (there or thereabouts)bounds the Biluch coun try on the north, lim its Kurdistanon the south .
Som e of the Biluches live in m ud houses others eveninvest them selves in forts ; but the usual lodging is thetent, or gedaun as it is called. This is m ade, like that ofthe Afghans, of black felt or cam let, stretched over a
fram e of wicker-work m ade of the tam arisk. Ah assemblage of gedauns constitutes a tum un or village, the occu
pancy of a kheil, the sam e word we have so often m et
with in Afghanistan . S o m any kheils form a tribe. A s
the locality of a Biluch tum un m ay vary, the nam e of
rs s BILUCHES . 199
the kheil m ay vary also ; the nam e itself being taken
from the locality, from the head-m an in it, or from som e
real or accredited quality of the m em bers of which it
consists. In Western Biluchistan we m ay find one half
of the kheil in gedauns, the other in huts.A nation that lives in tents m ust needs be pastoral,
and it is well if it be not predatory also . No Biluch
is free from the character of a robber ; least of all
the Biluch of the west. Mounted on cam els, frugallyfurnished with dates
,bread and cheese, and a little
water in a leathern bag, the depredators ride on with
as few stoppages as possible till they com e within
a few m iles of the Spot upon which the attack is
determ ined . Here they rest their cam els. A t night
they rem ount, accom plish the sm all rem ainder of their
journey, and m ake their m erciless attack . The spoil
being attained, they prefer to return hom e by a fresh
route ; always returning expeditiously . There is no
care for cam el flesh, and journeys of from eighty to
ninety m iles are often m ade within the four-and-twenty
hours . The num ber of beasts exceeds that of the m en ;
one of whom m ay m anage as m any as ten or twelve —all
laden with spoil, and in danger of either pursuit orattacks by the way . A t first the lot of such slaves as
m ay have been taken is pre-em inently m iserable . Theyare blindfolded as soon as caught, and tied on the cam el
that conveys them to the country of their future m asters.
The wom en’
s heads and the m en’
s beards are then shaved,and the hair extirpated with lim e . This is to disgrace
them in the eyes of their countrym en should theysucceed in returning to them . However, when oncem ade safe
,they are treated kindly, and soon becom e
reconciled to their lot, attached to their m asters, and (it
is the m aster that speaks) so unwilling to change their
200 THE BILUCHES .
condition that the severest punishm en t we can inflict
upon them is to turn them about their business .
”
The representative of the Biluches, in the way of
politics, is the Khan of K elaut. The field in which
they show with the greatest historical prom inence is
North-Western India, as will be seen when we treat of
Sind . How far, however, either the annals of the
Khanat, or the records of the (so-called) Biluch con
quests of Sind and the neighbouring countries, are
Biluch in the strict ethnological sense of the word, will
be considered when the Brahtii tribes com e under notice .
A t present i t is enough to say that a m an m ay be a
Biluchistani, or native of Biluchistan , without being a
true Biluch, just as a m an m ay be a native of Great
Britain without being of British (i . e. Welsh or C ornish)blood.
202 THE AFGHANS .
There are nine Durani tribes—the Mauku, the Khon
gani, and seven others, the nam es whereof all end in -zye.
This m eans the sam e as Beni in the Arabic and Hebrew
genealogies, or Mac in the Scotch . Hence (e. the
Baurik-zye are the Beni Baurilc, the Mac Bauriks, or the
Children of Baurik, a m ode of expressing relationship
which by no m eans im plies the personal existence of any
real individual so-called. Som e, perhaps all, of these
nine tribes are divided into kheils ; thus the Suddo-zye is
a division of the Popul-zye . Am ongst these kheils, one
has , generally, a pre-em inence, and supplies the chief, or
khan, of the higher denom ination . The Suddo-zye is
the Khan-Icheil of the Popul-zye, so far as the sub
ordination of the form er to the latter is a reali ty. S o
great, however, are the privileges of the Suddo-zye that
it m ay pass for a separate clan rather than a branch of
any tribe.
Following, however the classification of Elphinstone,
we hnd that the nam es for the n ine Durani tribes are as
follows z—Popul-zye, A llekko-zye, Beurih-zye, A tchikzye, Noor-zye, Ali-zye, Iskhauk-zye, and the two others
first nam ed, Khougani and Mauku. O f these, the first
is the largest, the two last the sm allest. The influence
of the Am ir is m ore visible am ong the Duranis than
am ongs t the other tribes, and the nearer a Duran i district
is to Candahar the greater it is. With the m ore distant
tribes, that of the Sirdars exceeds that of the Central
Governm ent.In person the Durani are stout and well m ade
,with a
considerable variety of feature . Som e have round and
plum p faces ; with others the countenance is strongly
m arked ; with m ost the cheek-bones are prom inent. The
beard is an object of care. The young m en clip it into
shape . All,however, encourage its growth . Som e of
THE DURAN IS . 203
the shepherds let their hair grow loose and to its full
length, so as to present a wild and shaggy aspect. I t is
m ore usual, however, to dress it with som e care. A
shaven stripe down the m iddle of the head is the com m on
fashion . Long curls are occasional.They rarely go out arm ed, except for long journeys, a
m atchlock being the ordinary weapon . And this preparesna for a com parative absence of in ter-tribual feuds so com
m on am ongst the eastern Afghans. The influence of the
fem ale is considerable, and few restraints are put upon
her freedom . When the fam ily is by itself, the m en and
wom en eat together but at parties they separate . In a
caravan in whichMr. Foster travelled a lady Afghan
took the absolute com m and. Men m arry between eighteen
and twenty, wom en between fourteen and sixteen . The
Durani dance is called the Attun . It is danced, alm ost
every evening, with songs and tales to accom pany it. This
is when the business of t he day and universal am usem en t
of the chase is over. It is also after the duties of
religion have been perform ed. In these the A tchik
zye tribe alone is negligent ; all the other Duranis being
religiously given—religiously given , but not intoleran t.
There is no encam pm ent without a Mollah, and no m em
ber of it who om its his prayers. The creed is Sunni te .
Few of the lower orders read. O f the higher, m any are
fam iliar with the com positions of the Persian poets.
The love of his country is one of the strong passions of
the Durani A fghan , and holy am ongst the holy places of
his land is the Durani city of Candahar. It is in
Candahar that the powerful m en of the tribe are chiefly
buried ; and, even when they die at a distance from
Afghanistan, their bodies are carried thither to be
entom bed . A s a general rule, however, a Durani travels
but little, and rarely as a m erchan t or adventurer.
204 THE AFGHAN S .
Their character is drawn favourably both by Elphinstone and others, and, what is m ore, the evidence of the
rest of the Afghans is cited in confirm ation of their good
qualities. The tribes that least like their rule speak of
them with respect, and praise them as com pared with anythird ruler, actual or possible. It is a m erit of the Durani
in the eyes of the other Afghans that they have replaced
and keep out the G hilzyes ; for the G hilzye rule is generally deprecated, and the G hilzye ascendancy dreaded.Even the Ghilzyes them selves adm it the hospitality and
bravery of the Duranis.
From this favourable character one tribe m ust be ex
cepted—that of the Children of A tshik or the A tchik
zye, a tribe whose highest num bers are under 5000.
They are pre-em inently pastoral
,keeping their flocks in
the valleys and heights of the Khojeh Am ram and the high
country of Toba, and their cam els in the sandy plain of
Shorabuk, where they are conterm inal with the Barait
shes. They wear their beards unclipped, their clothesunchanged for years ; are large, strong, quarrelsom e m en
inhospitable ; without m osques or Mollahs, careless in
the perform ance of their religious duties (but withalintolerant), and inveterate robbers. The Durani, un
willingly owning them as kinsm en,adm it their courage,
their fidelity, and their value as soldiers.
The Ghilzye is the second great nam e in Afghanistan .
The num ber of its divisions is eight, the Ghilzye
analogues of the P opulzye, & c ., being as follows
l st and 2nd—the clans of H otuki and Tobki, from
the first of which have sprung the kings, from the second
Vizirs,of the Ghilzye dynasty.
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6 th, 7th—the clans of Solim aun-kheil,
Ali-kheil, Suhauk, Under, and Turruki .
8 th—the Kharoti .
206 m s AFGHANS .
of the north-eastern parts of Afghanistan, occupying the
lower course of the Caubul river, and the parts between
the Indus, the Hindu Cush, and the Sal t Range. The
G hilzyes bound them on the west. Ou the north they
touch the populations ak in to the S iaposh, on the east
the Indians of Hindostan . As a general rule, the Indus
is their boundary . Here and there, however, there is a
Berdurani occupancy beyond it. Peshawur is the chief
Berdurani town .
The tribes of the parts about Peshawur are the follow
ing five—the Children of Mahom ed, the Children of
David (Mahom ed-zye and Dawud-zye), the Mom unds,
the Guggiani, and the Khulils. The Mahom ed-zye and
Guggiani, strictly obedien t to the Am ir and their own
chief, occupy the parts about Hust-nugger, or the Eight
Villages. The Mom unds of the plain, or Lower Mo
m unds, are also British subjects ; in this differing from the
UpperMom unds, who will be noticed in the sequel .The Khuttuks (British subjects) lie to the south of the
Caubul river, and to the west of the Indus ; a portionof them having extended itself into Hindostan . They
fall into two divisions. The further they lie south the
greater their independence. The northern Khuttuks
are fairer in com plexion than the tribes of Peshawur,though m ore or less Indian in dress and habits. The
southern Khuttuks occupy a m ore im practicable country,and are ruder.
The Bungfish (British subjects) occupy the valley ao
called.
The Khyberis are the tribes of the fam ous Khyber Pass.
Word for word, I believe their nam e to be Kahr. I
think that the nam e is well explained by supposing that,after the infidels of the parts around them had thrown off
their infidelity, the m en of the inaccessible ranges of the
THE AFRIDIS . 207
Khyber m ountain con tinued to retain theirs, just as, at the
present m om ent, the Kafirs of Kafiristan do . There isanother point connected with this nam e that deserves
notice . A supposed connection between the Afghan s
and the Jews has com m anded no little attention fromm ore learned m en than one. Now,
one of the points that
favour, or are supposed to favour the doctrine, is the
sim ilarity between the words K yber and Heber (Hebrew).The Khyber division consists of three independent
tribes—the Shainwairis of little, the U rukzyes of great,and the Afridis of very great, political im portance.
The Urukzye are herdsm en and soldiers, soldiers and
herdsm en—herdsm en who are, m ore or less, m igratory intheir habits. In the winter they live along the lower
levels of the K ohaut and Tiri hills. In the sum m er they
drive their flocks and herds to the m ountain tops. Three
of the divisions—(a) the Shikhan, (b) the Mishti, and
(c) the Rabewkheil, occupy districts on the British
boundary .
The m ost im portan t, however, of our frontagers are theAfridis, who are wholly independent, fierce, factions,inaccessible, and strong—said (and, perhaps with reason,)to be faithless.
The Afridis are im portant from their num bers. They
are also im portan t from the passes of which they are the
custodians. They cut in between the British districts
of Peshawur and Kohat, so that the road between themruns through the Afridi country . It runs through two
passes, the Kohat, and the Gulli or Jewaki . Each of
these has been the subject of m ore than one quarrel
between either the Afridis am ongst them selves, the
Afridis and som e neighbouring tribe, or the Afridis and
the Bri tish Governm ent. The tribes thus m ixed upwith the politics of the frontier are (besides the Bun
208 THE AFGHANS .
gush, already m en tioned, and the Jewaki , Bori, Bussikheil,
and Bustikheil sections of the Afridi nam e) , those of
The Sipah 500
Buzotu 300 ghting m en .
Sm all as these tribes are, they are independent.
The Khyber pass itself, to the west of Peshawur, is
about twenty-five m iles long, rugged, narrow, tortuous, and
often enclosed by precipitous and perpendicular walls of
rock . Essentially predatory, the tribes on each side of it
are largely paid for the perm ission to pass ; largely, but
not always sufficiently ; a Khyberi escort being, by no
m eans, sufficient to ensure a safe passage through the
Khyberi country.
The Khyberis are lean , but m uscular, dark-skinned,with prom inent cheek-bones and high noses . This is also
the Kurd physiognom y. In the vallies they have the
terraced houses so com m on in Afghan istan ; in the m oun
tains, m ovable huts of m at. In som e parts they are
truly troglodyte ; occupants of excavations in the rock.
A dark turban, a dark blue tunic, and sandals of straw
this is the dress of a Khyberi, whose arm s are a sword,a short spear, and a m atchlock with a wooden fork to
serve as a rest . Their habits m ake them excellent
m arksm en and good soldiers, so far as they can be
relied upon for keeping their hands from plunder ; for
they love this better than fighting, and m ay fall upon
the baggage of the arm y to which they belong, if theyfind it unguarded . This they did in the battle that lost
Shah Shujah his crown .
The Children of Joseph—the Eusof-zye—are, perhaps,the m ost uncontrolled of all the Afghans. They are alsoam ongst the m ost quarrelsom e. Divided into num eroussm all com m unities, chiefly dem ocratic, their form of
governm ent is em inently patriarchal. Contrasted with
2 10 THE AFGHANS .
Each of the khails receives its lands in perpetuity ; buta differen t arrangem ent was adopted within itself. The
lands of each of its divisions were allotted only for a certainnum ber of years, and were to be changed at the end of
that period for those of som e other, so that each m ight
share equally in the fertility or sterility of the so il .Thus, each independent division of the Khauzoozyes
retains the lands assigned to it at the original distri
bution ; but the subdivisions interchange their lands, in a
m anner which I shall endeavour to illustrate by the
ex am ple of the N aikpeekhail, a division of the Khail of
Khauzoozye, a nd clan of A ccozye, which is now an in
dependent O olooss, divided into six clans.
The lands of the N aikpeekhail are di vided in to two
parts, equal in extent, but, of course, not exactly equalin fertility ; the O olooss is also divided into two parts,which draw lots every ten years for the choice of land.
If the lot falls on the half which is already possessed of
the best share, i t retains its possession ; but if it falls on
the other half, an im m ediate exchange takes place. The
two half O oloosses m eet every ten years to draw lots, at
a village which lies on the borders of the two shares of
lands. Vast num bers of people attend to witness the
cerem ony ; but as the exultation of the victors, and the
anger of the vanquished party, would produce tum ul ts
in such an assem bly, the Mulliks put of? drawing the
lots on various pretences, till the people get im pati ent,and return to their hom es. When the crowd is dispersed,the chief of the whole N aikpeekhail draws the lots, and
announces the result, which is received in the victorious
party with public distributions of charity, firing of
m atchlocks, and all other m arks of rejoicing. The
change of lands is accom plished without m uch trouble or
confusion each clan of one half O olooss is paired with a
THE susorzrs . 21 1
clan of the other, and the two thus paired, cross over in toeach other’s lands .
When the lot has determ ined that the half O oloosses
are to retain their form er lands,the three clans of each
cast lots am ong them selves for a new distribution of theirshare, which is divided into three portions.
Outhe two last occasions, when lots were drawn am ong
the N aikpeekhail, the half which had the worst share was
successful each tim e, and, in consequence, there have been
two com plete in terchanges of land within the last four
teen years . It is im possible not to suppose that the
uncertain tenure on which the lands are held under this
insti tution ,m ust be a great bar to im provem ent ; but, in
spite of this obstacle, the Eusofzye coun try is cultivated
with great industry and success, and the villages, water
courses, and other im m ovable property, are as good as
in m ost parts of A fghaunistaun . It m ight also be ex
pected, that there would be a civil war in the O olooss, as
often as the land was to be exchanged ; and,in fact, at
the expiration of the last term but one, the half of the
N aikpeekhail which was in possession of the best lands,refused to subm it to the usual custom of drawing lots.
The Mulliks of the other half com plained loudly o f
this injustice, and called on all the other A ccozyes to
prevent the subversion of the ancient custom of the
tribe ; so m any O oloosses declared in their favour, that
their opponents were forced to give way, and to draw
lots as usual .
This custom is called W aish. It prevails through the
whole of the Eusofzyes, and also am ong theMahom m ed
zyes. The period for which the lands are to be retained,however
,varies throughout. In Boonere, for instance,
the W aish is perform ed annually . Am ong the Jadoons,
a branch of the Eusofzyes, individuals interchange
P 2
212 THE AFGHAN S .
am ong them selves, but there is no W aish am ong clans.
With the O tm aunkhail, on the contrary, the whole tribecas t lots every twenty years. Am ong the Gundehpoors
in Dam aun , also, the lands are divided into six shares,corresponding to the num ber of clans in the tribe, andall the clans draw lots for the order in which they are to
choose their shares. The period at which this cerem ony
is to be renewed, is not fix ed perm anently as am ong the
Eusofzyes, but while one W aish is taking place, it is
determ ined in the council of the tribe, when the next is
to happen ; the term is generally from three to five
years. What is m ost surprising is, that all these trans
actions take place am ong the lawless Gundehpoors,without quarrels or bloodshed.
None of the eas tern A fghauns but those already
m en tioned, and two or three clans of the O orookzyes,have this custom . There are som e traces of its having
prevailed am ong som e tribes in Khorassaun, but the only
rem aining instance of its existence that has reached m e,
is am ong the Baraiches, where village som etim es draws
lots with village, or m an with m an , but without anyW aish am ong clans.”
O ne of the Eusofzye saints pronounced upon his
countrym en that they should always be free, but never
united. And his prophecy has been true. Few com
m un ities are m ore anarchic . No Eusofzye chief hasauthority equal to a constable in England.I shall illustrate the above observations by an account
of the proceedings o f a part of the Ghalleekhail, one of
the clans of the N aikpeekhail .
The part of the Ghalleekhail which I am to speak
of, inhabits at presen t the village of Galoche, which is
shared by portions of three other clans. Each clan livesseparately under its own chief (who is called Mushir,
214 THE AFGHANS .
been told by Mozirrib Khaun (the nephew of Anwur
Khaun, a lad about eighteen years old) , that he has seen
several attacks on this apartm ent by one of the Cundies
of the sam e village, but they failed from the alertness of
the defendants .
O f the m ore anarchic clans the N aikpeekhail seem to
be the worst. The following is a sam ple of their quar
rels. The father of a N aikpeekhail Eusofzye, nam ed
Moz irrib, had a dispute with a m an nam ed S irundauz ,about the boundaries of their lands high words passed,and in the endMoz irrib
’
s father was wounded. Anwur
Khaun,his brother, and uncle toMozirrib, is the head of
all the Ghalleekhail, yet he had no m eans of redress be
yond those possessed by any other individual . A Jeerga
was held on the occasion , which does not seem to have
had m uch effect. A few days afterwards, when Anwur
Khaun went to the H oojra, accom panied by Mozirrib,
then only sixteen, and ten or twelve of his relations,som e well arm ed, and others having only their swords,they found S irundauz there, with twenty of his friendsin full arm our. This did not deter A nwur Khaun from
reproaching him with his behaviour ; his attack brought
on the usual consequences, a desperate affray took place,in which Mozirrib received a severe cut on his head, and
Anwur Khaun was covered with wounds ; m any of his
relations were also wounded. A son of S irundauz , and
another of his partisans, were killed . A s Anwur Khaun
had killed the first m an, he was considered to be in the
wrong, and was obliged to fly with all his fam ily. A t
last he was wearied with his exile, and subm itted to
S irundauz , giving him his sister and his niece (a sister of
Mozirrib’
s) . S irundauz behaved with courtesy ; he saidhe considered Anwur’s sister as his own, and restored her
to her relations ; but he kept the other without m arrying
THE 8 0 80 8 21 13. 215
her (for the N aikpeekhail never m arry a wom an given inprice of blood), and from that day Moz irrib saw his sister
no m ore. The pursuit of blood had, indeed, been put anend to, but no in tercourse took place am ong the fam ilies ;S irundauz and A nwur never m eet when they can avoidit, and when they do, they turn their heads away.
Mozirrib, in answer to a question, what he would do, if
he m et S irundauz alone, replied that he would instantly
attack him , that he m ight anticipate the assault whichS irundauz would assuredly m ake on him . Such furyafter a reconciliation would be blam ed even am ong theN aikpeekhail, but saysMozirrib, A m an
’
s heart burnsfor his relation that was killed . ’
O ne of the com m oner causes of war between tribe and
tribe arises out of the abduction of a wom an from one
Ulus to another, or from an elopem en t from a m an’
s
own Ulus to another ; abduction being com m on, and
sanctuary in the case of elopem en t never being denied.
Thus The wife of a Fakeer of the N aikpeekhail
eloped into the lands of the Bauboozyes. The Fakeerfollowed with som e of his relations to kill his wife ; andas he was lurking about for this purpose in the night, he
was set upon and killed, with one of his relations, by theperson who had carried off the girl, and som e of his new
protectors. When the news reached the N aikpeekhail,
their Khaun sen t a drum m er to sum m on the Mulliks of
the six clans, and consulted with them on the propriety
of a war. TheMulliks returned to their clans, and con
versed wi th the heads of Cundies, who took the sense of
the people at m eetings in the H oojra ; all were eager for
revenge, and in three days the whole O olooss assem bled
in arm s, and m arched on the sam e night to an em bank
m ent which turned part of the river of Swan t into the
lands of the Bauboozyes. They broke down the em
216 THE assuans.
bankm ent, and erected a redoubt to prevent its beingrebuilt.
The Bauboozyes, who saw the water cut off from
their cultivation, im m ediately assem bled, and m arched
against the redoubt . The N aikpeekhail were six thou
sand, and the Bauboozyes m uch m ore num erous. Both
sides had som e horse, and som e hundred Jailum ees (cham
pions distinguished by a fantastic dress, and bound to
conquer or die) .
The rest were a m ob, som e in thick quilted jackets,som e in plate arm our, som e in coats of m ail , and others
in leathern cuirasses ; all arm ed either with bows or
m atchlocks, and with sword, shields, long Afghana
knives, and iron spears.
When the arm ies cam e in sight, they at first fired on
each other ; afterwards the Jailum ees turned out, and
engaged with the sword ; at last the m ain bodies cam e
into close com bat. The brave m en on each side were
m ixed together, and fought hand to hand ; the cowards,who were m uch the greater num ber, hung back on both
sides, but joined in the general clam our ; every m an
shouted and reviled his adversaries with as loud a voice
as he could . Even the wom en of the Fakeers (for those
of the Eusofzyes could not appear in public) stood
behind the line, beating drum s,and distributing water to
refresh the weary. A t last both sides were exhausted,and retired to their hom es.
Num bers on both sides were killed and wounded. It
was, says m y inform ant, a trem endous battle ; songswere
m ade on it, and the news wen t to P eshawer to the king.
It led, however, to no im portant result ; the redoubt
rem ained, the lands of the Bauboozyes were ruined for
wan t of water, the war con tinued for three years, m any
other O oloosses joined each side, and the whole country
2 18 TH E AFGHAN S .
of clanship steps in to save him from disgrace . A sub
scription is raised to set him up again . Som etim es
(though this is discreditable) he goes the round of the
villages, and, stopping outside each, waves his loongee.
This ensures a con tribution . O r he m ay go on a pilgri
m age to! Mecca, or he m ay seek his fortunes in India.
And this is a com m on resource. Notwithstanding the
love of their country so general to m ountaineers, and whichis not less strong, but rather stronger, in Afghan istanthan elsewhere, the num bers of Pataus (for so they are
called in India) in Hindostan, som etim es m ix ed wi th thenative Indians, som etim es collected together under their
own chiefs, is very great. O f the Afghan settlem ents in
India by far the m ost im portan t is that of the Rohillas,a settlem ent which will require a separate notice.
Next to the Eusofzye com e the Turkaun (or Turco
launi) and the O thm ankail, the form er in Bajour, the
latter in the hillsbetween Bajour and Swant. The Bauz,or chief of the Turcolauni , has great power over his tribe.
There are no fakirs in the Turcolauni country .
The UpperMom unds are connected with the Khyberis
rather than the Mom unds of the plain of Peshawur, or
Lower Mom unds. They occupy the hill-range between
the Punjkora, and the Kuner rivers. The Currapa,
between Peshawur and Jellalabad, is in the Upper Mo
m und country. Mulliks have considerable power over theirseparate clans, but not so m uch as to dispense with refe
renees to the Jirgas . The Khan is only powerful through
his influence with theMulliks, except in the tim e of war.
H e has no revenue from his tribe at all. H e has, however
, a salary from the Am ir, from whom he also holds
lands. This is the price for the Currapa pass being
kept passable,and for a con tingent to the royal arm y . A
single Mom und, as an escort, ensures the safety of a
THE TURIS , ETC . 2 19
traveller through the Mom und country. Without one
youare sure of being robbed. Two kheils of the UpperMom unds are nom ad, and m ove in the spring with their
cam els and black ten ts to the head waters of the H el
m und.
For the rem aining tribes we have no longer any generalnam e like Berdurani, Ghilzye, or Durani . W e m ay,
however, for the sake of convenience, designate the
m ajority of them as the Afghans of the Punjab frontier ;som e of them being the Afghans of the Dam aun
the Dam aun m ean ing the eastern skirt of the Solim ani
range . Others are true m ountaineers.
The Turis touch the Upper Bungush ; the Jaups the
Turis ; the frontier being a scene of inveterate hostility .
The Turis are Shiah, rather than Sunnite Mahom etans.
Som e of the Jaujis live in houses half sunk in the earth.
The Esaukheil occupy not only the banks of the
Indus, but som e of its islands ; cultivators of wheat and
occupants of villages, but still lawless robbers.
In the valley of Bunnfi, which belongs to British India,the population is m ixed in origin. It has a bad nam e.
Before the conquest of the Sikh em pire there was
chronic warfare along the whole Bunnli fron tier ; for
the warlike V iz iris were continually m aking raids uponthe valley. The effect of this was to coop-up the Bunm iches in sm all high-walled villages, and to lim it their
locom otion to the parts im m ediately under their shelter.It is eviden t that Mr. Tem ple, from whose report the
newer notices of the frontier tribes is, for the m ost part,taken , lays great stress upon what he calls the propensity inherent in the Bunnuches to surround them selveswith walls,
”and the m orbid desire to wall them selves
in as physical influences. H e says that, as a general
rule, they have lived, from their childhood,within four
220 THE AFGHANS .
square walls twenty-feet high ; and that m any of them
have never been m ore than a few m iles from their native
village. Hence,they stand in an unfavourable contras t
to their neighbours. Hence, they are under-sized, andsallow-skinned . As is the body, so is the m ind . Their
m oral qualities are of the worst. They are capable of
reckless perjury, of deliberate assassination . It is
adm itted, however, that they are quiet, orderly, and
regular in revenue m atters. It is suggested, too, that
som e noble characters have arisen am ongst them . Upon
the whole, however, their nam e is a bad one. The first
settlem ent of the affairs of the Bunnti valley was effected
byMajor Edwards ; in whose Year on the frontier of thePunjab the first full accoun t of the Bunm i population
is given
Bunnu 18 British, Dour is independent ; or rather the
Am ir of Caubul is free to take it to him self. It has not
been treated as a portion of the Sikh em pire. I ts popu
lation, like that of Bunnu, is m ixed.The V iz iri is one of the m ore im portan t nam es of
Afghanistan. The tribes i t em braces (divisions and sub
divisions) are num erous. The m en who bear it are brave,active, warlike, and predatory. They are am ongst the
rudest of the Afghans. They have the credit, perhaps, of
being ruder than they are . Their occupancy is in the
m ountains, to the back, and on each side, of Bunnli and
Dour. They m ay m uster, perhaps, m en . They
quarrel, however, am ongst them selves so that the wholeforce of the nam e is scarcely destined to be ever enlistedin the sam e cause .I have said that the Bunnt'i valley has been the
scene of inroad after inroad . It has, for the m ost part,been the V iziris who were the aggressors. Indeed,som e of them have effected perm anent settlem ents in
222 THE AFGHANS .
safe. A portion of the Benhurs live in Sehra, beyond
the S olim ani range, contiguous to the Shiranui, whom
they resem ble.
The Dam aun tribes put a control upon their natural
lawlessness by the election of tem porary and responsible
m agistrates, arm ed with power sufi cient to keep the
peace, but not sufficient to endanger the freedom of the
tribe. They are selected from each kheil in such pro
portions as to m ake up the num ber of forty in all ;
whence they are called Chelwashtis, from the Pushtu
word chelwasht forty. Their head, or fore m an, is
styled the Am ir of the Chelwashtis. The whole tribe
bind them selves by oath, on his election , to support his
authority ; being at the sam e tim e fully prepared, both
to watch its exercise, and to check its abuse. The
Meankheil has four Am irs, and suffers from the division
of power and responsibility accordingly . The Chelwashti
system , though a characteristic of the Dam aun tribes,is by no m eans either universal throughout the Dam aun,
or lim ited thereto . O f the Dam aun tribes two dispense
with it. O f the tribes other than Dam aun two or m ore
adopt it—the Shiraunis, and the G ilzyes of Kuttawauz .
The Chelwashti system has been noticed as Tajik. It isalso Neusser.TheMeankheil tribe is rem arkable for being but incom
pletely Afghan ,inasm uch as one out of the four parts of
which it consists is Baktiari, the Baktiari being Persians.The S torianis are so thoroughly a frontier tribe thatpart of their area has been conquered from the Biluches.
This serves as their winter station,their sum m er one
being in the high country belonging to the MussakheilCaukers . A quarrel, however, with one of the tribes
whose land lay between the two points m ade the m igra
tions im practicable . S o hal f the tribe sold its flocks and
THE sasaw m s. 3
took to tillage at once ; and the other half, with the ex
ception of two clans, did the sam e soon afterwards.These two pastoral clans of the S toriani have Spusta, on
the south-western skirts of the Tuht-i-Solim an, as their
sum m er settlem ent.The Sheraunis are the occupants of the Tuht-i-Soli
m an . They are pre-em inently agricultural, cultivating
wheat, practising irrigation , keeping but few horses orcam els and m ore oxen than sheep—bardy and frugal .
They have bold features, grey eyes, and high cheek-bones.
They never kill an ox ; but, should one die, cut its throat
with certain cerem onies prescribed by their religion, and
eat it in defiance of their religion ; for the Koran forbids
the use of flesh of anim als that die of disease as hum an
food. They m arry late ; and the father gives his daugh
ter a dowry instead of selling her (as is usually the cus
tom ) for a price. They have no serfs, no dom estic servan ts.
The few artificers and tradesm en of their country are
Hindus or settlers from the Dam aun . A ll the tribes
that m ake their annual m igrations through the Sherannicountry have to fight their way : a traveller, however,with a native escort m ay pass through it in safety. The
chief of the Sheraum s 18 called Nika or grandfather. H e
is elected as the head of the oldest Sheranni fam ily, and
is believed to be under the special guidance of Heaven .
From every keeper of sheep he receives a lam b annually ;from every keeper of oxen a calf to om it the paym en t
of which is to ensure som e m isfortune to the fam ily of
the defaulter. The Nika is the only true and legitim ate
judge. H e hears the case, puts up a prayer to be enabled
to decide justly, and is sure of his injunction beingobeyed, for the fear of divine punishm ent is its sanction .
The Chelwashti system is m ost in force in the parts dis
tant from the Nika’
s residence ; the two authorities being
224 THE SHERAUN IS .
i n the inverse ratio to each other. There is a Mullah ineach village, who takes a tythe.
The Khan of Murhail is under the Nika of the
Sheraunis, the Murhai country being Spusta. The
tribe itself is pre-em inen tly pastoral, and resides in tents .
The tribes of Hurrepaul and Kuppeep are branchesof the Sheranni .
Where the Sheranni portion of the S olim ani rangeends, the Zm urri portion begins. The Z m urris are said
to rob less than the Sheraunis ; but in other respects to
resem ble them . They are the m ost southern Afghanso f the m ain ridge of the S olim ani range.
226 THE saun as.
zye country, the Spin Terins, the range of Solim an,
and Biluchistan ; beginning at the Siona Dang,a high
,
cold, and barren plain , fitted only for pasturage, but improving as we m ove southwards into the valleys of Tor
Murgha, Nureen , Togye, Hunna, and Burshore.
This is the district of the Caukers of Afghan istan ;but as all the Caukers are not within the lim its of the
Afghan country, a political division m ust be m ade between the ones just noticed and those of their southernfrontier. The valley of Shawl, granted by Ahm ed
Shah to Nusser Khan , Prince of the Biluches, is
no longer considered as part of the Afghan country.
The nam e of the particular branch of the Caukersthat occupies Shawl, the nam e of the Caukers of
Biluchistan ,is Cassye, or Casia—word for word, the
sam e as the nam e Casia on the fron tiers of Arracan and
elsewhere in m any places . Caste, indeed, and Canker,
are both words which m ay appear and re-appear as often
as such words as H ighlander, D alesm an, orMountaineer in
England.
The clan of Punnee,occupan t of Seewee, in See
weestan , is Canker.The Caukers of Burshore closely resem ble the Terias ;
the other elem ents of the Canker nam e bear no exact re
sem blance to any of the populations around them . They
are divided into at least ten clans, and these are sub
divided . Their m anners are by no m eans uniform . In
Cunchogye they live in tents, and a single fam ily m ay
constitute an encam pm en t. In Boree there are villages
wi th terraced houses, the use of the tent being occasional .
All the Boree Caukers belong to one tribe that of
Saranu. Y et they fal l into as m any as twelve indepen
den t com m uni ties, often hostile to each other. Each village is under i ts own Mushir, and it is only during a war
THE Naussnas. 227
that the several Mushirs acknowledge any single chief.Within the villages the jurisdiction of the Mushirs islim ited. H e calls a Jirga on weighty m atters. Minor
ones take their course.
The rudest part of the Canker coun try is the cen tre .
To go half naked is con trary to the notions of decencyof an Afghan . A Canker of the m iddle district, how
ever,goes naked from the waist upwards during the sum
m er. In som e places they are said to live in caves, beingtroglodyte
,like som e of the Khyberis.
5 . The N aussers are specially stated to speak Pushtu,or the language of the Afghans. At the sam e tim e,
”
writes Elphinstone,their features and expression cer
tainly indicate a race distinct from that nation .
”The
kindred which they claim with the Afghan H otuki is one
which the H otuki them selves deny.
The N aussers have no fix ed habitation at all . In spring
they are to be found in sm all encam pm ents of som e four
or hye tents in the Tohki and H otuki countries. A s the
season advances, they congregate m ore num erously, and
their encam pm ents enlarge them selves to the am ount of a
hundred or m ore to the village—if so it m ay be called ;the m igration consisting of short stages in quest of grassfor the flocks. These, however, change their character
when autum n com m ences ; for, then, there is a m eetingin council, a stri king of tents, and a general m ovem ent
for a m ore distant locality. This is the Dam aun , between
which and the sum m er quarters lies the hostile country of
the V iziris. For passing this, the whole body divides
itself into two divisions,each of which m akes for
Kunzoor, on the banks of the Gom ul ; Kunzoor, on
the banks of the Gom ul , which is the general rendezvousfor the whole N ausser body—a body am oun ting to som e
souls, not to m ention flocks of sheep and herds
Q 2
228 m a NAUSSERS .
of cam els. The tum ult that ensues at the approach to
Kunzoor is not decreased by the occasional quarrels that
often ensue between hostile sections of the im m igrants,crowded as they are, towards the end of the m arch, in one
narrow valley—tents, cattle, and m en—m en , cattle, and
tents . When all are assem bled, they appoint Chelwash
tis, and m arch onwards ; the power of the Chelwashtis
having suppressed all feuds , and determ ined the order
of m arch as well as the m eans of defence against the now
prepared, and always hostile, V iz iris. No V iziri gives
quarter to a Neusser. A t length, after a dangerous
m arch through narrow dehles, beset with am buscade, theyem erge into that part of the Dam aun which lies north of
Scind, and south of theMurwut country. Each hordehas its own allotted ground, on which it encam ps in
circular groups of tents, within which the cattle are shut
up at nights. The wom en work, the m en idle or hunt.When the snow on Tukt-i-Solim an m elts they prepare
for return ing to their spring and sum m er quarters, appoint
Chelwashtis, and (what is m ore im portant) a Khan as a
general dictator over the whole body, break up their
cam ps, and turn their faces westwards . The appoin t
m en t of a Khan is all-im portant ; though only during
the N ausser m igrations. When collected in the larger
encam pm en ts, they are governed by their ownMushirs.A Khan undertakes to organize and direct them duringtheir m igrations ; but when they are spread over the
country in the sm all detachm ents that have been spoken
of they go on as nearly as possible without any govern
m en t at all . A m easure of a Khan ’
s value during a
m arch is found in the following piece of conduct ofJurrus Khan . H e was anx ious to rem ain in the Da
m aun wi th 300 or 400 of his kinsm en. The expedition,however, was stopped till he could be prevailed upon to
230 m s m nom m sm s.
CHAPTER XXV .
The Pam pam isans of the Oxus—CohistanisF -Kafirs, &c.
I N OW com e to a class for which I propose the nam e
P aropam isan, its chief area being the parts between the
southern slope of the Hindukush and either the m ain
stream of the Indus itself or that of its feeder the
Caubul river. To these drainages, however, it is by no
m eans lim ited. Som e of its m em bers are on the water
system of the Oxus, som e on that of the Yarkend river,som e (perhaps) on that of the Am ur. They are all m oun
taineers, m ost of them being independent, and som e beingeither actual Kafirs (i . e. infidels) or im perfect converts
toMahom etanism . Our knowledge of them is em inentlyim perfect. For this reason it is far from unlikely thatsom e of the populations now com ing under notice m ay
be m ore properly denom inated Tajik.
The language, however, of a P aropam isan is Indian
rather than Persian . The language of a Taj ik is Persianrather than Indian. If so, the class under notice is
transitional . This I believe it to be. I repeat, however,the statem ent, that it is one concerning which our detailsare of the scantiest.The valuable, though fragm entary, journal‘ of Mr.
Gardiner, gives na the following account of the superstitions of the Therba and Shuli tribes.
T’im e—February 24th, 1830.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. u n .
rns Tnsasa, m e . 231
P Iece—E . or N E . of Bam ian, near a place cal ledDror, where the new and intrusive population is that of
the K alzubi Turkom an , the aboriginal that of the Thur,or Thurba, and Shu, or Shuli, tribes .
A sm all pool at the bottom of a deep valley is the site
of Moh ’s death. It is believed to be bottom less. The
water is bitter and bitum inous ; bubbling up with sul
phuretted hydrogen , and surrounded by incrustations of
sulphur. Lam bent flam es are said to occasionally play
over its surface. Near it is a dark cave, and in this cave
are the rem ains of idols—m ore than one . The chief of
these represent Moh and his wife,Mfibt'in , deities whom
even the Mahom etans of the district reverence. N 0 one
enters the cave with his shoes ou.
Two other caves are dedicated to Sheh, the destroyer,and Z hei, the G od of Fire. At each new m oon the
Therba (who reckon by m onths rather than years) m ake
a fire-ofl'
ering to Z hei .
Two other caves are dedicated to Hersh and Maul .
Sm all beads of gold and stone, found in these parts by
natives who dig for them ,are called Solom on ’
s grains.
Moh created the earth, and his wifeMhbfin created thewilderness. From them sprung the first giant race .
They slept alternately for 999 m oons, and reigned
m oons. After this period, three sons rebelled,
viz . Sheh, the life-destroyer, Z hei, the fire-god, and
Maul, the earth-quaker ; and by their com bined efforts,Moh was buried beneath the m ountains. Confusion
lasted 5000 m oons, after which the three victors retired
each to his own region for m oons. Maul was lost
in darkness of his own creating, Sheh fled w ith his
fam ily towards the sun, which so m uch enraged Z hei,that be caused fire to spread over the earth ; this was
quenched by the spirit of Mahlin, but not till the whole
232 rns Panoram sw s.
giant race was destroyed, and the earth rem ained a desert
for 3000 m oons. Then Hersh and L ethram ,originally
slaves of Moh, and great m agicians, em erged from the
north , and settled in these m oun tains. By som e L ethram
is considered as the incarnate spirit of Mabfin and the
Queen to whom Hersh was vizier. Hersh had threesons,‘ U z ,Muz , and All . These he left in charge of all
their fam ilies, while with a large arm y he travelled
toward the sun in pursuit of Sheh, who was supposed to
be still living. So the three sons of Hersh and their
descendants reigned happily for m oons, till Khoor
(Cyrus invaded and conquered the country, but afterm any years’ struggle, they expelled the invader
, and
retained the nam e Khoorskush (Cyrus killed) now Khir
ghiz . The descendants of Hersh continued to reign for
m oons m ore till Khoondroo (Alexander invaded
the country, after which no separate legend of them
seem s to be recollected .
In the sam e distri ct stands the fort of Khorm ishi,
to which you ascend by a series of steep steps on
hands and feet. Then com es a narrow ledge of rock,
from which a ladder of skin-m pes, or a basket and
windlas s, takes the explorer upwards. A t the top, a
basin of bubbling brillian t water, hot in the winter and
cold during the sum m er, always ful l, and never over
flowing, gives rise to the following legend—an echo of
rem arkable clearness adding to the m ysterious character
of the spot .
When Noah was at Mecca, Khor, the chief of the dis
trict, wen t to pay hom age to him . Thereat N oahwas well
pleased, and prom ised to grant him any favour for whichhe should ask. S o Khor asked forwater. But the voice
W hose nam es seem retained in the Uztagh, Muztagh, and Altai
m ountains.
234 m s m aom m ssns.
Again , the undulating plain of Reikshan is associated
by a Badakshi with all the m isfortunes of its coun try .
Khan Khoja, a Mahom etan fugitive, at the head of
m en,cursed it. It was to be three tim es depo
pulated. It has, already, twice been conquered by the
Uzbeks.
In the sam e districts are legends to a great am ount,which Wood, pudicitiaz causa
'
, withholds.
I read all this thus —there was a barren tract with
Hindulegends .
Again , putting together, as I best can , the details o f
Gardiner, so as to give a geographical result, I com e to
the conclusion that, the following are the western Paro
pam isans, i . e. the P aropam isans of the Oxus, occupantsof the parts to the west of the Belut Tagh.
1 . Kafirs of Esh, calculated at
2 . Ushah
These are generally called Kahrs.
3. Khai l (Kheil Kru
4. G ob or Gabr (Guebre5 . Ghar
6 . Lab or Lashi
7 . Udii8 . Phaluth or Phah9 . Shuli, or Shu10. K huruk, or K m
1 1 . Therba, or Thur
These are other than Mahom etan, but, still, not calledK afirs.
THE com sum s. 235
These are N im chi Mussulm en, half Mahom etans, orMahom etans with a certain am ount of heathenhood.
Moguls are m et with in the northern portion of this
area.
The tribes who own these superstitions are especially
stated to be connected with each other . Their language
is specially stated to di ffer from both the Persian and
Arabic ; whilst Sanskrit affinities are suggested. That it
is other than either Turk or Mongol, is shown in the context. I have but little doubt as to the ethn ological placeof the m en and wom en who speak it. Their geographical
position is obscure. A few m ay belong to the north
wes tern part of the C ohistan of Caubul . The m ass,
however, are on the western slope of the Belut Tagh, on
the K afir frontier of Buduskun, and on the drainage of
the Oxus. The m ost northern tribes appear to be in con
tact with the ParoPam isans of the Yarkend river, of whomm ore will be said hereafter.I now turn to
The Cohistanis of Caubul, occupants, m ore or lesspartially, of the valleys of the G horebund, the Punj ir,the N ijrow, the Tugow ,
the Alishang and Alighur, and
the Lower Kuner.The Pushai, or Pushya is one of their dialects, but littledifferen t from
The Lughm am'
of the district called Lugm an, and
The D eggauni .—The nam e Deggaun applies to the
tribes of the lower Kuner. It applies to others as well .The Deggauns, however, in the lim ited m eaning of the
word, are the natives of the valley of the Kuner, in the
parts about its confluence with the Caubul river.
236 THE m aorm sm s.
Lughm an.
wad
m aoch
i
do
te
char
pm iS ta: khe she
S even that sat
E ight akht ash
N inc no no nehan
Ten de de jash.
The P anjkora and Landye Valleys.—East of the Kuner
lies the country of the Turcolaini, O thm ankheil, and
Eusofzye, Afghans. It lies, however, in the valleys rather
than the hills ; the valleys of the Punjkora and Lundys
rivers. The skirts of m ountains, and the m ountainsthem selves, however, preserve the rem ains of an older
class of occupants, Swautis of the valley of Swan t, & c. ,
of which the details are obscure. The evidence that
their afinities are with the tribes to the north is satis
Spoken in Chitral, orupper part of the Kuner river.
238 THE PAROPAMISANs.
the Belut Tagh, along with other ranges m ore m ysterious,still belong to it. It is a land of gorges and valleys ; of
short stream s and of long rivers. These, as we expect,belong to different drainages. They will, probably, be ourbest landm arks in the perplexed geography of these parts .
Som e of them are carried in to the Indus. O f these
one series is received by the Caubul river ; another by
the Shayuk.
The best m easure of the inaccessibility of the country
is to be found in the nam e of one of its districts, Kafir
istan . What this m eans we have already seen . Is it not
the land of the K afir, Giaour , or Infidel, whereunto Maho
m etanism ,trium phant elsewhere, has failed to penetrate ?
I f such spots exist in western Asia, they m ust be few and
far between . They m ust be defended by either the m ost
im practicable condi tions of nature, or the m ost fanatic
obstinacy of m an . Be this as it m ay, there is wi thin a
day’s journey of Shi ite Persia, of Sunnite Turkistan , of
Buddhist Tibet, and of Brahm inic India, a true K afir
istan , whither no Mahom etan can with safety penetrate.
Kafiristan and Kahr are of course Mahom etan designations ; a nam e which is, at one and the sam e tim e,
native and general, being wanting. Other nam es there
are, Afghan and Mahom etan also, though not im possibly
native as well, es, S iaposh, Speen (white) S iaposh, andTor
(black) S iaposh
The following are the nam es of som e of their tribes.
1 . Traigum a,G im eer, Kuttaur, Bairagullee, Chai
naish, D im deau, W aillee W auee, Caum a, Cooshteea,
Dhaing, andW auee, called Puneeta by theMussulm auns.
2. Caum ojee, Kistojee (whose chief town isMuncheeashes) ,Moondeegul, Cam toze (half of whom are towards
Budukhshaun , and half towards Lughm aun ), Puroonee
(whose capital is K ishtokee), Tewnee, P oonooz , U shkong,
THE um as. 239
U m shee, Sunnoo , K oolum ee Roose Turkum a (to whombelong Kataur and Guinbeer), Nisha, Chum ga, W auee,Khoollum , Beem ish, Eerait, & c.
,& c.
3. W auee Daiwuzee, Gum beer, Kuttaur, Pundect,Khoostoze, Caum ozee Divine, Tsokooee, Hurunseea, and
Chooneea.
”
Again
The com m on nam es at Caum daish were Chundloo ,D eem oo , H azaur Meeruk, Bustee, and Budecl. Thenam es of certain m en at Tsokooee were Gurrum baus,A zaur, D oorunaus P ranchoolla, G em eeruk, K ootoke
,
O odoor, Kum m ur, and Zore. Those of certain wom en
wereMeeankee, Junailee,Maulee Daileree Jeenoke, Z oreePuckhoke, Malkec, and Azauree . The nam es of fourm en at Kuttaur were Toti, Hots , G ospura, and Huzaur,and of one wom an Kurm ee .
The Caum daish call their chief god Im ra the Tsukooe
Kafirs call him Dagun . Their Paradise is Burry L e
Bula ; their hell, Burry Duggur Bula. Buggish is the
god of the waters. Mauni expelled Yfish, or the Evil
Principle. Seven brothers bore the nam e Paradik. Theirbodies were of gold . S o were those of the seven brothersnam ed Purron . O ne or m ore of their gods was called
Shee Mahadeo .They have idols of stone and wood, m ale and fem ale,
m ounted or on foot. O ne in particular is m entioned as
having been erected by a Kahr m agnate during his own
lifetim e. H e purchased the privilege of doing so by giving
a series of feasts to the village. Fire is used at their sa
crifices ; blood also ; the blood of cows as well as of other
anim als. The details of a sacrifice are as follows
There is a stone set upright about four feet high, and
in breadth about that of a stout m an . This is the Im rtan,
or holy stone, and behind it to the north is a wall . This
240 THE PAROPAMISANS .
is all the tem ple. The stone represents God. They say,This stands for him , but we know not his shape.
’ To
the south of the Im rtan burns a fire of Kauchur, a species
o f pine which is thrown on green, purposely to give a
great deal of sm oke. A person whose proper nam e is
Muleek, and his title O ta, stands before the fire,and
behind him the worshippers in a row. First,water is
brought him , with which he washes his hands, and taking
som e in his right hand, throws it three tim es through the
sm oke or flam e on the Im rtan , saying every tim e S ooch,
that is, pure ; then he throws a handful of water on the
sacrifice, usually a goat or cow,and says S ooch. Then
taking som e water, and repeating som e words (m eaning,do youaccept the sacrifice be pours it into the
left earof the sacrifice,which stands on his right. (MoollahNujeeb saw two sacrifices, one to God and one to an idol .)I f the anim al now turn up its head to heaven , it isreckoned a sign of acceptance, and gives great satisfaction ;afterwards water is poured in the right ear, and a third
tim e on the forehead, and a fourth on its back . Eachtim e S ooch is once said. Next throwing in som e fuel,he takes a handful of dry wheat-flour, and throws itthrough the fire on the stone ; and this flour they reckona part of God ; and again he throws both hands ful l ofGhee into the fire ; this also is a portion of God . They
do not in either of these cerem onies say S ooch, but now
the priest says with a loud voice, H e ! and after him
three tim es the worshippers and he say H e Um uch ! thatis, accept ! This they accom pany each tim e with a
gesture. They put their palm s expanded on the outside
of their knees, and as they raise them in an extended
position , say H e U m uch ! The priest now kills the goat
with a knife, and receiving in both hands the blood,allows a li ttle to drop into the fire, and throws the re
242 m s rm oram sm s.
U m rtans and U m rum as the worshippers face to the
north . A cow is struck one blow with an ax e on the
forehead, of which it dies.”
They hate the Mahom etans, who frequently invade
their territories in sm all parties to carry off slaves, and
once or twice have undertaken m ore im portan t ex
peditions against them . About thirty years ago there
was a general crusade (if I m ay be allowed the expression)against them . The Khaun of Budukhshaun , one, at
least, of the princes of Kaushkaur, the Paudshah of
C oonner, the Bauz of Bajour, and several Eusofzye
Khauns, confederated on this occasion, and m et in the
heart of the Caufir coun try ; but notw ithstanding this
success, they were unable to keep their ground, and were
forced to evacuate the country, after sufl'
ering con
siderable losses. The arm s of the Gauhra are a bow
about four feet and a half long, with a leathern string,and light arrows of reeds with barbed heads, which they
som etim es poison . They wear also a dagger of a peculiar
shape on the right side, and a sharp knife on the left,wi th which they generally carry a hin t, and som e bark of
a particular kind, which m akes excellent tinder. Theyhave also begun to learn the use of firearm s and swordsfrom their Afghaun neighbours.
They som etim es go openly to attack their enem ies, but
their com m onest m ode is by surprisals and am bushes, and
they expose them selves to the sam e m isfortunes by
neglecting to keep watch by night. They often under
take rem ote and difficult expeditions, for which theywell suited, being naturally light and active ; when pur
sued, they unbend their bow, and using it as a leaping
pole, m ake surprising bounds from rock to rock . Mool
lah Nujeeb saw the m en of Caum daish m arch out against
THE KAFIRS . 243
another tribe . The rich wore their best clothes, and
som e put on black fillets ornam ented with cowry shells,one for everyMussulm aun whom the wearer had killed .
They sung a war-song as they m arched away, in which
were the words,Chera hi
,Cheri hi, Mahrach, and he
learned that when they had succeeded in com ing on an
enem y unprepared, they set up a loud whistle, and sing a
song, of which the chorus is Ushro ao Ushro on such
occasions they put every soul to death . But their chief
glory is to slay the Mussulm auns ; a young Caufir is
deprived of various privileges till he has perform ed this
exploit, and num erous distinctions are contrived tostim ulate him to repeat it as often as m ay be in his
power. In the solem n dances on the festival of Num m i
naut, each m an wears a sort of turban , in which is stuck
a long feather for everyMussulm aun he has killed : the
num ber of bells he wears round his waist on that
occasion is regulated by the sam e criterion, and it is not
allowed to a Caufir who has not killed his m an to flourish
his ax e above his head in the dance. Those who have
slainMussulm auns are visited and congratulated by their
acquaintances,and have afterwards a right to wear a little
red woollen cap (or rather a kind of cockade) tied on the
head and those who have killed m any m ay erect a high
pole before their doors,in which are holes to receive a
pin for every Mussulm aun the owner has killed, and a
ring for every one he has wounded. With such en
couragem ent to kill them , it is not likely the Caufirs
would often m ake Mussulm auns prisoners : such cases
have happened when the Caufirs were defending their
own village, and they then m ade a feast with great
trium ph,and put the unfortunate prisoner to death in
m uch form ,or perhaps sacrificed him to their idols.
R 2
244. THE PAROPAMISAN S .
They, however, have som etim es peace or truce with
Mussulm auns. Their way of striking a league is as
strange as their m ode of war. They kill a goat and dress
the heart, bite off half, and give the rest to the Mussulm aun ; the parties then gently bite each about the region
of the heart, and the treaty is concluded.
Though exasperated to such fury by the persecution
of theMahom m edans, the Caufirs are in general aharm less,affectionate, and kind-hearted people. Though passionate,they are easily appeased : they are m erry, playful, fond
of laughter, and altogether of a sociable and joyous dis
position . Even to Mussulm auns they are kind when
they adm it them as guests, and though Moollah Nujeeb
was once obliged to be kept by the other Gauhra out of
the way of a drunken m an of their nation, he was never
threatened or afl'
ronted on account of his religion by anym an in possession of hi s faculties.
The Koh-i-ghar Kafirs shave the head ; but when they
kill an enem y allow a lock to grow. The Koh-i-kaf and
Koh-i-loh tribes reverse this process. The hair grows
naturally, but has a lock taken away from it when a
Mussulm an has been slain . Hence, whilst the Koh-i
ghar heroes rejoice in long locks, those of the Koh-i-kafand Koh-i-loh m ay be bald shavelings. A party of
Bhuri , with som e Kafir girls for sale, had one of ex traor
dinary beauty ; the price asked for her being about half
an ounce of silver. This tells na the state of the frontier.The Mahom etans steal the Kafir wom en ; the K afirs kill
the Mahom etan m arauders. The country is one whichsuggests legends and supersti tions of all kinds. Som e
tim es the torrent disappears in som e m ysterious chasm
leading to vast caves. Som etim es the caves them selves
bear signs of hum an occupancy, excavated in labyrinthine
246 THE PAROPAMISANS .
Ujuem . Elsewhere the belief in the Koran is but slight.
The m en are short, stout, hardy, and clothed in skin ;the wom en plain .
The Ksiaz tribe seem to be am ong the rudest. The
caves of the highest peaks are their occupancies. They
hunt, eat raw hesh (which is unlikely), and are said to be
cannibals, which is m ore unlikely still . Their wom en
are handsom e . When a K eiaz lover wishes to m arry,he
lays his bow at the foot of the fair one . If she take it
up, kiss, and return it, the knot is tied, and she is his
wedded wife. By varying this practice she can divorce
herself, i . e. by taking her husband’s bow and hinging
it on the ground before him . Thirdly—she m ay m ake
the offer herself, by unslinging one from the shoulder ofthe m an she selects . O n the other hand, their husband
can sell them . H e can also m ake them over to hisvisitor ; who, if he be a Hindu devotee, m ay have the
choice of the whole Keiaz wifedom ; for the credulousm ountaineers venerate these im postors, and believe that
such progeny as their wives or daughters m ay hear to
them are m ore or less divine.
The ruins of Mahu are in the Akaa country ; the
Turks of the neighbourhood being of the Kibi tribe.
Ma and Huwere twin brothers, descendants of Toth,Em peror of the East. Ma was a righteous prince ; butHu was wicked. Hu m urdered Ma by burying him
alive.Before his death, however,Ma invoked the sam e fate
on Hu. S o the m ountain tum bled down upon him and
his. This is the account of the origin of the vast
excavated tum ulus of Ma-hu.
Such are the fragm entary notices of the northern
Kahrs, and their congeners, the half-Mahom etans, as
rns AKAA . 247
taken from an appendix to Elphinstone'
s Caubul,and a
paper of Dr. Gardiner’s in the Asiatic Transactions of
Bengal .
The following vocabularies for the parts nearest the
Tibetan frontier are from Cunningham '
s Ladakh. The
K hajunah of Runz and Nagar is a very rem arkable
form of speech. A ll that can be said is that its nearest
affinities are Paropam isan .
Shins. Arniya.
m usha
248 THE m aom m sm s.
A s far as their blood goes, som e of the Little Tibetans
m ay be P aropam isan. When I wrote m y notice of Bultis
tan I had no reason to believe that thiswas the case. I have
since,however
, seen several casts of Bulti faces brought
into this country by the brothers S chlagentweit. They are
anything but Bhot. They are, on the contrary, m ore P er
sian than aught else. How far they m ay represent the
average physiognom y is another question . Assum e that
they do so, and it becom es probable that, in the Maho
m etan districts of Tibet, the blood and language differ.
If so, i t is the Bhot tongue that has encroached . If so ,
the dialects which i t has displaced are, in all probability,Paropam isan in the south, and Turk in the north ; Turkin Kheris, Khapalu, and Chorbad. This, however, is a
suggestion rather than a doctrine. Dard is the nam efor the P aropam isans of the valley of the Indus, and of
the m ountains on each side. Indeed, Cunningham uses
the term in a generic sense, and calls his Shina, Arm iya,and Khajuna vocabularies specim ens of the Dard lan
guage. The term is convenient. It is also old. The
Indian Puranas speak of the Daradas, the classical writers
of the D aradae. Whether it be sufficiently general is
another question . The tribes, on the other hand, of
Chitral and Gilghit are called Dunghers ; Dungher being,also, a Hinduword . The Dangri vocabulary of Vigne
represents the language of these Dunghersk word for
word, the two nam es being the sam e .
That certain P aropam isans are, in the way of creed,ei ther actual Hindus or Buddh ists is specially stated byGardiner whose table I give as I find it. I hang a doubt,however, upon the last nam e of the list, Bhoti . What is
the evidence that the Bhoti are not the ordinary Bhots of
Tibet ? The list, however, runs thus
250 THE PAROPAMISAN S .
I think that these States are all in the sam e category
notwithstanding a statem ent of Wood’s that the Shug
nani or Roshani language is peculiar . Saving, however,any exception that m ay arise out of this difference, theS tates of the Upper Oxus form a convenient and not
unnatural division .
They are Taj ik as opposed to the Kirghiz and Uzbek
countries of the north and eas t of them .
They are Taj ik with a m inimum adm ixture of Uzbek
elem ents, a poin t which distinguishes them from Kunduz
and Bokhara. P olitically, however, they are m ore or lessUzbek, i . e. subject to the Khan of Kunduz .
They are on the drainage of the 0 xus rather than the
Caubul and Indus . This separates them from the C o
histanis of Caubul , whose political relations are with
Afghanistan rather than Turkistan . Also from the Chi
trali, &c . FinallyThey are Mahom etans rather than pagans ; though in
other m atters closely akin to the Kahrs of K afiristan ,
with whom the Badakshi and Wakhani are conterm inous
on their southern frontier.
S o scanty is the population of Wakhan that the
whole num ber of the subjects of the Wakhani Khan
is 1000 —there or thereabouts . This is distributed over
a few sm all villages, for which we have the nam es
Kila Khoja, Pullu, Issar, Ishtrakh, L angerkish and
Kundut, the latter under a m onarch over fifteen fam ilies.
A t present the chief objects of tillage are barley and
peas—both grown in quan tities insufficient for the con
sum ption of the Wakhani , who supply the deficiencyby im portations from the districts lower down ; a defi
ciency due to the want of skill and industry as
m uch as to sterility of the soil or the harshness of the
clim ate . At one tim e the population was thicker, and a
THE W AKHANIS . 25 1
considerable trade passed through Wakhan in the way
from Kunduz to Yarkend . This supplied a revenue.
S o did (and does) the slave trade . The Shak-durah, a
m ountain valley to the north of the W akhan, is the land
upon which the Mahom etan Wakhani foray, the Shak
durah people being them selvesMahom etan . The unhappy
wretches thus kidnapped in the veriest violation of the
Koran, which forb ids the sale of true believers, are chiefly
bat tered for horses with the Uzbeks, who, in their turn ,
sell to the Chitrali . To the Uzbek Khan of Kunduz ,too, the Wakhani owe their very im perfect allegiance.
O f fifteenWakhani m easured,the tallest stood five feet
seven inches and a half, the shortest hy e feet one inch
and three-quarters. This is taller than the Ladakhi Tibe
tans. The physiognom y is Taj lk ; there is nothing
peculiar in their facial line nor in their eyes and hair .The sheep of a Wakhani constitute his chief wealth .
The goat of the country gives a wool equal to the fam ous
Tibetan staple, so valuable for the m anufacture of the
Cashm ir shawls. The dog is like a Scotch colly, of the
Chi trali breed , vigilant and courageous. The chief tree,
or rather shrub, is the red willow . In April the seed
is sown ,in July reaped . There are som e so-called Kahr
forts in W akhan .
In Roshan and S hugnan the natural strength of the
coun try, which is accessible only at m idsum m er, and that
through treacherous passes, protects the inhabitants against
invading arm ies, but not against m urderous forays.
Shugnan ,for instance , a little beforeWood
’
s journey, had
lost 500 out of its 1000 fam ilies, the nom inal population of
both it and Roshan . The two districts pay a joint tribute
of fifteen slaves to the Khan of Kunduz . Stone fruit
grows abundantly in Shugnan a nd Roshan so does
wheat.
252 THE PAROPAMISAN S .
Durwauz, besides wheat, grows cotton . I ts indepen
dence is com plete . The Durwauz i are Sunnites.
K arategin, to the north of Durwauz , vacillates in its
allegiance between Kunduz and Kokan . After Karate
gin, the country becom es Turk.
In speaking of the Little Tibetans I stated that their
chiefs pretended to be descended from Alexander. Many
of the P am pam isans do the sam e.
Baber enum erates the tribes who, in his day, inhabited
Caubul . In the plains were Turks, Ai m aks, and Arabs .
Are these last, eo nom ine and cd lingud, still existing ?
In the hills were H azarehs, Afghans, Kahrs, and Tog
derris. What are the Togderris ?
The languages were Arabic, Persian. Turk, Moghul
(Mongol), Hindi, Pushtu(Afghan) , Pushai , Purfincheh,Gubri (Kahr), Buruki , and D egghflni. W e have speci
m ens of all these except the Purancheh.
It is scarcely necessary to enlarge upon the in terest and
im portance of the Kahr and half-K afir coun tries. Nor
are they inaccessible. Contiguous to the Bri tish di stricts
of Caubul, they are, though closed to the Mussulm an ,
accessible to the Frank and Hindu. That the physical
difficulties are insurm ountable is unlikely. The Belut
Tagh is nei ther higher nor m ore abrupt than the Him a
layas . The value of the fables about A lexander is
worth investigation. The possibility of Macedonian and
Bactri an rem ains should stim ulate the energy of the ar
chaeologist. The analysis of the m ythology of the only
population in the Persian portion of India whose creed
is older than Mahom etanism , would be a well-rewarded
labour. To the physical geographer the m ountains give
a quaquaversal watershed som e of its waters falling in tothe Indus, som e into the Oxus, som e into the Am ur,som e into the river of Yarkend. How sadly indefini te
254 THE 13111 110 1 .
CHAPTER XXVI .
The Brahfii.
WITH few populations is the consideration of their language of greater im portance than with the Brahl'i i ; and
with few has its value been m oreutterly ignored . That itdiffered from that of the Biluches, and equally so from the
Pushtuof the Afghans, was known to both Elphinstone
and Pottinger—for both state the fact. Both, however,treat the Brahlii as Biluches with certain differential
characteristics ; neither asking how far som e of these
m ay be im portant enough to m ake them other than
Biluch. This is because the political term Biluchistan
has concealed one of the m ost im portant and in teresting
affinities in ethnology.
A short specim en of the Brahui language in Leach ’s
vocabularies com m anded the atten tion of Lassen , who,after enlarging upon its difference from the Persian ,
Biluch, and Pushtu, drew attention to som e notable sim i
larities between the num erals and those of the SouthIndian dialects. Following up this suggestion
, the pre
sen t author satisfied him self, m uch to his surprise, that
the Brahtii tongue was, in m any respects, Tam ul , an
opinion which others have either recognized or been led
to form from their own researches.
In the coun try, however, which they now occupy, the
Brahtii consider them selves aboriginal ; the Biluch ad
m itting that they are them selves of foreign origin . The
rugged and im practicable nature of the Brahli i m oun
tains favours this view. O f any creed an terior to the
THE BIRABU . 255
in troduction of Mahom etanism no traces have been discovered, though, doubtless, discoverable. A s Mahom e
tans, they consider them selves favoured, inasm uch as the
Prophet, m ounted on a dove, paid them a visi t one night,and left a num ber of saints behind him for their guidance.
Forty of these lie buried under a m ountain to the northof K elaut, called TheMountain of Forty Bodies,“ a place
held sacred and visited not only by Mahom etans other
than Brahtii, but by the Hindus also. The particular
form of the Brahlii Mahom etans is the Sunnite, in
whi ch they agree with the Biluch.
They differ from the Biluch m ost in language, as has
been stated already .
They differ from the Biluch also in physical form , and
that notably. To this Pottinger speaks m ost decidedly :The contour of the people of these two classes is as
unlike, in m ost instances, as their languages, provided
they be the descendan ts of a regular succession of auces
tors of either.” H e adds that the two populations inter
m arry . Again , It is im possible to m istake a m an of
one class for a m em ber of the other. The Brahtii,in
stead of the tall figure, long visage, and raised features oftheir fellow-cm m trym en
,have short, thick bones, with
round faces and flat lineam ents —in fact, I m ay assert
that I have not seen any other Asiatics to whom they bear
any resem blance ; for num bers of them have brown hair
and beards.
” They are hardy ; for they tolerate the
scorching sun of Cutch Gundava equally with the cold
frost of their own proper m ountain-range. They are
hardier, perhaps, than the Biluch. They are also m ore
m igratory than the Biluch, changing their pasturages
several tim es in the year . They are harder workers ;m any of them in the plains to the south o f Kelaut being
Is not this the tale of page 2571
256 THE BRAHUI .
agri cul tural labourers. The product of their industry
which they dispose of to the occupants of the townsalong with the sale of a few coarse blankets and felts,form s the bulk of their traffic. O f their m oral character
I hnd a favourable account. They are less revengefuland less quarrelsom e, though not less courageous
,than
the Biluches. Their chiefs have considerable power .Their wom en are but slightly, if at all, secluded . Theirarm s are the sword and the m atchlock, in the use of
which they excel,rather than the spear, for which they
profess a kind of contem pt. Their dress is the sam e for
sum m er and winter. They are great eaters, especially of
an im al food . This they consum e both fresh and dried.
The drying is done by exposing the m eat to the sun, after
which it is sm oked over a fire of green wood.
The division into tribes is Brahlii even as it is
Biluch, Afghan , Turk, Arab, & c. , the num ber of the
tribual divisions being great. Pottinger gives the nam es
of seven ty-four ; for fifty-two of which he gives the num
ber of their fighting m en . That of theMingul, am oun ting to is the highest. The lowest is that of the
Jyanee, which is no m ore than sixty.
The list of Brahti i tribes could be doubled . Were itanswering m y purpose I could enum erate twice as m any
m ore, but the foregoing list includes the principal ones in
point of num bers, and will suffice to prove the m ultipli
city of the Brahooé, to say nothing of the absolutely in
num erable heils into which they are subdivided.” About
one-fourth of the nam es end in -zye, as Jum ul-eyee, Sam o
syce, &c.
The Kum burani tribe has two distinguishing charac
ters. I t only partially interm arries with the others, i . e.
it receives wives from them ,but not husbands, a com m on
form of exclusiveness.
258 THE BRAHUI .
how to provide for. In despair at the overflowing bounty of the superiorpowers, the husband exposed all the babes but one on the heights of
Chebel Tau. A fterwards, touched by rem orse, he sped his way to thehill, with the idea of collecting their bones, and of interring them . To
his surprise he beheld them all living, and gam bolling am ongst the trees
and rocks. H e returned and told his wife the wondrous tale, who, nowanxious to reclaim them , suggested that in the m orning he should carrythe babe they had preserved with him , and, by showing him , induce thereturn of his brethren. H e did so, and placed the child on the groundto allure them . They cam e
, but carried it 08 to the inaccessible hauntsof the hi ll. The Brahtiis believe that the forty babes, yet in their iniantile state, rove about the m ysteri ous hill . Hazrat Ghous has left behindhim a great fam e, and is particularly revered as the patron saint of chil
dren. Many are the holidays observed by them to his honour, both inBalochistan and S ind . In the latter country, the eleventh day of everym onth is especially devoted as a juvenile festival, in com m em oration
of Hazrat Ghous.
”—Masson’
s Journeys in Balochietdn,Af gh anistan, &c
vol. ii. pp. 83—5 .
The representative of the Brahfiis, in the way of poli
tics, is the Khan of K elaut. The extent to which his
dom inions are Brahtii rather than Biluch will be cousi
dered in the sequel .
HISTORY OF rsssu. 259
CHAPTER XXVII .
Ancient H istory and Antiquities of Persia.—Relation of Persia to India.
—The Religion of Ancient Persia.—The Parsis.
Tm ; populations m ore or less akin to Persia, have now
been enum erated in detail . The relations of Persia,however, as a prelim inary to the ethnology of Hindostan,still stand over for notice . O f these two countries, the
histories are inseparable. There were num erous Indianson the soil of Persia and Afghanistan , and there wasscarcely a town of Caubul without its Hindus.
The literary language of India, allowance being m adefor a di fference of dialect, is the inscriptional language ofPersia.
A gain ,—Persian arm ies and Persian im m igrants have,over and over again, occupied portions of India. Theyhave done this so m uch , that even the strongest partisans of Indian autonom y and Indian self-develop
m ent have adm itted that, in analysing the ethnological
elem ents of Hindostan , som e part, at least, of Persiam ust be taken into account . But what do we gain by
doing this, as long as Persia itself has been unsubm itted
to analysis ? What if, while Persia is an ingredient ofIndia, Turkistan, Arabia, Arm enia, Caucasus, and evenparts of Europe, are ingredients of Persia ? It is clear
that an analysis is needed.
W e have two instrum ents for effecting this,history
and arche ology . I begin with the first.
26 0 m sronr or PERSIA.
The general presum ptions in favour of a Turk intrusioninto the land of Persia have been already considered .
They constitute the prelim inaries to m any questions inethnology in general. To the particular ethnology of
Persia they are a prelim inary with which no ethnologistcan dispense.
I consider that the ordinary notices of the once form idable Parthians suggest the belief that they were of
the Turk stock, i . e. that they were what the classicalwriters would have called Asiatic Scythians ; the P er
sians, Sacas ; the Mongols and Tibetans, Sok. I f so, theArsacidm were what m ost of the Persian dynasts of thetrue historical period have been , foreigners to the soil over
which they ruled, but not foreigners to the soil which,from the Caspian to the P aropam isus, lies parallel with
that of Persia. L et Persia be called (as it is called at thebeginning of its history), Iran, and let the parts beyond
its frontier be called (as called they were) Turan, andthe Arsacidm were Turanians. Turanian, however, wasscarcely the word for the Latins and the Greeks. They
used, instead of it, Scythian . Few of them , however,paid m uch attention to language as an instrum ent in eth
nological cri ticism . For this reason the special statem entof Justin , that the speech of the Parthians was m idway
between the Scythic and the Mede, and consisted of a
m ixture of the two,”is valuable. Am ongst m odern writers
Erskine unhesitatingly com m its him self to the doctrine,that the Parthians were a foreign race, who never fully
assim ilated with the native inhabitants.
” The Parthian
coins have Greek legends. The particular Parthian pro
vince was Khorasan.
I now subm i t the following inference from the sim ila
rity of the nam es P arthia and P ersia which are as m uch
alike as theGreek words, arid wipes!. I subm it that,
26 2 H ISTORY or PERSIA.
m ade of wood, so brave that they vanquished the S ofi'
a
rian arm y, eight tim es m ore num erous than their own .
”
The Bowids (from 933 to 1055 ) are said to have intro
duced the title of Sultan , a Turk term .
From the Bowid period to the presen t tim e,every king
of either Persia,or any part of P ersia, who consolidates
a power with any pretension to stability,is either a Turk
or a Mongol . Sebeetegin ,Mahm ud of Ghizni, Togrul
Beg,Malek Shah, Alp Arslan, are all Turks. The Tem u
ginian conquerors are Mongols ; the Tim urian, Turks.
It m ust be adm itted, then, that the presum ptions are in
favour of the negative, and,therefore
,hazardous, state
m ent that the soil of Persia has never been perm anently
ruled by a native dynasty .
The doctrines suggested by nam es like Sacastene '
f and
Indoscythaahave already been noticed.
That a Turan ian dynasty in terposed between that of
the Macedonians in Bactria, and the Arsacidw,is shown
by coin after coin, illustrative of the parts on the drain
age of the Oxus during the first and second centuries of
the Christian era.
Such is theprim afacie evidence (independen t of that of
the arrow-headed inscriptions which will be noticed here
after) in favour of an influx of influential Turanians into
Persia, beginning early and ending late . Such, too, the
notice of the influences from A rabia. The C aliphat gave
them . But Arabia is not the only Sem ite country which
has told on Persia. Assyria has done the sam e. S o has
Media. S o alsoMacedonia.
A s the notice of both Assyria and Media involves a
special line of criticism , i t is only Macedonia which now
arrests our attention . Alexander’s arm y, so far as we see
in it a civilizing influence and a vehicle for the thought
G ibbon, chap . 111 . Vol . i . p. 51 5 .
HISTORY or PERS IA . 26 3
and learning of Eastern Europe, was an arm y of Greeks .
Its captain was a reader of Hom er. O ne, at least, of its
generals was a historian . A geographer accom panied it.
A philosopher or two m ight be found am ong its court
elem ents. I f we look at it, however, as a m ere m aterial
force (and in this light the physical historian ought to view
it), i t was aMacedonian m edley of half-barbaric Hellenes,Thessalians, and Illyrians. It m ay have had in its ranks
Gete and Thracians. Should any of its m em bers be, at
the pres ent m om ent, represen ted by any of the m ysterio
tribes of the P aropam isus, the chances are against their
being Greeks. Skipetar blood is m ore likely to be
found am ongst the K afirs and W akhan is than Hellenic .
This, however, is but a speculation . Nevertheless, it is
one which illustrates the case out of which it grows.
Materially speaking, theMacedonians were, to a great ex
tent,other than H ellenes. Morally and in tellectually,
they were Greeks. It was in north-eastern Persia that
their power and language lasted longest. Soon after
the death of Alexander it took root . By the end of
the first century it was shaken by the Turanians.
The general im port of the arrow-headed, or cuneiform ,
inscriptions is now pretty widely known . They represent
three form s of speech . O ne of these, akin to the literary
language of India, will be noticed ere long. The other
two find their place here. O f these one is Sem itic,and
one Turanian . The sim ple existence of the Sem i tic
record tells us this m uch, viz . that in the reign of
Darius, as well as earlier and later, there was a suth
cient am ount of Assyrian blood within the lim its of
the Persian em pire, to m ake it either necessary or con
venient for public inscriptions to be written in the
Assyrian tongue. The details tell us m uch m ore . This,
however,is enough for the present question ; which m ere
26 4 HISTO RY or PERSIA.
ly asks whether the foreign influences that have acted
on Persia are great or sm all, new or old, hom ogeneous or
com posite. Our answer is, that they are both m ultiform
and ancient. They are not only Sem ite as well as Tura
n ian and G reek, &c. , but they are Sem i te in two ways.
Arabia gave the Koran ; but one thousand years before
the birth of Mahom et, Chaldea gave som ething else.
There have been the older and the newer elem ents. And,
in the tim e of the Sassanians there is evidence to an in
term ediate series of influences.
Respecting the Turanian inscriptions Mr. N orriss,
whose opinion I am ful ly prepared to adopt, has laid
down the following doctrine . They are not Turk as we
m ay possibly expect (1 priori . They are not Mongol .
They are rather Ugrian or F in . I f so, we m ust suppose that, just as certain southern m em bers of the great
Fin fam ily penetrated into Hungary in the tenth cen tury,so did certain of their congeners, som e fifteen hundred
years earlier, penetrate into Persia. Be this as it m ay,
the elem ents of the ethnology of Persia were, in the tim e
of Darius, as well as before and after, sufficiently com
plicated to require two languages other than native forthe rock inscriptions of royalty.
Roughly speaking, the arrow-headed inscriptions te
presen t the tim es of Darius and his successors.
To one who holds that Persia was in the sam e category
with Parthia and that Parthia was Turanian , the language of the inscriptions, W hich is other than Turanian ,
and, at the sam e tim e, not Sem i te, is m ore likely to be
Mede than aught else—Mede rather than Persian.
Meanwhile the only rem aining dynasty, the last in the
order of notice, but the first in tim e, calls us the dynastyof D eioces, Phraortes, Cyax ares, and A styages . N ow
D eioces was aMode, aMede of a nation to which the Byse ,
26 6 m sroar or psasm .
far from thinking that the Danubian principalities of the
Great King were m ere outlying possessions. I think that,of Media as opposed to Persia, they were central and in
tegral parts, and that Macedoniawas Persian quite as m uch
because it was Thracian , as because it was Greek.
The influence that Greece exerted upon not only Persia
in general, but that part of Persia in particular which
lay nearest to India, is a m atter of ordinary history. The
influence of Rom e is less distinctly seen . By Rom e I
m ean the Rom e of the west ; Latin Rom e ; Rom e proper
rather than Greek Rom e, Byzantine Rom e, Constantino
politan Rom e . From the tim e of Lucullus to that of
Julian there were either Rom an proconsuls, or kings pro
tected by Rom e along the whole of the north-westem
frontier. There were Rom an wars against the Seleucidae,and Rom an wars against the Arsacidw . In after tim es
there was Rom e at second-hand from Constantinople.
It is chiefly through their early Christianity that Syria
and Arm enia (the form er m ore especially) have acted on
Persia. Persian Christiani ty, however, was short-lived.Y et i t passed across the land so as to reach Turkistan ,India, and even China.
The preceding analysis has been given because it is
only when we undervalue the relations betwen Persia and
Europe on one side and the relations between India and
Persia on the other, that the phenom ena presented by the
ancien t language and the ancient literature of Hindostan
becom e m ysterious ; for m ysterious they m ust be in theeyes of those who m aintain that the Vedas are three
thousand years old, and that the undeniable affinities be
tween the Sanskrit and the languages of the west are ex
plained by deducing the Russian , the Germ an, the Latin,and the Greek from Asia. Any two points m ay be iso
lated by ignoring the interjacent area. The archaeology
H ISTORY or PERS IA. 26 7
of Persia is, to a great extent, the archaeology of H indo
stan . Persia has acted both m orally and m aterially on
India. Turkistan, Arabia, and Europe have sim ilarly
acted on Persia. Som ething was found on the land ;som ething was brought into it ; som ething was given off
from it. This is the ordinary procedure when popula
tions act and re-act on each, or where one acts on a se
cond and the second on a third . What has been brought
into Persia is, in som e cases, extrem ely clear. It is clear,for instance, that one, at least, of the languages of the
cuneiform inscriptions was an im portation . So was
Mahom etanism . S o were a great m any other things.
The religion of the ancient Persians m ay or m ay not have
originated on the soil of Persia. It is certain that it wasfrom Persia that it m ore especially spread itself. It is also
certain that, if foreign , the date of its introduction wasearly. Fire-worship, however, m ay have been Median ra
ther than Persian proper, inasm uch asMediawas (and is) a
land where inflam m able gases issue in m ysterious currentsin several localities. O ne, especially, near the city of
Baku, is a nobject of devotion to the Guebres, who
m ake pilgrim ages to the spot,where a blue ham e
, in
colour and gentleness not unlike a lam p that burns withspirits,
” rises from the earth, and is supposed to be eter
nal. It m ay also,if we look at it on its sidereal, rather
than its igneous aspect, have been C haldaic or Arabian ;for Sabaeanism , as it is called, or the worship of the starsand planets
,is pre
-em im ently Sem itic .
I shall call the creed under notice P arsusm or Z orcas
trianism indifl‘
erently . The chief data for its investigation
are of three kinds —the evidence of ancient authors
other than Persian ; the Parsi scriptures them selves ; the
practices and belief of the present hrs-worshippers.
The Persians, writes Herodotus, think it foolish to
26 8 PARSIISM.
build tem ples. Yet they sacrifice. They sacrifice on the
higher m ountains. They sacrifice to the sun, the m oon ,the earth, to fire, to the winds. They have learned,of late, from the Assyrians and Arabians, to worship
the deity called Mylitta by the form er, A lytta by the
latter, Mithra by them selves. The priest, girt with a
wreath of m yrtle, divides the victim , lays the parts on
herbs,of which the trefoil is the chief
,sings a hym n, and
prays for all the Persians and the King of Persia. Lepers
and white pigeons are not al lowed to be near the sacrifice.
H e m ay not defile a river by even washing his hands in it.AMagus officiates. The bodies of the dead are first torn
by dogs and birds, then interred . Previous to interm ent
the body is sm eared with wax . A Magus kills no ani
m als except for the purpose of sacrificing . W hi te is thecolour of the sacred horses
, of Niswan breed . WhenCyrus crossed the Gyndes one of the white horses plunged
into the stream , whereon the king swore that from that
tim e forward the river should not wet even the knees of a
wom an . S o he turned off the m ain stream into 180
channels. Xerxes flogged the Hellespon t, and threw fetters in to it. Again, at sunrise be poured a libation froma golden cup in to it, and prayed . Having finished theprayer he threw into the waves a golden cup and a seim e
tar. H e also sacrifices white horses to the S trym on .
Again,
the Persians look upon fire as a god, and think
it wrong to burn a dead m an in a divine flam e.
” Again,Xerxes sacrificed to the w inds. Again
,Darius wished
to have his statue placed on the tem ple of the E gyptianVulcan , and Xerxes sacrificed to the Trojan Minerva.
Dates forbade the fleet to approach Delos because it was
the birth-place of Apollo and Diana. Xerxes buried cer
tain boys and girls in honour of the god underground.
The Magi , a 7 6o o f Media,interpreted dream s
, prophe
270 PARS IISM.
Again
Mihrnerseh, Grand V izier of Iran and Daniran, to the Arm enians
abundant greetingKnow, that all m en who dwell under heaven and hold not the belief
of theMastesens, are deaf and blind, and betrayed by the devil-serpentfor, before the heavens and the earth were, the great god Zruan prayed a
thousand years, and said ‘ If I, perhaps, should have a son, nam edV orm ist, who wi ll m ake the heavens and the earth.
’And he conceived
two in his body, one by reason of his prayer, and the other because hesaid perhaps . W hen he knew that there were two in his body, he saidW hichever shall com e first, to him will I give over m y sovereignty.
’
He
who had been conceived in doubt passed through his body and wentforth. To him spake Zruan :
‘W ho art thou‘
i'
H e said : ‘ I am thyson Vorm ist.
’
To him said Zruan : My son is light and fragrant breathing ; thou art dark and of evil disposition .
’
As this appeared tohis son exceeding harsh, he gave him the em pire for a thousand
years.W hen the other son was born to him , he called him Vorm ist. H e
then took the em pire from Ahrm en, gave it to Vorm ist, and said to himTill now I have prayed to thee now thoum ust pray to m e.
’
And
V orm ist m ade heaven and earth ; Ahrm en, on the contrary, brought forthevil and thus they divided them selves am ong creatures ; the angels are
of Vorm ist and the devils of Ahrm en : A ll good, in heaven and here
below, is from Vorm ist ; all evil, which is done here and there, is producedby Ahrm en . And thus, whatever is good on this earth, this has V orm istm ade ; and whatever is not good, that has Ahrm en m ade : as, for exam ple,V orm ist has m ade m en ; Ahrm en has m ade sorrows, sufferings, and
death ; all m isfortunes and m ournful events which occur, as also lam ent
able wars, are the work of the evil being ; as fortunate events, riches,
fam e, honour, and health of body, beauty of countenance, eloquence inspeech, and length of years, all have their being from good but al l
which is not so is the corrupt working of evil.”
Again
The Persian troops which had been in the land of the Huns are
m arching hither, with m any other troops which had been placed at thegates. Besides these, they are accom panied by three hundred learnedMagi, who are to disperse them selves throughout the land, convert everyone, pull down the churches, and force all to conform to the king
'
s com
m and. TheseMagi say : If youreceive our faith of your own free will,then shall youreceive from the king honours and presents, from the court
also a rem ission in the taxes ; but if youreceive it not freely, we haveorders to construct hrs-tem ples in the boroughs and cities, to kindle thefire Behram , and to appoint Magi and Mogbeds learned in the law
m asnsst. 27 1
throughout the land. Should any one attem pt resistance, he willsah
’
er death, and his wife and children will be regarded as aliens, and
banished.
”
The following gives us an insight into som e of the
m ore serious absurdities of the creed .
Again, theMagi assign the following cause for the origin.
of light
they overturn what has just been said, and give another ground for thecreation of the sun. They say : Ahrm en invited Vorm ist to a banquet.Vorm ist cam e, but would not partake of the m eal till their children hadfought against each other. N ow after the son of Ahrm en had overthrownthe son of V orm ist, and they required an um pire and could find none,
then they created the sun, that he m ight be the um pire between them .
’
N ow they infer from this that Ahrm en is om nipotent even with regard tothe sun, and contend that he took part in the creation of light. But was
there, in reality, no otherum pire present —could they not have gone tothe Father, or to H im to whom the Father and Son, according to theirm ythology, had addressed their prayers !
And wherefore, then, were they in enm ity against each other,
Vorm ist and Ahrm en, who had been confined in one wom b, who wereabout to banquet together, and who, by m utual co-operation, created thesun and sethim up as um pire ? But one Ssaratashd teaches the followingdisgraceful doctrine, that the Sun and the L ight were m ade in m aternal
and sisterly em braces, and taught the nation that they m ight perpetratethe sam e atrocity : and to veil this disgrace it was given out that they(the Sun and the Light) were created for the ofi ce of um pire : for as theirdoctrines of belief are not contained in books, they som etim es say this,
and at others they say that, and m islead the ignorant by it. But if Vorm ist
was God, he was in a situation to create the sun, as well as the heavensand the earth, out of nothing, and not through a crim e, or because therewas no um pire at hand.”
This is from Esnik, who is the chief evidence to the
doctrine that both Orm uz and Ahrim an are only second
ary creations, the prim ary entity being Z eruan Akerane,
i . e. Tim e Increate .
Before yet anything was m ade, either the heavens or the earth, or
any creaturewhatsoeverwhich liveth in theheavens oron the earth, was onenam ed Z eruah , aword signifying the sam ewith destiny orfam e. A thousandyears he offered sacrifice that he m ight obtain a son, who should have thenam e Orm isd, and should create heaven and earth and all things in them .
A fter a thousand years of sacrifice he began to reflect, and said, ‘The
sacrifice which I have perform ed, does it conduce to the end, and shall a
272 PARS IISM.
son, Orm isd, be born to m e, or do I strive in vain'
l’
W hile he thought
thus, Orm isd and Ahrm en were conceived in the body of their m other.
O rm isd was the offspring of the sacrifice, and Ahrm en of the doubt.
Zarnan knew this, and said, Two sons are in the m other’
s wom b : hewho shall first com e forth to m e will I m ake the king .
’
O rm isd knew hisfather’s thought, im parted it to Ahrm en, and said , Our father Zeruan in
tends to m ake him king who shall first com e to him and Ahrm en,
hearing this, pierced through the body of his m other, and stood beforehis father. Zarnan, looking on him , said, W ho art thou1 ’ And he said,‘ I em thy son.
’Then Zeruan spoke to him :
‘My son is of odoriferousbreath and resplendent appearance, but thouart dark and of an evil
odour.
’
While they were thus speaking together, Orm isd was born at his
proper tim e, and he was bright shining and sweetbreathing . H e wentforth and cam e before Zeruan : and when Zeruan looked upon him , he
knew that this was his son Orm isd, for whom he had offered sacrifice. He
took the vessel which he had in his hand, and wherewith he had sacrificed,
gave it to Orm isd, and said, H itherto I have sacrificed for thee, now and
henceforward thoum ayest sacrifice for m e and hereupon Zeruan gavehis vessel to Orm isd, and blessed him . Ahrm en saw this and said toZeruan , Hast thounot taken an oath, whichsoever of the two sons shallfirst com e to m e, him will I m ake king i
'
Zeruan, that he m ight not
break his oath, said to Ahrm en, O thoufalse and evil-doer l to thee bedom inion given for nine thousand years ; but I appoint Orm isd lord over
thee. A fter the nine thousand years Orm isd shall rule, and what hewishes that shall he bring to pass.
’
The Mahom etan writers were all subsequent to the
tim e of the Sassanidaa. For this reason their evidence
is not noticed . That of the Syrians is less full than that
of the Arm enians. Hence it is believed that the pre
ceding notices, though anything but exhaustive,give a
fair and sufficient notion of Zoroastrianism as a living
creed at its zenith .
A s a living creed at the present m om ent, Z oroastrian
ism is held by a few Parsis in Kirm an, a few in Khora
san ,and a great m any m ore (the bulk of the faith) in
Guzerat. In respect to its scriptures
The Vendidad is a dialogue between O rom asdes and
Z oroaster . The Yashna and V ispared are liturgies.
The Khurdavesta is also a liturgy . The Yests are m inor
and m ore fragm entary com positions.
274 Paasnsm .
not evolved by the occasion) m ight not have been known
had not the creed com e within the sphere of the activity
of the Bom bay m issionaries. These having got into con
troversy with the Parsis, found them ready to take their
own part. I know the argum ents of their defence only
through the work of their arch-antagonist, the Rev.
John Wilson,of the Scottish Church, which puts them
in the light of eclectic critics rather than servile biblio
laters. They explain away their angels by m aking them
abstractions, and excuse their cerem onies by reducingthem to sym bols. In short, they rationalize.
Thus—it is objected that they worship Feruher or
Angels.
Answer by Dosabhfii . Fernher m eans j ohar. They
call that j ohar, which is in English called E ssence. It is
a m antalc, or logical word . In Arabic, they apply j ohar
to an article which is com posed of its own substance ; and
they apply the word araz to an object which is com posed
of another object. Take for exam ple the sun and sun
shine —The j oher is the sun and the sunshine is araz .
Take another exam ple, of wood, and a chair —the woodis j ohar and the chair is araz , for the chair is m ade from
wood, and if there were no wood, there would be no chair.”
Whether the trains of reasoning hereby suggested are
strictly Zoroastrian or not is unim portant. L et them be
ever so opposed to the original doctrine, Parsiism is still
a creed, of which all that can be said is that its m odern
form differs from its ancien t. In the fifth century,Zoroastrianism persecuted. In the nineteen th, it ta
tionalizes.
ANCIENT LANGUAGES or PERSIA AND INDIA. 275
CHAPTER XXVIII .
The Ancient Languages of Persia and India.—The Persepolitan of the
Cuneiform Inscriptions.—The Caubul Coina—The Pali Inscriptions.
—The Sanskrit and Pali of Literature.
TH E next step in the ethnology of Persia and India is theconsideration of those languages of which we have the
oldest specim ens,and of which the influence has been
greatest. They all belong to one and the sam e class.
The language of this class that has com m anded the
greatest attention is, undoubtedly, the Sanskrit. Sanskrit,however
,is by no m eans the m ost convenien t nam e for
the class ; nor is the Sanskrit language the m ost couve
nient to begin with . The m ost convenient form of speech
to begin wi th is what m ay be calledThe P ersepolitan .
—The following is a sam ple at large
from an inscription on the tom b of Darius at N aksh
i-Rustam , according to the text and translation of S ir
H . Rawlinson
1 Bags wazarka Auram azdé, hya im
6 m bum im adh,hya awam asm
snam ads, hya m artiyam ads, h
ya shiyfitim adi m artiyahyh,hyfi Dar(a)yavum khshfiyathiyam ah
6 nuauah, aivam paruwanam khshayath
7 iyam , aivam pam wanflm fram sta
8 ram .
The Great God Orm azd, (be it was) who gave this earth, who gavethat heaven, who gave m ankind, who gave life (1) to m ankind, whom ade Darius King, as well the King of the people, as the lawgiver ofthe people.
3
15
00
10
276 THE ANCIENT LANGUAGES
Many inscriptions in the sam e language are found else
where,e. g . at Behistun
,at Ham adan, and at Van . A s
a general rule, they occur in conjun ction with two others
in different languages. Whenever they do this, they take
what m ay be called the place of honour, i . e. when the
colum ns are arranged horizontally they stand at the left
hand, so as to be read first, and, where there is a grouping
round a centre, it is in the centre that the present language
huds its place . Again , on a Persepolitan m onum ent it
stands alone. It is with good reason, then , that Sir H .
Rawlinson considers that this is the prim ary language of
the Achm m enian dynasty—a language of which the otherm em bers of the trilingual inscriptions are translations.
Whether it be Persian rather thanMede is another ques
tion . It is safe to call it the language of the first in
scriptions. It is safe, too, as well as convenient, to call it
Persepolitan, inasm uch as, in Persepolis, it is found byitself.
In respect to its m atter,it is the edicts of the Achm
m enian kings which this language m ore especially em
bodies ; the m ost im portant of which is that of the Behis
tun inscription . In respect to its structure it is closely
akin to the oldest Sanskrit. There is no evidence, how
ever, to it having ever been spoken in India, nor yet in
the eas t of Persia. It is on the Kurd frontier, and in
Fars, that sam ples of it m ost abound. It is only in in
scriptions, and only in the cuneiform characters that it is
found. Whether the Persepolitan inscriptions give us the
oldest com positions in the class of languages to which they
belong is uncertain . Most Sanskrit scholars would say
that they do not. It is certain, however, that they are
the oldest com positions that bear a date. Next to these
com e
The legends of the Caubul coins.—The kingdom which,
278 THE ANCIENT LANGUAGES
certain . It is only certain that they give na the oldest
docum en ts on which an Indian alphabet appears.The language of the Sassanian coins
, &cr -The coins and
inscriptions of the Sassanian kings exhibit a languageof which it is unsafe to say m uch. It has afi nities
with the ones preceding. But it has also prom inent
Sem i te elem ents . The coins them selves are, of course,politically speaking, P ersian . The alphabet, however, is
Sem itic. It contains no vowels, and only eighteen con
sonants . The legends which it em bodies have, of course,a defin ite date. They range over the fifth, sixth, and
seventh centuries.Now com e the com positions which, whether older or
newer than the ones which have preceded, have no
dates.
These fall in to three great divisions —( l ) the Sanskrit,(2) the Pali, and (3) the Zend of the written literatures
as opposed to the language of the inscriptions.
l . The S anskrit.—The language of those num erous,long, and im portant com posi tions, of som e of which furthernotice will be taken when we treat of the Brahm inic lite
rature of India, is the Sanskrit ; the Sanskrit with its
Devanagari alphabet, its fuller form s, and (along with
other characteristics) its dual num ber, as opposed to the
Pali . O f the Sanskrit, som e form s are older than those of
the literary language in general and som e newer. Som e
present archaism s, som e degenerations.
The Sanskrit of the Vedas is older than that of the
great m ass of the Sanskrit literature . How m uch is
another question .
A P raen'
t is a form of speech which, to explain ob
scurum per obscurius, bears the sam e analogy to the S anshti t that the Lingua Rustica of ancient Rom e m ay have
borne to the pure Latin of Cicero . O r i t m ay be com
or PERS IA AND INDIA. 279
pared to the Megarian dialect in the A charnenses. O r it
m ay be com pared to the Gascon French in Moliere ; or
to the Bolognese, and other dialects, introduced upon the
Italian stage side by side with the purer Tuscan . It is
in the Hindudram as where the P racrits are to be found ;and it is wom en and servants who chiefly speak it.
The K awi will be noticed when the influence of India
upon Java, andThe Fan
,when the influence of India upon China, is
considered.2 . The P ali .—The scriptures of Tibet,Mongolia, Pegu,
A va, Siam , Kam boj ia, and C ochinchina, so far as they are
com posed in the learned or holy language of the Bud
dhist creed rather than in the vernacular of the severalcoun tries
,are not in Sanskrit, but in Pali—Pali, the lan
guage of the Buddhism of the south of India. How far
i t was the language of Buddhism altogether, especiallyof the Buddhism of the north, is another question .
3. The Z end, or language of the P arsi scriptures.—This is a
form of speech which requires m ore criticism than i t has
found. The m atter which it exhibits is supposed to be
older than the tim e of the Sassanidm ; the form onlyin which it appears being attributed to that dynasty .
Under the°
Arsacidaa learning and religion had declined .
There was a general knowledge of Zoroaster and his
doctrines ; but the Zoroastrian scriptures were wanting.
S o the old m en with the long m em ories were looked up,and the Z endavesta
, with its congeners, was constructedfrom their dictation . The result of this is a book dis
covered in India, in the seventeen th century, in a lan
guage differen t from that of the Sassanian coins, but
akin to the Persepolitan and the Sanskrit . The alpha
bet, however, is not Indian—or rather i t is and it is
no t. The letters are the letters of the Sassanian
280 THE ZEND .
legends adapted to writing ; but the principles upon
which they are applied are those of the Indian alphabet.
They have eight or nine vowels—additions. In other words,the alphabet of the Sassanian coins consists of eighteen ,the alphabet of the Parsi scriptures of forty-two characters.
The language of the glasses to the Z endavesta.—In the
sam e letters as the Zend , i . e. in letters which represent
the Sassanian inscriptions in a cursive form ,are to be
found certain glosses to the Z endavesta, which are neither
Sassanian nor Persian proper, nor yet Gujerati, nor yet,exactlyThe language of the Bundehesh (awork on the m ythology
of the Z endavesta) , though closely akin to it, and written in the sam e characters.
That the preceding form s belong to the sam e class
has already been stated . It should now be added that
the Sanskrit and Pali are Indian rather than Persian theP ersepolitan Persian rather than Indian ; the rest Persianin som e respects, Indian in others, e. g . the Caubul
legends are P racrit in the way of language ; whilst their
alphabet is, in som e respect at least, Sem itic . Ou the
other hand, the Z end alphabet is, in som e respects, Indian ,while the language itself is Persepolitan , rather than
either Sanskrit or Pali . More, however, will be said
on thi s head when the alphabets of India, &c. ,com e
under notice. More, too, when the origin of the present
Persian and the m odern dialects of India is considered.
282 LANGUAGES AKIN To
It is Persian as well . The origin of the Brahui has
nothing to do with this view . W e are sim ply looking to
the actual distribution of the Tam ul tongues in space, as
they exist at the present m om ent. W e are sim ply guard
ing against the influence of certain expressions which m ay
lead us to under-estim ate its extent.The reasons for giving prom inence to the form s of
speech now com ing into view are less m an ifest ; indeed,the practice of doing so is anything but general . Yet
nothing is clearer than the geographical con tact between
the languages of India and those akin to the Tibetan
along the whole range of theHim alayas. Along the whole
range of the Him alayas,
o
from Cashm ir to the end of
Asam ,the two groups touch each other definitely and
directly ; no interm ediate language intervening. All
that is not Tibetan , N epaulese, or Burm ese, is Hindu;all that is not Hinduis Burm ese, N epaulese, or Tibetan .
Such the general character of the frontier. In its detailswe m ay fairly presum e there has been a difference. What
if the Tibetan or N epaulese tongues have once extendedfurther south, so that the Hindudialects have encroached
upon them ? N epaul, at the present m om en t, is Bhot.
May not the parts south of N epaul once have been the
sam e ? What if the history of the Hindus in the north
of Hindostan be that of the English in England, the
N epaulese and Tibetans represen ting theWelsh of WalesIn such a case the whole valley of the Ganges m ay once
have been, m ore or less, Bhot. More than this. Therem ay have been a tim e when (for the eastern half of Indiaat least) the southern frontier of the Tibetan , and thenorthern frontier of the Tam ul, areas touched each other.
What if the Ganges separated them , even as the Rhine
separated Gaul from Germ any ? I do not, at present,say that this was the case ; 1 only point out the bearings
THE TAMUL . 83
of the Tibetan tongues upon the ethnology of India. I
add, too, that in one poin t, at the presen t m om ent, thedistance between the two extrem i ties of the two areas is
not m ore than sixty m iles as the crow flies. In the partsto the north and north-east of Calcutta the m onosyllabic
languages of the Garo hills are spoken to within a short
distance of the northern bank of the Ganges. In the partswest of Calcutta the Rajm ahal hills actually abutupon theriver from the south. Yet the Rajm ahal area is Tam ul .
Again—the original language of Kooch Bahar has its
southern frontier a little to the north of Agra ; to the
south of which populations reasonably believed to belong
to the Tam ul fam ily m ake their appearance .
The Telugu, Teloogoo, Telaga, Telzm ga, or Telinga, isspoken from Chicacole on the north to Pulicat on the
south, extending in the interior as far as the eastern
boundaries of the Mahratta districts ; so as to be the
vernacular language for upwards of fourteen m illions of
individuals in the northern Circars, and in parts of H y
derabad, Nagplir, and Gondwana. The drainages of the
K istnah and Pennant rivers are within the Telinga area.
The great stream of the G odavery has Telinga districts oneach side of it. A third or m ore of the eastern Ghauts isTelinga. Then there are the Telinga populations of the
parts beyond the proper Telinga area,chiefly in the Tam ul
districts—N aiks, Keddies, & c. O f these there m ay be a
m illion ; yet it is doubtful whether the Telinga populations
are either the m ost enterprizing or the m ost civilized oftheir class. With a sm aller population there is
, at the
present m om en t, m ore activity am ongst the speakers ofThe T
'
amul.—Whether this was always the case is eu
other question . The energy of the latter population ism easured by the extent to which Tam ul servan ts, Tam ul
labourers, Tam ul tradesm en, are to be found beyond
284 LANGUAGES AKIN TO
the proper boundaries of their language, working hard,pushing their fortunes, m aking m oney . This is cousi
derable. A s the parts on each side of the G odavery are
Telinga, the districts which the Cavery waters are Tam ul .Madras is Tam ul, Pondicherry is Tam ul, Tranquebar isTam ul , Negapatam is Tam ul, the Carnatic is Tam ul . In
fact, the Tam ul language succeeds and replaces the
Telinga about Pulicat, a little to the north of Madras,
and is spoken all along the coast of Corom andel to CapeCom orin . It then turns to the north
, and constitutes the
vernacular of the southern part of the Rajahship of Travancore, giving way to the Malayalim in the parts about
Trevandrum . Inland, i t extends to the Ghauts and Nil
gherries—say to the parts about Coim batlir. It is the
language of a vast plain contrasted in this respect with
the Telinga, which is spoken over a varied surface, som e
tim es level , oftener broken .
Ten m illions is the num ber gi ven to the speakers of
the Tam ul tongue. They are not, however, confined to
the district just indicated . There are Tam ul settlers inCeylon , especially in the north-westem parts of the
island. The coolies of the coffee plantations are generally Tam ul all over the island. There are num erous
Tam ul m erchants in the capital ; and ere long,
”writes
Mr. Caldwell, the Tam ilians will have excluded theSingalese from alm ost every othee of profit or trust in
their own island.
”The m aj ority of the dom estic servants
and cam p-followers, even in the Telinga portions of the
Presidency of Madras, are Tam ul, and whatever m ay be
the vernacular dialect, the Tam ul is current in all the
m ilitary cantonm en ts of Southern India. Cannanore is
in the Malayalim , Bangalore in the Canarese, Bellary in
the Telugu, S ecunderab in the Hindostani, countries ;nevertheless, the language which (if not heard oftenest)
286 LANGUAGES AKIN TO
The Georgi, or language of Coorg and W ynaad, is a
dialect of the Canarese .
Including the Coorgis, the num ber of indi viduals who
speak the Canarese m ay am oun t to
TheMalayalam , if we allowed ourselves to refine upon
its aflinities , would possibly hnd its place im m ediately in
contact with the Tam ul . It is the Tam ul with which it
com es in the closest geographical contact . Like the
Tam ul it is a language of the extrem e south . It hasbeen im agined to be of special Tam ul origin . It is, how
ever, a separate substantive language, possibly m ore akin
to the Tam ul than its other congeners—but no Tam ul
dialect .
The Malayalam is the language of the western side
of the coast of Malabar. Ouits east lies the Canarese
on its north the Tulava ; on its south the Tam ul .
The Tam ul succeeds i t at Trevandrum , the Tulava
and Canarese of Canara, about Mangalore. I t stretches
over about six degrees of latitude, but only in a nar
row strip between the Ghauts and the sea. It is thevernacular of Cochin , and the northern and m iddle partsof Travancore .
The Tulu, Tulava, or Tulava is spoken by no m ore than
souls. It succeeds the Malayalam about Man
galore, and reaches, northwards, the Mahratta frontier
about G oa. Like the Malayalam , i t covers but a stripbetween the G hauts and the ocean . It is said to re
sem ble both the Malayalam and the Canarese, the latterm ost.
The following are, according to Caldwell , the writer
from whose Dravirian Gram m ar the preceding details are
exclusively taken, the statistics of the above-m entionedlanguages.
THE TAMUL . 28 7
l . Tam ul is spoken by
2. Telinga
3. Canarese
4. Malayalam
5 . Tulu
The previous form s of speech constitute a natural group—a natural group, and not a very large one. They all
belong to the Dekhan . They are all spoken by popu
lations m ore or less Hindu. They are all the languages
of the civilized Indian . Their area is continuous ; in
other words, they are all m con tact wi th each other, andtheir frontiers join . There is nothing between the
Telinga and the Tam ul, the Tam ul and the Canarese, theTam ul and the Malayalim . Their area is con tinuous.
The form s of speech that now com e under notice,though in all essen tials closely allied to the preceding, in
som e respects form a contras t rather than a counterpart
to them . They are spoken by the ruder, rather than the
m ore civilized, sections of the Indian fam ily. They are
spoken beyond the Dekhan as well as within it. They
are spoken in the hill and jungle rather than in the town
and village . They are spoken by either actual pagans or
im perfect Hindus . For the purposes of literature they
have been wholly neglected . There is not a native
alphabet am ongst them . Finally, their area is, in m any
places, either actually discontinuous or very irregular, i . e.
they are separated, or nearly separated, from each other by
languages of either a different fam ily or a di fferen t branch
of the sam e . The level coun try is Hinduboth in creed
and language. The m oun tain which it encom passes is
other than Hindu in language, and pagan in the way of
creed.
28 8 LANGUAGES AKIN TO
The Ghond.—This is the language of that portion of
India which is m arked in the m aps as Gondwana ; or,
if not in the white district, of its hillier and m ore
im practicable portions. Like m ost of the localities
which preserve, in fragm ents, the older populations of
a country, it is a watershed . The northern feeders of
the G odavery, and the south-eastern of the Nerbudda,take their origin in the Ghond coun try, of which, the
greater part lies considerably to the north of the m ost
northern portion of Telinga area, and of which the north
ern fron tier, is (in the way of language), Hindu, thewestern
and south-western Mahratta. A s the region , however, to
the south and south-east of Gondwana has been but im
perfectly explored, I am unable to say whether it is abso
lutely isolated . It m ay or m ay not touch certain parts
of Telingana. Again , it m ay or m ay not, touch the
western portions of the
S our, Khond, and K ol areas .-W ord for word, Sour is
Sairea, a nam e which w ill appear in the notice of Bun
delcund and elsewhere. It is no native term , but one
by which certain Hindus designated certain populations
differen t from them selves. It indicates, then, a negative
character ; from which it follows that the populations towhich it applies m ay or m ay not be allied the affinity or
the difference being, in each instance, determ ined by the
special circum stances of the case . It is necessary to be
fam iliar with the distinction ,in order that we m ay not
be m isled by nam es.
Word for word, Khond is Ghond, a nam e which has
already appeared. It is no native term ,but one by which
certain Hindus designated certain populations di fferent .
from them selves.
Word for word, Kol is K tili, a nam e which will appearin the notice of Gujerat or elsewhere. It is no native
290 THE a 0 1 .
dialects of the Gonds, K onds, Kols, Sours, and Rajm ahalis
, are, at one and the sam e tim e, connected with each
other, and connected with the Telinga, the Canarese, theTulava, the Malayalim , and the Tam ul .The Brahtii .—The Tam ul elem ents of the Brahui have
already been noticed . The detai ls of the Brahlii occu
pancy will be noticed in the sequel.
LANGUAGE or 11m m . 29 1
CHAPTER XXX .
Relations of the languages akin to the Tam ul—Relations of the lan
8 03808 akin to the Sanskrit.
The languages akin to the Tamul.—The affinity of theseis the one suggested by their geography. Their nearest
congeners are the Tibetan and Burm ese. The Tam ulform s of speech, however, are in a higher stage of de
velopm ent. They are what is called agglutinate ; i . e.
they exhibit inflections ; but those inflections can, for the
m ost part, be reduced to separate words incorporated with
the m ain term . Doing this, they stand in the sam e rela
tion to the languages of the so-called m onosyllabic class
on the south, that the Turk, Mongol, Tunglis, and
Ugrians stand on the north and west. Whatever relationthey m ay have with these last is indirect. In agreeing
with them in structure, 5. e. in their stage of developm ent, they are their analogues, not their congeners.
Whether there m ay not be direct (but intrusive) Tura
nian elem ents in India is another question .
The languages akin to the Sam lm'
t.—These are all truly
inflectional rather than agglutinate, i . e. they are in the
condition of the Latin and the Greek with their cases and
tenses, rather than in that of the English or French with
their prepositions and auxiliary verbs which have re
placed them ,or that of the Burm ese and Tibetan wherein
they have yet to be fully developed .
The Sanskrit, then , and its congeners are inflections] ,after the m anner of the languages of Europe, and, being
U 2
292 LANGUAGE O F INDIA .
this, stand in strong contrast to all the Tam ul dialects,which are (as aforesaid), after the fashion of the Turk and
Fln,agglutinate .
There is,then , a contrast here. There is another and
a stronger one when we pass over to the field of the
m onosyllabic tongues. With the Tibetan , with all the
N epaulese dialects, and with the Burm ese, the Sanskrit
differs m ore decidedly than with the Tam ul . Boththese contrasts are im portant. They m ake us ask the
following question —If the Sanskrit be unlike its neighbours on the south, if it be m ore unlike its neighbours
on the north, and if it be equally foreign to the frontier
languages on the east, what is it like ? What is it like,and where are its congeners ? They are not to be found
on the frontier of India ; so that the Sanskrit com es fromthe north and west rather than from the south and east.
The Sanskrit langw ge.—Westwards lie the Persian local
ities ; the localities for the language of the cuneiforminscriptions, and perhaps of the Zend . Can these he
in what we m ay term their proper sites, i . e. in geo
graphical contact with the languages next akin ? O ne
of these is the Arabic, which is as l ittle like the Sans
krit as are the Turk and Mongol . Another is the
Arm enian, which is som ewhat m ore like, and another,
the Iron, which is decidedly like the m odern Persian .
None, however, are the nearest congeners to eitherthe Sanskrit or the Z end. To find these we m ust gowestward, beyond the Black S ea and the Hellespont ;beyond the D on . W e m ust enter Europe . The nearestcongeners to the Sanskrit are the languages of the
Russian em pire ; then those of Rom e and Greece ; thenthose of Germ any. Changing the phrase, the Sanskrit belongs to the sam e class with the Sarm atian ,
the
classical , and the G erm an tongues ; a class to which som e
294 LANGUAGE or INDIA.
before the language was reduced to writing, and beforetheir existence could be recorded . In som e respects,then , the Latin and Greek are m ore like the Sanskrit
than is the Lithuanic, inasm uch as they are in the sam e
stage, the stage wherein inflections are num erous. Never
theless, the real affinities are Lithuanic. Those withGerm anyare less close . Those with the Keltic tonguesm ore rem ote still .Here we pause for the presen t, and pass on to a new
class of facts.
LANGUAGES AKIN TO H INDI . 295
CHAPTER XXXI .
The languages akin to the Bindt—The Kashm erl. -The H indi .—TheGujerati .—The BengalL—TheUdiya—'PheMahratta—Sectional andInterm ediate Form s, &c.
—Migratory Populations and Trades—TheGypsies.—The Bhil Dialecta—The Hindostani.
TE the Sanskrit and the Pali be dead languages, and if
the languages akin to the Tam ul be lim ited to the areas
which have been described (and they are so lim ited),what are the living form s of speech in those parts of
India which lie north of the Dekhan and west of the
Gond and Kond countries ? What, indeed, are the
form s of speech for certain tracts east of Gondwana ?What is the language of Bengal What is the language
of the natives of Orissa itself, who are other than Kond ?
What is the language of Oud, of Delhi, of the Rajput
country, of the Desert and the whole drainage of the
Indus, of Gujerat, of the Mahratta coun try ? It wasnot Sanskrit. Sanskrit, like Latin , has ceased to bespoken . It was not Telinga or Canarese. Canarese and
Telinga belong to the Dekhan .
There is a class of languages which we m ay describe,as we have described the Pali , the Telinga, and their
respective congeners. There is a class of languagesthe m em bers of which m ay be said to be akin to the
Hindi . Saying this we use a circum locution. There are
reasons, however, for doing ao . That they are akin to
the Hindi and to each other no one denies. That theybelong to one of the two groups which have preceded no
one denies either. That they are Tam ul rather than
Sanskrit m any deny. That they are Sanskrit rather than
296 LANGUAGES AKIN ro 11m m .
Tam ul som e deny, som e doubt. It is bes t, then, to
describe them as Hindi, or akin to the Hindi .
S o m uch for the term . The group itself is dealt with
as a separate class, not because i t belongs to neither of
the preceding, but because it is doubtful to which of the
two it should be referred.
A t the sam e tim e the group is, from a certain point of
view, a natural one. A ll the languages it con tains agree
in giving the following contrasts . As com pared with the
Sanskrit they are poor in inflections ; even as the Italian ,
when com pared with the Latin, shows poor. A s com
pared wi th the Tam ul tongues, they abound and over
abound in words of Sanskrit origin ; even , as com pared
with the Dutch or the Danish, the English abounds inLatinism s. It is unnecessary to say to what difference of
Opinion these conditions m ay give rise. There is theclaim for the Sanskrit, and there is the claim for the
Tam ul , origin of the languages of northern India, withauthorities and argum ents on both sides. The highestauthorities, and the greatest num ber of advocates
, are for
the Sanskrit. Whether the best argum ents are in the
sam e predicam ent is another question .
The dialects of the present group are num erous, andsom e of them will be noticed as we go ou. At present itis convenient to enum erate the following six languages—for separate substan tive languages they are usual]yconsidered to be.
1 . The Cashm irian of Cashm ir.
2 . The Brij Basha, or Hindi .3. The Gujerati, or Gujerathi, of Gujerat.4. The Bengali of the lower Ganges, the valley of
Asam , and parts of Sylhet and Chittagong.
5 . The Udiya of Orissa.
6 . TheMahratta orMarathi of Aurungabad , & c .
298 LANGUAGES AKIN TO H IND I .
really is. A little m ore Sanskrit or a little less a little
m ore Persian or a little less ; a Telinga or a Canarese
elem ent m ore or less ; an alphabet of m ore or less detail—in these points and the like of them consist the chiefdifferences of the languages akin to the Hindi .
I guard, too, against the notion that the preceding list
is exhaustive. Before Hindostan has been traversed we
shall hear of such sectional and interm ediate form s as the
Tutki , the Sindi , the Punjabi , the H aruti , theMarwari,the Konkani , and others ; of all whereof thus m uch m ay
be said
1 . That they are allied to each other and to the
Hindi .
2 . That they are not akin to the Sanskrit in the m an ifest and unequivocal way in which the Sanskrit, Pali,and Persepolitan are akin to each other.3. That they are not Tam ul or Telinga in the way that
the Canarese, the Kond, &c. , are Canarese, Tam ul, and
Telinga.
N eedam finitus Orestes.—There are certain populations
which drive trades that require m ovem ent from one part
of the country to another, trades like those of the
drovers, kn ife-grinders, and the like, in England. Most
of these have a m ode of speech m ore or less peculiar.
They will be noticed hereafter. Meanwhile, it m ay be
laid down , as a general rule, that their dialect is that
of the coun try to which they m ore especially belong, i . e.
m ore Hindi than Tam ul in the Marathi , &c. , m ore
Tam ul than Hindi in the Canarese, & c. , countries.
The Gypsy language.-That this is Indian is well known.
What are its affinities, Tam ul or Hindi ? Hindi. Hence
it belongs to the present group.
The Bhil, 85a ,dialectm—In habits the Bhils, the W hrhli,
the Kols of Gujerat, and other allied tribes, are, on the
LANGUAGES AKIN TO H INDI . 299
western side of Gondwana, what the Sours, the K onds,
and the K ols of Bengal are on the eastern . All are
believed, on good grounds, to be of the sam e blood. A t
the sam e tim e, the language of the first is akin to the
Hindi ; just as the Cornish is English, though the blood
of the Cornishm an is Welsh . The Welshm an, however,has preserved what the Cornishm an has lost, i . e. the
characteristic of language . Mutatis mutandis, this is
what is believed, on reasonable grounds, to be done bythe K onds and Bhils, & c . Ou the eastern side of India
the language and blood coincide. Ou the western the
blood is southern, the language northern—the language
Marathi , the blood m ore or less Canarese and Telinga.
The only form of speech that now stands over fornotice is
The H indostani .—This is the language of the Mahom etana of Hindostan . It is essentially and fundam en
tally Hindi, but it com prises m ore Persian and m ore
Arabic words than any of the true vernaculars. It is
written , m oreover, in A rabic characters.
300 INDIA
CHAPTER XXXII
India as an influence—Ita action upon Tibet, Ava,&c.—Upon the islands
of the Indian Archipelago.—Brahm inism and Buddhism .
IMPO RTANT as are the great polytheist m ythologies of
Greece and Rom e in the history of art and literature,they have been but little influential in the history o f the
world at large . They m ay safely be ignored in the present
chapter, which is devoted to a short notice of what m ay
be called the six great creeds of m ankind, viz . Judaism ,
Christianity, Mahom etanism , Parsiism , Brahm inism , and
Buddhism . All these agree in being the religions of a
lettered language ; so that their doctrines can be ex
pounded,their canons em bodied, and their controversies
conducted by m eans of writings m ore or less perm anen t,m ore or less capable of both m ultiplication and diffusion .
When this is the case, creeds both increase in stability
and becom e susceptible of developm ent. They becom e
m easures of the m ultiplicity of ways in which the hum an
m ind can em ploy itself upon transcendental subjects, and
they also grow into historical influences and determ ine
the m oralities or im m oralities of nations. The division ,then
,between the lettered and unlettered religions is
natural . As for the unwritten superstitions of the ruder
varieties of m ankind,it is convenient to denote them by
the general nam e of paganism . It is also convenien t to
call the paganism of Asia and Europe sham anism ; that
of Africa fetichism . It is convenient to do this. I do
not say that it is strictly scientific.
That the six great lettered religions fall into groups is
m anifest. The first three are in decided and palpable
302 INDIA
history, however, I believe to have been im portan t ; for I
believe that in Turkistan, in Mongolia, in parts even of
China and Siberi a, not to m en tion m any districts of
Caucasus, there was, before the diffusion of the present
Buddhist and Mahom etan theologies, a m ore or less imperfect fire-worship .
O f the western religions, Judaism , of the eastern,Brahm inism , are what m ay be called passive, s
'
. e. they
care little to propagate them selves abroad. What is
Brahm inism out of India ? W ho are Jews except the
children of Israel ? The religious for the Gen tiles are
the rem aining three.
I have not m ade these rem arks solely and wholly for
the sake of either suggesting analogies or exhibiting the
sketch of a classification . I have rather m ade them as
prelim inaries to a special fact connected with India as an
influence on the history of the world . India, beyond the
area of Hindostan , is chiefly a great religious influenceso far as it is Buddhist ; just as the western or Sem ite
religions are chiefly forces so far as they are either
Christian or Mahom etan . Yet India, at the present
m om ent, is no Buddhist country at all. Nei ther are
Palestine and Asia Minor Christian . Yet it was in them
that Christianity arose . The country that propagates a
creed is not always the country that retains it.
The coun try that propagates a creed is not always the
country that originates it. Neither G reek nor Latin
Christianity originated in either Greece or Rom e .
There is no Buddhism , eo nom ine, in con tinen tal India
at the presen t m om ent ; though there is plen ty of it in
the island of Ceylon, and rem ains of it, as well as
existing m odifications, on the m ainland.There is no Buddhism
,eo nom ine, in continental India,
at the present m om ent.
1 8 AN INFLUENCE. 303
Is Buddhism , then, Indian in its origin ? It is not safe
to affirm even this. Fair reasons (to say the least ofthem ) can be given for believing that, originally, Buddhism was foreign to the soil of Hindostan .
What, then, is its connection with India ? It developed
itself on the soil of that coun try and from that coun try
it diffused itself.
I t spread from two points, from the north and from the
south . O f the Buddhism of the north, the Sanskrit
rather than the Pali was the vehicle, and the route by
which it di ffused itself was Nepenl, Tibet,Western China,Mongolia, and Japan .
With the Buddhism of the south, the island of Ceylonis m ore especially connected. I ts vehicle was the Pali
rather than the Sanskrit, and the countries over which itspread were Pegu, Burm a, Siam ,
and Kam boj ia.
With the creed went the alphabet and with the alphabet the civilization .
Hence, it is India to which nine-tenths of the civilization of the eastern part of con tinental Asia is due.
Indian also is the earliest civilization of the m ore civilized parts of the Indian Archipelago though, at the
present m om ent, the details of their older creeds and literatures are obscure. Mahom etanism ,
except in a few
places, has superseded the religion in troduced from India.
The island of Bali, however, is at this m om ent Indian .
S o is a sm all district in Java. Am ongst the Battas of
Sum atra ; am ongst the Philippine islanders ; am ongst the
rude tribes of the interior of the Malayan peninsula ;am ongst even the Dyaks of Borneo the paganism is, by
no m eans, pure andunm ixed . O n the contrary, it always
exhibits Indian elem ents. Perhaps it m ay be styled a
degraded Hinduism .
I em not prepared to say how far this peculiar offset
304 THE PADE I .
of the Indian religion is Buddhist rather than Brahm inic,or Brahm inic rather than Buddhist. It is sufi cient for
it to be Indian . Being this, it helps us to the m easure
of the influence of India as a civilizing power.
A s such, India is what she is, only so far as she is ei ther
Buddhist or Brahm inic. How far are Buddhism and
Brahm inism the indigenous growths of the Indian soil
W hatever m ay be the best m anner of exhibiting a series
of recognized and undoubted historical details, it is m an i
fest that for the purposes of investigation, the right points
to begin with are those that are well defined, whether in
tim e or place . In geography we look foraccurate latitudes
or longitudes ; in archaeology for ascertained dates.Upon this principle, in attem pting a sketch of the
early history of the two great religions of India, I shall
begin as I began with the Sanskrit and Pali records ; i. e.
with the facts that bear dates.
The notice of Herodotus can scarcely be called the
notice of a religion . It is rather the accoun t of an
abom inable social practice. Still, as it has its religiousaspect, I give it.
The notice of Herodotus,to all appearance, rests upon
the accounts given to the author by certain inform ants in
either Persia or Babylonia.
It is to the effect that the land of the Indians was wide
in extent, and heterogeneous in respect to its occupants ;that a m ultitude of tongues was spoken within its
boundaries ; that som e of the Indians were nom ads, som e
Ikhthyophagi ; that these last dwelt in the m arshy swam psof the Delta of Indus that they ate their fish raw. In
all this there is rudeness and barbarism . S o there is thefollowing account of the P adaai . They dwelt to the
east of the Ikhthyophagi, and were eaters of flesh. This,however, was raw . When any one was sick, the m en of
306 sam m m sn .
tribe in contact with an Indian population—this (andno m ore) is what com es of the roots P -d, B-t, or V-d.
Word for word, Kaspatyrus m ay or not be Cashm ir.
Place for place , the two localities certainly coincide.The next notices represent the kn owledge derived from
the Macedonian conquest. They m ake it clear that,when that even t took place, there were asceticism and phi
losophy in India. Before the Macedonian conquest there
were, its nom im'
bas, Brachm ani, Sarm ani, and Gym noso
phistm . These observed practices, m ore or less, Buddhist
and Brahm in ic (either or both), practices out of which
either Buddhism or Brahm anism m ight evolve itself
practices which either the Buddhist or the Brahm in m ay
claim as evidence to the antiquity of his creed. Brah
m inism , however, and Buddhism are one thing, practices
out of which either or both m ay be developed are another.
A t the sam e tim e, or but a little later, we find evidence
to a tenderness for anim al life and to a di fference between
Brahm ins and non-Brahrnins.
the Brahm ins, am ong whom there are m any thousands and tens of thou
sands, have a law that they should not kill at all, and not revere idols,and not com m it fornication, and not eat hesh, and not drink wine, andam ong them not one of these things takes place. And there are thou
sands of years to these m en, 10 1 since they govern them selves by this lawwhich they have m ade for them selves.A nother law which is in Ind ica—And there is another law in India, and
in the sam e clim e, belonging to those, which are not of the fam ily of theBrahm ins, nor of their doctrine that they should serve idols, and com m it
fornication, and kill, and do other abom inable things, which do not pleasethe Brahm ins. And in the sam e clim e of India there are m en that by
custom eat the flesh of m en, in the sam e m anneras the rest of the nations
eat the hesh of anim als. But the evil stars have not forced the Brahm insto do evil and abom inable things ; nor have the good stars persuaded therest of the Hindoos to abstain from evil things ; nor have those stars
which are well arranged in their places which it is proper for them , and
in the signs of Zodiac which relate to hum anity, persuaded those who eatthe flesh of m en to abstain from using this abom inable and od ious food.
BRAHMIN ISM. 307
This is from Bardesanes. Whether the facts just given
constitute Brahm inism is another question . I t is certain
that they fail to give us m uch that is Brahm inic, e. g .
Sutti , and the Brahm inic system of incarnations, & c .
I should add that the Caubul coins exhibit certain
signs or sym bols of both either) Brahm inism or Budd
hism .
W hat Brahm inism really is in full is to be found only in
the practices and literature of the creed . The Brahm in
ism,however, of the present tim e
, and the Brahm inismof the oldest works in the Sanskrit language, are differen t
things. The oldest works in the Sanskrit areThe Vedas .
—The Vedas are hym ns that form ed eitherthe part or the whole of an actual or possible ritual,the dei ties which they invoked being what is called
elem ental, i . e. personifications of earth , fire, water, the
m eteorological forces, and the like. Indra, for instance,
(or the firm am ent,) conquers the Vrita, (or vapours,) with
the Maruts, (or winds,) as allies.
An Ashtaka is a book ; a Sukta is a hym n . Out of
the 121 Suktas of the third Ashtaka, forty-four are ad
dressed to Agn i . Word for word, Agn i is the Latinignis, the S lavonic ogon ; its m eaning being fire fire
,
however, personified, spiri tualized
,deified. Som etim es
the attributes are obscure, and the language m ystical ;som etim es, instead of a series of epithets
,we have a
legend or an allusion to one. Som etim es it is Agni alone
that is addressed ; som etim es i t is Agn i in conjunctionwith som e other personification .
1 . I glorify Agni , the high priest of the sacrifice, the divine, the
m inistrant, who presents the oblation ( to the gods), and is the possessorof great wealth.
2. May that Agni, who is to be celebrated by both ancient and
m odern sages, conduct the gods hither.
308 THE VEDAS .
8 . Through Agni the worshipper obtains that affluence, which ih
creases day by day, which is the source of fam e and the m ultiplier of
m ankind .
4. Agni , the unobstructed sacrifice of which thou art on every sidethe protector, assuredly reaches the gods.5. May Agni , the presenter of oblations, the attainer of knowledge ;
he who is true, renowned, and divine, com e hither with the gods !
This is a fair sam ple of the sim pler style of invocation .
The following supplies a contrast by being m ore m ysti
cal
1 . I, Agni, em by birth endowed with knowledge of all that exists ;clarified butter is m y eye ; am hrosia is m y m outh ; I am the living
breath of threefold nature, the m easure of the firm am ent, eternal warm th ;
I am also the oblation .
2. Agni, thoroughly com prehending the light that is to be understood by the heart, has purified him self (by the three) purifying (form s),he has m ade him self m ost excellent treasurer by ( these) self-m anifes
tations, and has thence contem plated heaven and earth.
Large as is Agni ’s share of the invocations of the third
Ashtaka, that of Indra is larger ; forty-eight Saktas
being addressed to Indra,or the firm am ent, either singly
or conjointly
1 . Com e, Indra, and be regaled with all viands and libations, andthence, m ighty in strength, he victorious (over thy foes)2 . The libation being prepared, present the exhilarating and efi
cacious (draught) to the rejoicing Indra, the accom plisher of all things.3. Indra, with the handsom e chin, be pleased with these anim ating
praises : do thou, who art to be reverenced by all m ankind, (com e) to
these rites (with) the gods.4. I have addressed to thee, Indra, the showerer (of blem ings), theprotector (of thy worshippers), praises which have reached thee, and of
which thouhast approved5 . Place before us, Indra, precious and m ultiform riches, for enough,
and m ore than enough, are assuredly thine I6 . Opulent Indra, encourage us in this rite for the acquirem ent of
wealth, for we are diligent and renowned7 . Grant as, Indra, wealth beyond m easure or calculation, inexhaus
tible, the source of cattle, of food. of all life.
8 . Indra, grant us great renown and wealth acquired in a thousandways, and those (articles) of food (which are brought from the field) m
carte l
310 THE vsm s.
1 1 . They brought the crooked well to the place (where theMuni was) ,and sprinkled the water upon the thirsty Gotam a : the variously-radiant(Maruts) com e to his succour, gratifying the desire of the sage with lifesustaining waters l
12. W hatever blessings (are difi'
used) through the three worlds, andare in your gift, do you bestow upon the donor ( of the libation ) , whoaddresses you with praise ; bestow them , also, Maruts, upon us, and
grantus, bestowers of all good, riches, whence springs prosperity
Then there are the Aswins, or the inferior suns ; Ushas
or the dawn : Varani, which is, word for word, Uranus ;Mithras
, and other deities of greater and less im port
ance, the m ajority of which are elem ental , m eteorologi
ica] , or telluric. Yupa, the post to which the sacrificial
victim is bound, has also a hym n :
1 . Vanaspati, the devout, anoint thee with sacred butter at the sacri
fice ; and whether thoustandest erect, or thine abode be on the lap of
this thy m other (earth), grantus ri ches.
2. S tanding on the east of the kindled (fire), dispensing food (as thesource) of undecaying (health) and excellent progeny, keeping of our
enem y at a distance, stand up for great auspiciousness.
3. Be exalted, Vanaspati, upon this sacred spot of earth, beingm easured with careful m easurem ent, and bestow food upon the ofi
’
erer of
the sacrifice.
4. W ell clad and hung with wreaths com es the youthful (pillar) ;m ost excellent it is as soon as generated steadfast and wise venerators
of the gods, m editating piously in their m inds, raise it up.
5. Born (ih the forest), and beautified in the sacrifice celebrated bym en
,it is (again) engendered for the sanctification of the days (of sacred
rites) steadfast, active, and intelligent (priests) consecrate it with ihtelligence, and devout worshipper recites its praise.
6 . May those (posts) which devout m en have cut down, or which,Vanaspati, the axe has trim m ed, m ay they
, standing resplendent withall their parts (entire), bestow upon us wealth with progeny.
7. May those posts which have been cut down upon the earth, and
which have been fabricated by the priests, those which are the accom
plishers of the sacrifice, convey our acceptable (ofl'
ering) to the gods.
O f the m ass of the Vedas an idea m ay be form ed fromthe following data. A single hym n is cal led a sukta. S o
m any suktas m ake an am waka, so m any anuvakas an
adhyciya ; so m any adhyayas an aslaka, ogdoad, or book,
THE vsm s. 31 ]
form ing an eighth of the whole Rigveda. The third
volum e of Wilson ’
s translation com es to the m iddle of
the whole, so that the Rigveda alone gives six volum es
of hym ns. But the Rig is only one out of four Vedasfor besides it there is the Sam a-veda ; there is the Yagur
veda ; and there is the A thava-veda—four in all. The
Rig-veda, however, is the chief, containing nearly all the
im portant m atter of the rest ; the A thava-veda being
later in date than the other three, to which it form s a sortof supplem ent. These four com positions form the S an
kita, or text. The Sanhi ta itself, with the hym ns it
em bodies, form s the m antra, or ri tual, a ritual upon which
there are notes and supplem ents.
Without being a Veda, in the strict sense of the
term , the Brahm yanas are Vedaic. S o that here we have
another series of works ; them selves incom plete without
Vedangas (in which the gram m ar of the Vedas is ex
plained) and Upanishads, which are a sort of supplem en t.
Few works are less m etaphysical than the Vedaic
hym ns. This, however, does not prevent the existence
of a Vedanta philosophy. The connection, however, lies
chiefly in the nam e. Wherever there is tendency to
rationalism anything can be rationalized.
It is not for nothing that this list of works, m ore or
less Vedaic, has been gi ven . That the Vedas are a root
out of which m uch has grown is a fact of great im port
ance in our criticism . Dates they have none. Failing
these, what can we have recourse to ? W e m ust take a
m easure of the extent to which the original hym ns have
developed a system , and then ask at what rate such deve
loPm ents proceed.
The Institutes of Menu.—Later than the Vedas, and in
m any respects different from them ,are the Institutes of
Menu. These give na the legal, social, and political ,
312 THE IN STITUTES
rather than the poetical and religious, aspects of Brah
m inism . The Brahm inism , too, is of a m ore advanced
growth containing m uch for which the Vedas have been
appealed to in vain . It contains, for instance, the doctrine
of cast.
S ir Graves H aughton’
s Translation.
1 . For the sake of preserving this universe, the Being, suprem ely glorions, allotted separate duties to those who sprang respectively from his
m outh, his arm ,his thigh, and his foot.
2. To Brahm ins be assigned the duties of reading the Veda, of teaching it, of sacrificing, of assisting others to sacrifice, of giving alm s, if they
be rich, and, if indigent, of receiving gifts.
3. To defend the m onk , to give alm s, to sacrifice, to read the Veda, toshun the allurem ents of sensual gratification, are, in a few words, theduties of a Cshatriya.
4. To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, to read the
scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, and to cultivate land, areprescribed or perm itted to a Vaisya.
5. One principle duty the Suprem e Ruler assigns to a Sfidra ; nam ely,to serve the before-m entioned classes, without depreciating their worth.
6 . Man is declared purerabove the navel ; but the Self-Creating Powerdeclared the purest part of him to be his m outh.
7. S ince the Brahm in sprang from the m ost excellent part, since hewas the first born, and since he possesses the Veda, he is by right the
chief of this whole creation .
8 . H im , the Being, who exists of him self, produced in the beginning .
from his own m outh, that having perform ed holy rites, he m ight presentclarified butter to the gods, and cakes of rice to the progenitors of m ankind
,for the preservation of this world.
9. W hat created being then can surpass H im , with whose m outh the
gods of the firm am ent continual]y feast on clarified butter, and the m anes
of ancestors, on hallowed cakes ?10. O i created things, the m ost excellentare thosewhich are anim ated ;
of the anim ated, those which subsist by intelligence ; of the intelligentm ankind and of m en the sacerdotal class .
1 1 . Of priests those em inent in learning ; of the learned, those whoknow their duty ; of those who know it, suchas perform it virtuously ; andof the virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance withscriptural doctrine.
1 2. The very birth of Brahm ins is a constant incarnation of Dherm a,
God of Justice ; for the Brahm in is born to prom ote justice, and to procure ultim ate happiness.
13 W hen a Brahm in springs to light, he is hom e above the world, the
314 THE EPICS .
I saluteKam a, the beautiful, the elder brother of Bukehm una, the illustrious Kughoo, the husband of Beats , the descendant of Kukootstha, fullof clem ency, a sea of excellencies, the friend of Brahm s, the virtuousone, the sovereign, devoted to truth, the son of Dusharutha, him whosebody is blue, the benign, the delight of the universe, the glory of
Kughoo’
s race, Kagbava, the enem y of Kavuna.
V ictory to Kam a, the glory of Kughoo’
s race, the increaseof Konshulya’
s
happiness, the destroyer of the ten-headed, to Dusharutha, whose eye is
like the water lily.I salute Valm eeki, the kokila, who, m ounted on the branch of pom y,
sounds the delightful note kam a, kam a, Kam a. Salutation to the lord oftheMoonie, the blessed. the Tupushee, the abode of all knowledge. To
this Yalm achi salutation.
Valm eeki, the chief of the Moonis, devoted to sacred austerities, and
the perusal of the Veda, the incessant Tupushee, pre em inent am ong thelearned, earnestly inquired of N eruda W ho in the universe is transcendent in excellence, versed in all the duties of life, grateful, attached totruth, steady in his course, exuberant in virtues, delighting in the good ofall beings ? W ho is heroic, eloquent, lovely, of subdued anger, trulygreat ? W ho is patient, free from m alice, at whose excited wrath the godstrem ble ? Who is great, m ighty in preserving the three worlds ? W ho
devoted to the welfare of m en t The ocean of virtue and wealth. In
whom has Hukshm ee, the com plete, the bm tiful, chosen herabode ? W hois the equal of Urida, Unula, Soorya, Iudeo, Shukra, and O opendra
‘
l
From you, 0 N eruda l I would hear this. Youare able, 0 divine Sage, todescribe the m an. N eruda, acquainted with the present, the past, and thefuture, hearing the words of Valm eeki, replied to the sage : A ttend : the
num erous and rare qualities enum erated by you, can with difficulty befound throughout the three worlds ; not even am ong the Beytas have I
m a y one poaseeeed of all these. H ear : he who possem es these, and
virtues far beyond, a full-orbed m oon, a m ine of excellence, is of Ishwakoo’
s race, and nam ed Kam a ; of regulated m ind, tem perate, m agnanim ous,
patient, illustrious, sell-subdued, wise, em inent ln royal duties, eloquent,fortunate, fatal to his foes, of am ple shoulders, brawny arm s, with neckshell-form ed, and rising cheeks, em inent in archery, of m ighty energy, sub:duing his enem ies, with arm s extending to theknee, m anly, of fine-form edhead and Open front, of m ighty prowm whosebody is exactin sym m etry,
of hyacinthine hue, who is full of courage, with eyes elongated, his cest
circular and full, who is fortunate, im printed with auspicious m arks, versedin the duties of life, philanthropic, steadily pursuing rectitude, sapient,pure and hum ble, contem plative, equal to Prqiapati, illustrious, supporting,the world, subduing his pam ions, the helperof all, the protector of virtue,skilled in the Vedas and Vedangas, deep in all the Shastras, strong. as
quainted with the secrets of nature, practising every duty, penetrating,am iable to all, upright, am ple in knowledge, of noble m ind, ever attendedby the good,as the ocean by the rivers, the com panion of truth, social, the
THE PURANAS . 315
only lovely one, Kam a, theseat of every virtue, the increaser ofKoushulya’
s
joy, profound like the deep, im m ovable as H eem aluya, heroic as V ishnoo,
grateful to the sight as the full-orbed m oon,in anger dreadful as the con
flagration, in patience like the gentle earth, generous as Dhanude, in verityeverunequalled. By these his m atchless virtues he conferred felicity onhis subjects, and therefore is known by the nam e Kam a.
The Mahabharata is the Great W ar waged between
the Yadava and the Pandava dynasties the scene being
laid in the parts about Ujein . The uniform ity of styleand com position is said to be less in theMahabharata thanin the Ram ayana so that som e parts of the form er poem
are older or newer than others. The fictions in both are
supernatural, im possible, outrageous. In both the chiefdeity is Vishnu.
The P aranas .—The Puranas are com positions in the
form of dialogue, between certain enquirers and Brahm a,
upon points of cosm ogony and early history—also upon
the attributes and actions of the three great deities ; of
Siva and Vishnum ost especially, both incarnate . They
(I follow Wilson alm ost verbatim ) are derived from the
sam e system as the Epics. They represent, however, m o
difications of opinion and feeling. They repeat and ex
pand the epic cosm ogony. They give special im portance
to new divinities ; Vishnu and Siva m ost particularly .
They give new legends. They are possibly founded upon
earlier com posi tions. The word P arana m eans old. A
typical Purana is, according to the lexicon of Um ura
Sinha,P ancha-lachshanam , or that which has five charac
teristic tq n'
cs. These are
Cosm ogony.
2. Secondary creation, or the destruction and renova
tion of worlds .
3. Genealogies of Gods and patriarchs.
4. Reigns of the Manus, or periods calledManwan taras.
5 . History of the kings of the Solar and Lunar fam ilies.
316 THE PURANAS .
The existing Puranas scarcely m eet the conditions hereim plied. Y et they m eet them ,
perhaps,half way.
The Puranas are eighteen in num ber. O f these thebest known, as well as the m ost im portant, is the VishnuParana, accessible to English readers through the translation of Wilson . I t is the great repertorium for theelem ents of Brahm inism in its working form .
The Upa-puranas are m inor com positions, akin to the
full Puranas both in m atter and in form . They m ay be
as few as four, as m any as eighteen .
The V ishnfl Purénfi has kept very clear of any par
ticulars from which an approx im ation to its date m ay be
conjectured.
” Wilson refers it to the eleventh cen
tury.
Now com es the notice of the general character of the
Sanskrit li terature. The best prelim inary to the classi
fication of this is a general view of the literature of
Greece. In som e shape or other every form of Sanskrit
literature has its equivalent in that of Greece. In som eshape or other m ost form s of Greek literature have their
correspondents in Sanskrit. Are there Epics in the lan
guage of S tesichorus S o are there in that of P arasara.
W as there a N ew Com edy in Greece There was som e
thing very like it in India. The nearest analogues of theVedas (respect being had exclusively to the class of com
positions to which they belong) are, perhaps, the Hom ericand Orphic hym ns, by no m eans the only hym ns of Greece.
The Greek equivalents to the laws of Menu, though they
have not com e down to us in their full form ,have had a
real existence on the soil of Greece. Subject for subject,the authors of the Puranas dealt with the sam e kind of
questions that the Greek logographers investigated.
Mutatis mutandis, the sam e applies to the gram m arians
and lex icographers. Both are conspicuous in India ;
318 BUDDH ISM.
less, Sam anist. Terebinthus, the preceptor of Manes,took the nam e Baudas. In Epiphanius Terebinthus is the
pupil of S cythianus. Suidas m akes Terebinthus a pupil
of Baudda, who pretended to be the son of a virgin.
And here we m ay stop to rem ark, that the Mongol
Tshingiz-khan is said to be virgin-born ; that, word for
word, S cythianus is Sak ; that Sakya Mun i (com pare it
with Manes) is a nam e of Buddha. Even so cautious a
speculator as Professor Wilson adm its that Buddha m ay
be the gentile nam e Bhot. I think that he m ight have
m aintained that such was actually the case. I ts quasi
synonym Sakya bears just the sam e relation to the word
S ak or Sakw. Be this as it m ay there was, before A .D .
300,
1 . Action and reaction between Buddhism and Christianity.
2. Buddhist buildings.
3. The sam e cultus in both Bactri a and India.
Whether this constitute Buddhism is another question .
All this and m ore m ay have existed, and yet the cultusto which it belonged have been just as far from Buddhism
in the ordinary acceptation of the word, as m odernJudaism is from Christianity
,or the doctrine of the
Sadducees from m odern Judaism .
The Buddhist records them selves areChinese.
—The m ost that can be got from the earliestChinese accounts is that in (say) the sixth century there
was Buddhism in both China and India. The followingis a piece of Chinese gram m ar for the Sanskrit.
BUDDH ISM. 319
Bhavatha
Bhavam i
Bhan vak
Bhavam ah
N oun.
Pu-lu-sha Purushah ManPu-ln-ahao Purushau Two m en
Pu-lu-sha-so Purushas ManPu-ln-sha-tsie Purushasya O i a m an
Pu-ln-sha-pien Purushabhysm Oi two m en
Pu-lu-sha-nan Purushflnam Of m en.
2 . N orthem . It has already been stated that the
vehicle of the Buddhism of N epaul and Tibet was the
Sanskrit rather than the Pali language. In like m anner,mutatis m utandis, the vehicle of the
3. S outhern, or Cingalese, Buddhism was thePali ratherthan the Sanskri t.4. Monum ental.—There are
(1 . Architectural ,b. Sculptural,c. Sepulchral,d. Inscriptional .
The literary docum ents are, of necessity, valid for the
tim e at which they were written, and no other. They
are, of necessity, val id only so far as they are evidence .
What they tell na of the tim es previous to their com position m ay, or m ay not, be true. H ow far theyare so depends
on the details of each particular case . The onusprobandi
lies with the supporter of their accuracy. They con tain
a doctrine, a discipline, a philosophy, and a history. They
are the scriptures of Buddhism , and from them m ust thenature of Buddhism , as a whole be ascertained . The
doctrine, the discipline, and the philosophy are dateless.
The historical portion gives us three Coun cils the latest
of which took place about 153. I take this date as I
320 BUDDH ISM.
find it. It tells us thus m uch—that earlier than 153
the work from which it is deduced could not have beencom posed. Com m on sense tells us that it need not havebeen com posed even then. Who could write about the
third council before it had m et ? This date is got fromthe Sanskrit authorities.
What applies to the Sanskrit applies, d fortiori, to the
Chinese. Say that in the sixth century there was a
volum inous m ass of Chinese translations from the Indian .
Mutatis mutandis, there was the sam e in the Christian
world. There were translations from the Greek in
Syriac, in Arm enian, and in Germ an . Yet the works
from which they are translated were, each and all, at the
the very least, fifty years later than the birth of our
Saviour.
When Buddhism has so m uch in com m on with Christianity, and the Indian literature so m uch in com m onwith the Greek
,the question as to the probabili ty of there
being borrowings and lendings m ust be worked out withspecial atten tion to dates. A century m ore or less m ay
seriously affect our results.
What applies to the Sanskrit is believed on good
grounds to apply, it fortiort'
, to the Pali . The evidence
that the Buddhist scriptures in this last-nam ed languageare newer than those in Sanskrit is less conclusive thani t was in the case of the Chinese. S till it is satisfactory ;so that, upon the whole, we m ay com m it ourselves to thedoctrine that no canonical works in Buddhism are older
than the scriptures of northern India. That these are
not older, and m ay be m uch newer, than 153, has
already been stated .
O f m onum ents the m ost im portant are the Viharasor m onasteries, and the S thupas, or topes. Now,
i t is one
thing to be a tem ple, or a tum ulus another thing to be a
BUDDH ISM.
inordinately high an tiquity for either Buddhism or Brahm iniam we m ust assum e som ething that, in the eyes of
the cautious critic, is illegitim ate . To few of the m onum ents can we assign a truly historic date. Their epoch,then , is assigned on the score of internal evidence. The
language is m uch m ore archaic than that of the Insti
tutes, and the m ythology so m uch sim pler ; whilst the
Institutes them selves are sim ilarly circum stanced in re
spect to the Epics. Fixing these at about 200 B.C . , we
allow so m any cen turies for the archaism s of Menu, and
so m any m ore for those of the Vedas. For the whole,eleven hundred has not been thought too little ; which
places the Vedas in the fourteenth century D . C . , and
m akes them the earliest, or nearly the earliest, records in
the world.
It is clear that this is only an approxim ation. N ow,
although all inquirers adm it that creeds, languages, and
social conditions, presen t the phenom ena of growth, the
opinions as to the rate of such growths are varied—and
none are of m uch value . This is because the particular
induction required for the form ation of anything better
than a m ere im pression has yet to be undertaken—tillwhen, one m an
’
s guess is as good as another’s. The age
of a tree m ay be reckoned from its concentric rings, but
the age of a language, a doctrine, or a polity, has neither
bark like wood, nor teeth like a horse, nor a register like
a child.
TH E ALPHABETS or INDIA . 323
CHAPTER XXXIII .
The Alphabets of India.
THE alphabet of the very earliest specim en of the lan
guages akin to the Sanskrit is cuneiform . It is found
on ly in Persia. It belongs to the reigns of Darius and
his successors.
The alphabet of the next earliest dated m onum ents is
of the older Caubul coins ; those of Eukrates and his
successors. This is what is called by Wilson Arianian ,
or Arian . It is written from right to left, and, pro tas te,is Sem itic . It is held (and that on reasonable grounds)to be an older form of what appears afterwards as Sas
sanian .
It is m onum ental, i . e. in capitals, and in a form
adapted for coins and inscriptions rather than docum ents
written currente ealam o . It is m onum ental rather thancursive.
In a cursive form it com es out, later, as the Zend of
the Parsi scriptures, It has, however, taken addi
tions—Indian in character. Still, it is so far Sem itic as
to run from right to left.
The alphabet of the oldest Pali m onum ents of the soilof India is that of the Dhauli and G irnar inscriptions. Ithas m ore than one character like those of the old Greekalphabet, and, like the old Greek alphabet, it is writtenfrom left to right. It appears, under m odifications
,in
r 2
324 THE ALPHABETS or
the coinage of the dynasties called Saurasthra, Gupta,and Rajput.
The alphabet of the oldest MS S . (which, i t m ust be
observed, are not Pali but Sanskrit) is called Devanagari .
I t is inscriptional rather than cursive, in so far as it
consists of capitals. It is a m odification of the inscrip
tional and m onetary Pali . A s such,it runs from left
to right .
The alphabets of the written languages akin to the
Hindi are all visibly and m anifestly derived from the
Devanagari .
The alphabets of the languages akin to the Tam ul are
derived from som e form of som e prototype of the D e
vanagari—scarcely from the actual Devanagari . They are
rounded rather than angular, i . e. they are cursive rather
than either inscriptional or capital .
The alphabets of the Indian archipelago will be noticed
in their proper place .
Outhese facts two observations m ust be m ade
1 . That the alphabets of the Greek type—for so we
m ay call those that run from left to right—are of equal
antiquity with those of the Sem ite type, or those that run
from right to left.
2. That the alphabet of not only the oldestMS S ., but
that of the so-called oldest com positions in Sanskrit (the
pre-em inently literary language of Brahm inic India) is
“
of Pali origin .
The detai ls of the extent to which the right-to-left, or
Arian, and the left-to-right, or Indian, alphabets are usedconcurrently are curious.
The legends of the oldest coins are Greek . Thencom es the A rianian : then the Indian and Arianian con
currently .
The G irnar and Dhauli inscriptions are Indian . The
326 THE INDIAN FRONTIER.
CHAPTER XXXIV .
The Frontiers of India and Persia.—TheParopam isana—TheAfghans.
The Caukers, &c .—The Brahfii and Biluch.
I AMsatisfied that the chief details of im m ediate ethnolo
gical im portance to India are the details of its frontier .These are Persian . But the frontier of Persia is AsiaMinor, and the frontier of Asia Minor, Europe .
The P arapam isam .—O f the P aropam isan boundary, the
m inutiae on the west are obscure. The Husara country isa British dependency . It is divided am ongst num erous
petty chiefs, e. g. the Khan of Turnoul, the chief of the
Dhfinds, the chiefs of the Gukkurs, and others. They
are (I believe) Mahom etans . West of these occupancieslies the valley of
Kaghan and west of Kaghan, on the very crest of the
hills, the country of
The Hussunzye ; whose nam e, at least, is Afghan or
Patan .
I cannot say what, in these parts, is Afghan , what
Paropam isan, what Indian proper.
Afghanistan.—That the Afghans them selves are far m ore
heterogeneous in the m atter of blood than of language ispaten t from m ore signs of interm ixt
'
ure than one. In the
first place, there are few points in the m ap of A fghanis
tan whereof it is not said that the occupants are, m ore orless, recent and intrusive. The Ghilzyes, for instance,
AFGHANISTAN . 327
are derived from the Ghor m ountains. That certain
Berduranis have m oved from west to east is specially
stated,whether truly or otherwise is of no im portance.
The present observations m erely go to prove the fact of
there being presum ptions in favour of the Afghan blood
being m ixed. The m en them selveshave no general nam e for
their own country ; i . e. no nam e at once general and native,forA fghanistan is a Persian term . It is one thing for the
m ountains of Ghor to have con tained A fghan settlem ents
at an early period, another thing for them to have been the
cradle of the race. L et it be adm itted, forargum ent’s sake,that the princes of Ghor belonged to the Afghan tribeof Suri
, and that at so early a period that their dynasty
was considered old even in the eleventh century . What
does this show ? Sim ply that there were A fghans in two
districts Afghans who, in the Ghor principalities, m ay as
easily have been im m igrants as indigenae.
Add to this that the districts nam ed Gout are no less
than three in num ber. The king of one of them reduced
Raver and K erm essir, which separate Ghor from H in
dustan .
” This is an extract from H erbelot, upon whichthe editor of the last edition of Elphinstone rem arks thatin Raver and K em wssir, nam es which , totidem literie and
totidem syllabis, no longer exist, we m ay have the presentappellations of the Bawer and Garm sir districts. If so
,
Hindostan m ust have extended far westwards. Whether
it did so or not, and whether (assum ing it to have doneao) the boundary was ethnological rather than political
,
is another question .
The Arabs call the Afghans S olim ani . This I believeto m ean the occupants of the parts about the Tuht-iSolim an
, who were probably neither m ore nor less thanthe first m em bers of the group with whom theMahom e
tans cam e in contact. If so , India m ust have been en
328 THE INDIAN m om m a.
tered on the south, vid Biluchistan and Sind, rather than
by the valley of the Caubul .The locality, then , of the nucleus of the nation is still
to be discovered. The language, I think, originated in
the north-eas t, i . e. on the P aropam isan rather than the
Carm anian frontier. The language, however, is purer
than the blood. This is largely Taj ik, not a littleMongol
, largely (perhaps) Indian , very largely Turk . There
are special statem ents that certain Afghan tribes, at a cer
tain date, spoke Turkish. There is garden after garden
nam ed bagh, and m ore than one hill nam ed dagh. There
are the tribual nam es O thm ankheil and Turcolaini, along
with other term s less transparently Turk. The question ,however, is suggested rather than exhausted . There is
m uch blood in India which has com e from Afghan istan ,
and m uch in Afghanistan which has com e from Persia,Turkistan ,
and Mongolia.
The Caukers, &c .-I do not say that these are not
A fghans. I only desiderate the evidence to their beingsuch . They m ay be Persian , Biluch, Brahfii, Indian
(wholly or partially) , rather than truly A fghan .
Biluchistam —A s com pared with the term Biluchistan ,
the term Afghanistan is clear and unam biguous. Afghan
istan , whatever m ay be the details as to the descent of itsoccupants, is, at any rate, the region of the Pushtu lan
guage. Mutatis mutandis, Biluchistan should be the sam e.
It is nothing, however, of the kind . It is pre-em inen tly
a political designation . It m eans the coun try of the
Biluches. But m any of its occupants are Brahti is. Nor
is this all. I know of no definite test which enables na
to separate, in a thorough-going m anner, the two popula
tions. I hardly know which is the m ore im portant of the
two . The four works that tell na m ost about them are
those of Pottinger, Masson, P ostans, and Burton . In the
330 m s INDIAN m on’
rm s .
Khanat. S o is Shall . S o is Mastung. S o are Hur
rund and Daj il. S o are K ej and Punjghir. This is
during the last days of the Kalhora dynasty in Sind .
The history (it is Masson who gives it) is continued upto the present period ; and throughout t he whole of it
the Khelat Khans are called Braht’i is.Again , in Ferishta, and doubtless, in other historians ofIndia as well, there are num erous notices of a hosti le
nation called the Varabas ; the particular portions of
Hindostan which they attacked being the western Statesof Rajasthan .
All this gives to the Brahul population of Biluchistan
a m uch greater prom inence than the nam e of their country
suggests. The nam e suggests the predom inance of the
Biluches.
That the foregoing cautions against being m isled by
the nam e of the district are, by no m eans, unnecessary
will soon becom e m anifest. When Sind com es under
notice we shall find it necessary to speak of, at least,
one Biluch dynasty ; that of the Talpurs. That the
Talpurs were so far Biluch as to have com e from Bilu
chistan m ay safely be asserted . Whether they were Bi
luches is another m atter. What if they were Brahliis ? I
raise, rather than solve this question . The ethnological
position of the tribes of Biluchistan m ust be determ ined
by the circum stances of each individual case. I doubtwhether it can always be determ ined at all . Physical ap
pearance is som ething : but the physical appearance of
both the Brahti is and the Biluches varies. Language,too
, is som ething ; but i t is especially stated that the
blood and the language by no m eans coincide. And
here the Biluch tongue preponderates. I find no evi
dence of any Biluch tribes having unlearned their own
tongue and adopted the Brahti i . I find decided evidence,
BRAHUIS . 331
however, of certain Brahm s being in the habit of speaking Biluch. The khans and sirdars of the Mingallsand Bizunjus do so. It would be vulgar to use the
Brahli i.
I find, too , that this latter language is said to be peenliar to Jhalawan and Saharawan. N ow, adm itting that
these are the chief Brahtii localities, we m ust be con
vinced that there is m uch Brahtii blood beyond them .
Again, it is probable that certain Brahli is m ay haveadopted the Jutki and Sind dialects.
That certain Rinds (Biluches) have done so, is specially
stated by Masson ; who (along with others) tells us that
their physical form is, m ore or less, Indian at any rate,that it differs perceptibly from that of the N harui tribesof the west. What, then , I ask, is the evidence that theRinds are Biluch at all ? Their form is Indian ; their
language Indian . They com e, indeed, from Biluchistan
but so do som e of the Braht’
xis and som e of the Juts .
What is the evidence, & c. I ask this for inform ation .
I do not say that it is wanting. I think it very likely
that it can be adduced . I only suggest that it is wanting.
A t present the Rinds are Biluchistanis (i . 8 . m en of a
coun try nam ed after the Biluches), rather than Biluches
in the proper sense of the word.The typical B iluches, then , are the N harui tribes of the
west ; and the typical Brahfi is certain tribes of Saharawan
and Jbalawan . The others are, to all appearance, m ore
or less, the exhibitors of m ixed characteristics.
These characteristics m ay be derived from several
quarters ; from Cen tral Asia, from Arabia, from Persia,from Caubul, from India.
Central Asiatic elem ents.-These m ay be either Turk
or Mongol . Laying aside the doctrines suggested by
the local nam es, especially Seistan (Segistan), (which is
332 THE INDIAN FRONTIER.
Sakastene, or the country of the Sakas) as well as those
im plied in the term Indoscythas let us look at Masson ’
s
list of the Brahli i, and Pottinger s of the Biluch, tribes.
The first gives the nam es Séka and Minghal ; both re
ferable to the Western Provinces. That Saka is Saks; is
suggested by Masson him self. CanMinghal be MongolPossibly. That Mehran is notbeyond the confines of the
Mongol world is shown in the following genealogy. The
Num ris of Luz trace their origin to Sam ar the founder
of Sam arkand, who had four sons—N erpat, the father
of the Num ris and Jukias ; Bopat, the father of the
Bhats of Jessulm er ; G ajpat, father of the ChuraRajputs ;and Aspet, father of the Tshagatai—the Tshagatai being,of all the Turks, the m ost m ixed-up with the Mongols.
Indeed, to suppose that the two words are synonym ousis as legitim ate here as in India, where (as is well known)the em pire founded by Baber
,is called the em pire of the
Great Mogul, i. e. Mongol . Y et Baber was a Tshagatai Turk , and no Mongol at all.
L et, then , the Brahli i nam eMingall be considered as a
probable form of Mongol—word for word . Whether i t
stand for a Turk tribe or a tribe from Mongolia, in the
strict sense of the term , is another question . The nam es
of both Tshingiz-khan and Tim ur are known in the partsabout Kelaut.
Arabian .—I lay but little stress upon t he so-called
tradition of the Biluches that they cam e from Arabia.
I have elsewhere suggested that Arabia m ay m ean the
Arabius fluvius, and the prom ontory of Arabat in theirown im m ediate neighbourhood . In this
,too
, it is pos
sible that we m ay find the origin of the nam e of the
Arab Gudur , a Luz tribe. O n the other hand, the Arabconquest of Sind, and the parts to the west of the Indus,in the first century o f the Hegira
,is a historical fact, so
334 THE INDIAN FRONTIER.
to be enfranchised slaves of the Rinds ; a fact, however,whi ch is not incom patible with their being Brahiii in
blood .
And now, prem ising that I , by no m eans, consider that
the above-nam ed exceptions are conclusive, and that I
have exhibited them chiefly for the sake of m aking out
a case in favour of the blood of the Brahli i and Biluches
being m ore or less m ixed, and with the view of inducing
others to go m inutely in to the analysis, I give the re
m ainder of Masson ’
s list.In the W estem P rovinces.
Mirwari Sanghur
G itshki Hallada
Rodahi
Rakshani
In Saharawan.
Mahm udshahi
Bangul-zai
Shekh Husseini
Sunari .
In Jhalawan.
Z ehri Saboli
Lutiani .
S o m uch for the details of the Brahui nam e as Opposed
to the Biluch .
The details of the Biluch nam e, as opposed to the
Brahtii, are as follows.The first division is in to the western and the eastern
Biluches, the western Biluches being nam ed Nharfii ;the eastern, Mugai and Rind .
The N hartii.—The N harli i list contains seven nam es,three of which m ay be other than Biluch.
l . The Ruhsham'
.—In Masson the Rukshani are m ade
Drabhi .
m s BILUCHES . 335
2 . TheMirags .—Word for word, this seem s to be Min
gul .
3. Kurd.—This is the nam e for the tribes of Bush
kurd, Kobuki, andMydani ; tribes which are, probably,Kurd in blood as well as in nam e .
To the following four tribes no exception is taken .
They are, probably, true Biluches .
The Sajadi The U rbabi
Khasogi Mullikah.
They lie to the south of S eistaun , between the Brahm
frontier and the Kurd districts ; these last leading to the
truly Persian province of Kirm an .
By“true Biluches I m ean m en whose language
neither is nor has been either Brahfii or Jut, and who
are, in other respects , Persian rather than Indian ,and
Biluch rather than either Afghan or Kurd.
I have already noticed the statem ent that the Rinds , to
som e exten t at least, speak Jutki . To what extent ?
Burton writes that the Dom ki,Magasi (Magazz i Mugai) ,Burphat (Bulfat) , Kalpher (Kalpur), and m any other
sm al ler tribes, speak the hi ll language ; the hill lan
guage m eaning the Biluch . Meanwhile, the Rinds,Talpurs, Murris, Chandiya, Jem ali, and Laghari speak
either Jatki or the hi ll-tongue ; and their selection
depends upon the district they inhabit . The Bulfat,
however, are specially connected with the Num ris, who
are S indi in speech . Again—the Jataki is also called
Siraiki from Siro, or Upper Sind, where it is com m only
spoken by the people, and Belochi (Biluch) on account of
its being used by several of the Biluch clans settled in
the low country. The Laughs or Sindhi bards seem to
prefer it to their own language, and m any well-educated
natives, especially Belochis, have studied it critically and
com posed works in it." All this goes for the Rinds
336 THE INDIAN FRONTIER.
being Indian rather than Persian in speech . All goes to
the suggestion of the following question—is there any
better reason for m aking them Biluch than the fact of
their com ing from Biluchistan
Be this as it m ay, there is a certain num ber of tribes
that belong,or are supposed to have originally belonged,
to the Khanat of K elaut rather than to India proper,and who are other than Afghan as well as other than
Brahli i in Speech . Their m anners and religion—pre
datory and Mahom etan are Biluch ; their language
and physiognom y m ore or less Indian . Their political
im portance is considerable, inasm uch as they lie along the
whole o f the Dera Ghazi Khan frontier, beginning where
the Afghans end and extending into Sind .
The m ost northern of these, after the Khetrans, whose
place is am biguous, are
The Khusranis, on the hills, and
TheMutlcam '
s, on the plains. Then follow
The Bozdars, of whom there are,at least, the following
sections
The Seharni The Jelalani
Suwarni Chandiah
Gulam ani Shahani .
The Bozdars are both m oun taineers and occupants of
the lower country.
The b i nds, and
The Khosahs, on the plains. Khosa is a Rajput nam e .
The Lagaris .
The Ghurham'
s.—These occupy IId and Dary l,
falling into
The Lushari The Durkhani, and
The Chakri .
The Drishulcs, a peaceable, and
338 THE INDIAN FRONTIER.
But little has to be said concei'ning the archaeology of
the Brahti i country. It contains but few ruins, and noneof any very great im portance. O f coins, but few havebeen found within its lim i ts ; of inscriptions (I believe)none. That som e
,however, exist is specially stated. It
should be rem em bered, however, that, with the exceptionof Pottinger and Masson, few Europeans have, at one
and the sam e tim e, explored the country, and given an
account of their explorations. Hence the statem ent that
of its Greek rulers we have no vestiges,"is one which
future discoveries m ay not im probably m odify . A ci ty
was founded in Arachosia by Dem etrius. Near K elaut
are the si tes of three towns—of Sorra Bek, of Kuki, and
of a third with an unknown nam e. These, however, seem
to have belonged to the tim es of the Kalifat.
A t Mehara, in the hills, to the east of K elaut, are a
few caves and cave-tem ples ; also the rem ains of what
is called a city of the infidels (Kafirs) ; also walls and
parapets of stone—works of the infidels too. H inglatz ,
in Luz , is a sacred spot, visited by both Hindu and
Mahom etan pilgrim s. It is in the eyes of the latter, at
least, the shrine of the Bibi Nani the Lady Mother.
It is suggested by Wilson that, word for word, N ani is
N anaia, the nam e of a goddess, which appears on m any of
the Caubul coins.
Let na now assum e, provisionally, that the Brahm s are
Indian ,and ask (such being the case) what are the
western boundaries of India ? Where does it begin ?
If the Brahli is be as Indian as their language is
believed to m ake them , and if the G itshki and Minguls,andRakshanis, be Brahiii, the Indian area m ust be carried
as far north as N oshky, and as far west as Punghir and
Kij . I f so, halfMekran is Brahfii. Noshky touches the
Baraich districts of Shorabuk, and all but touches Seis
THE INDIAN FRONTIER. 339
taun . I t is watered by the river Kaiser. It is the oc
cupancy of the Rakshanis, upon whom theMinguls fromthe parts about K elaut have encroached . They reside in
ten ts.P anjghur, an agricultural district, is cultivated by the
G itshki ; as is Kij—after which begins the territory o f
the Im aum of Muskat on the south, and Persia proper
on the north.
That India, then , in som e shape or other, has a great
extension westward is m anifest. It shows itself long
before we get to the Indus. Indeed, it is by no m eans
easy to say where India begins or Persia ends.
340 FOREIGN INFLUENCES
CHAPTER XXXV .
Foreign influences in India—Bacchic -Assyrian —Persisn .—Tura
nian .—Maeedonian .
—Arab.—Afghan.
—a h (Tshagatai) .
O F the invasions of India, the chief are
l . The conquest by Bacchus .—Whether this be so purely
m ythic as is generally believed will be considered inthe sequel . Say, however, that it is ever so m uch so .
The belief in its existence shows, at least, that G reece
and India were con tained in the sam e world of fiction .
Now,where there is a com m unity of fiction there are
also other points of contact—direct or indirect.2 . The conquest by S em iram is .
-This, if real , would in
troduce Assyrian influences.
3. The P ersian conquest.—In order for any part of
India to have becom e a part of the em pire of Darius
conquest from Persia m ust have been effected.
4. Turanian conquest. -If no conquest from Turania
had been effected the term Indo-scythes would be non
ex istent.
5 . The Macedonian conquest, ending in a perm anen t
occupation of Bactria, has already been noticed. This
brought Greece upon the Indus.
6 . The Arab conquest.—In the forty-fourth year of the
Hejra, the Mahom etans appear on the frontier of India
the Mahom etans of the Kalifat, Arabs in language and
nationality. Their im pression, however, is but slight.
They invade, and retire from ,Multan but the occupancy
342 FOREIGN INFLUENCES
invaded, the kingdom of this dynasty, was Caubul . It wasin the parts about G huzni that A lp-tegin first found the
nucleus of his em pire. O ne historian states that he had
with him , when he first attem pted his independence, 3000
Mam elukes ; and a Mam eluke, at this tim e,would be a
Turk, not (what he is now) a Circassian, or som ething else
o f m ixed blood and no definite ex traction . H e would ,doub tless, too, have num erous additions from the G huzn i
district itself, and these would be chiefly Afghans. L et
us say, then, that the bulk of what Mahm ud of G huzni,or his father, Sebek-tegin, m ay have called the arm y of
India, was Turk and Afghan , without going too m inutely
into the question as to how far the two term s m ean the
sam e thing. I im agine, too, there m ust have been in i t
Persians, Lughm anis, and perhaps Biluches.
The hostilities that led to the Ghuznivid conquest of
India began with Sebek-tegin , but the conquest itself was
the work of Mahm ud . The opponents to both were the
Rajputs of western and northern Rajasth
The descendants of Sebek-tegin held India from the
death of Mahm ud, A .D . 1030, to that of KhusruMalik,
A .D . 1 186 . They were all Turk on the father’s side at
least—probably on the m other’s as well. The succeeding
dynasties are all Turk .
Tam erlane retired from India A .D . 1399 . For two
m onths after Tam erlane’
s departure there was anarchy,then the rule of a chief nam ed Ekbal, then the restora
tion of Mahm ud ; who is succeeded by another chief,D oulat K han Lodi , who, at the end of fifteen m onths, is
expelled by the governor of the Punjab . This takes
place fourteen years after Tam erlane’s departure ; during,however
,Tam erlane’s lifetim e .
It is as a subordinate to Tam erlane that the governor of
the Punjab,who expels D oulat Khan Lodi , affects to
IN INDIA. 343
govern . H is nam e is Khizr Khan , and he is a native of
India, probably an Indian rather than a Turk. I f he
has no Turk blood at all in his veins, he is the first ruler of
Indiawithout it. H e is, m oreover, a Syud, i . e. a descend
ant of Mahom et, so that he and his three descendants
constitute what is called the Syud dynasty. Soon afterhis seizure of Delhi, his original province, the Punjab,revolts, and his fam ily has to struggle for it during the
whole duration of the dom inion .
The Syud dynasty ruled thirty-six years, i . e. from
1414 to 1450, when Ala-u-din , the fourth of the fam ily,m akes over his capital and titles to
A h Afghan, Behlol Khan Lodi , the first ruler of thehouse of Lodi . The kings that this house gave to India
were three in num ber—by nam e Behlol Lodi (already
m entioned), S ecander Lodi, and Ibrahim Lodi , under
whose reign India was invaded by
The Tshagatai Turk, Baber, the founder of the em pire
of the Great Mogul. A s a Tshagatai, Baber cam e from
theMongol frontier ; the extent to which Mongol elem ents
en tered into his arm y being indicated by the nam e of the
dynasty.
Since the tim e of Baber the foreign influences havebeen Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English .
GENERAL VIEW OF THE DIVIS IONS 0 1"
CHAPTER XXXV I .
General view of the divisions of the population of 1ndia.—Cast.
I N OW bid farewell to the num erous prelim inaries by
which the notice of the populations of India proper has
been preceded, and I use the term India proper because,in the forthcom ing chapter, no notice will be taken of
the P am pam isans and the Brahtii. Ethnologically, indeed, they are Indian ; geographically, they are Persian .
They ought not, perhaps, to be excluded. The objects,however
,of the present work are m ixed. I f it were
m ore purely scientific than i t is, I should claim them for
Hindostan. The Hindostan, however, of the forthcom ing
notices extends no further westwards than Cashm ir, the
Punjab, and S ind.
Qui bene dividet, bene docet. For ourprim ary division
the best basis is language, either actually existing or rea
sonably inferred. This gives na
1 . The‘populations whose languages, as now spoken,
are Tam ul rather than Hindi, along with such Bhils and
Kols as are believed to have unleam t their own tongue
and to have adopted that of their neighbours. It also
com prises (though the evidence to their belonging to this
group is capable of great im provem ent) the Mairs, Minas,Moghis, and som e others
2 . The populations whose languages are Hindi rather
than Tam ul, the chief of which are the Cashm irian , the
Hindi i tself, the Bengali, the Uriya, the Gujerathi, and
the Marathi .
346 CAST.
There is the sam e when m utual contact is eschewed.
There is the sam e when certain branches of the popu
lation are lim ited to the exercise of certain trades, crafts,or professions, and when (as, of necessity, m ust be the
case) these trades, crafts, or professions becom e heredi
tary .
W hen one class is, in any one of these ways, separated
from the other, an approach to cast is the result. W hen
several principles of separation are united the approach
becom es nearer.Nearer still does it becom e when, in addition to these
form s of m utual repulsion, the cohesion of the several
m em bers of the sam e class is strengthened by com m on
cerem onies, legends, beliefs, prejudices, and genealogi es,real or hypothetical.
Let all this take place, and let certain classes he held
m ore honourable than others, cast becom es m ore decided.
The higher classes avoid, despise, abhor the lower.
L et the num ber of classes be great, and the degrees of
dignity will be num erous. There will be a highest and alowest.
All this is east, and of all this there is m ore in India
than in any other part of the world. There are ap
proaches to it, however, in m ost countries.
In m ost of the reports and m em oirs upon Hindostan,lists m ay be found of the casts of the several districts .
They are often long ones. They differ, too, from one
another. In m any cases they do this sim ply because the
languages are differen t. In essentials they agree . They
chiefly consist of the nam es of trades. There is the cast
of cultivators, gardeners, fishers, porters, sweepers, and
the like—som e high, som e low. The lists, however, are
long, and the casts are num erous.
The lists are long and the casts are num erous when we
CAST. 347
look at the realities of Indian life as it exists at the
present m om ent. A nd, except that in a ruder condition of
society, the division of em ploym ents was less, the lists of
the earliest historical period are long also .
Theoretically, however, the num ber of casts is four.
1 . There is the priestly cast, or that of the Brahm ins.
2. There is the warrior cast, or that of the K shetriyas.
3. There is the Vaisya class, or that of the m erchants ;and
4. There is the lowest class, or that of labourers—the
Sudra class.
The outcasts are of no class at all . The com m onest
nam e for these is Pariah .
The origin of these is given in an extract from the
Institutes of Menu, already laid before the reader.
I doubt, notwithstanding, whether this fourfold gene
rality was ever an historical fact.
I think that priests , soldiers, m erchants, and labourers
were Brahm ins, K shetriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras only inthe way that apes, lions, horses, and hogs are Quad
rum ana, Carnivora, Solidungula, and Pachyderm ata . In
ethnology, as in zoology, it is'
the species only which hasa tangible definite existence. The genus lies in the m indof the contem plator.In ethnology, however, as in zoology, the genus and
species m ay coincide . In India this is done by the classof Brahm ins. Whatever else a Brahm in m ay be, he is a
m em ber of a privileged order. Hence arises the obser
vation of one of the classical authorities on India to theeffect that India is the land, not of four
, but of one
superior, and m any subordinate, casts . To a certain ex
tent, the term s Rajput and K shetriya coincide. The
Vaisyas, however, are pure entia rationis .
TheMahratas are called Sudras. This can but m ean
348 CAsr.
that they are neither Brahm ins nor Rajputs ; at any rate ,no fact in history is m ore patent than their activity
,
courage, and success as soldiers.
The exten t to which the rules of cast press upon individuals can never be laid down in generals. The detailsof each case regulate it. The m ost stringent restraintscan be set aside by actual lawlessness . The P indarris ,
for instance, who were arm ed robbers,but at the sam e
tim e so num erous as to resem ble an arm y rather than a
banditti, found no difficulty in recruiting them selves fromall classes. The Sikhs, again ,
and the several m em bersof the casts which they left upon conversion, keep upboth dom estic and social arrangem ents, and m arry and are
given in m arriage with each other . The view on the part
of the Hindus of their neighbourhood (who, it should
be rem arked, are not of the strictest) is, that i t is a politi
cal confederation of which their converted brothers have
m ade them selves m em bers. O n the other hand, the cases
are num erous where the violation of the laws of cast are
unnaturally strict ; and that without defeating them
selves. They are so (for instance) in Nepal, as will be
seen when that country com es under notice. Cast, then,is easily lost or easily regained as circum stances dispose .
Upon the origin of so peculiar an institution m uch
speculation has been expended—som e, perhaps, wasted.
Many m aintain that,wherever it occurs, there has been
invasion and conquest. I f so, i t im plies the juxta
position of two hostile nations, and tells a tale of in
trusion, resistance, subjugation, slavery, contem pt. That
this is a possible, and not an im probable, m ode of develop
ing such an institution as cast is clear. Whether it be
the only one is doubtful . There is cast, in som e degree or
other, all over the world . Hereditary privileges are
cas t. Monopoly of em ploym ent, continued from father
350 ossa .
CHAPTER XXXVII .
Populations whose Languages are shin'
to the H indi .—Csshm 1r.
C A SHMIR is a basin rather than a valley ; the bottom of a
lake rather than the holm of a river.
The physical form of its occupants is that of the Paro
pam isans.
O n the side of Tibet, its fron tier is decided and defi
n ite ; by which I m ean that the whole of Cashm ir is
Cashm irian . No fragm ents of any earlier occupancyhave been discovered within its fron tier. O n the east, it
stands contrasted with the m ore purely Hindu countries
of K istewah, and the Sub-him alayas in general . The
difference, however, here is one of degree rather than
kind.
O n the west the details are obscure ; the exact extent
to which the parts interjacent to Cashm ir and Swaut
are Cashm irian, Afghan , or Dard being unknown .
The language is quite as m uch P aropam isan as Hindi .
This,however
, is the language of com m on life rather
than the language of literature and polite society. The
literary language is Persian . A s far, however, as the
Cashm irian is written, it is written in a character derived
from the Devanagari .Word for word, Cashm ir is believed (and that on
reasonable grounds) to be Caspatyrus, or Caspapyrus.
S o that the notices of the country are early.
Cashm irians beyond the lim its of Cashm ir are num e
rous, for the population is industrial and com m ercial .
CASHMIR. 35 1
They are also num erous in Tibet,where in tercourse and
interm arriage between the two populations are by no
m eans uncom m on .
In the way of politics, Cashm ir is Sikh, having beenso since 1831 ; in creed, however, it is Mahom etan, theMahom etanism being m ixed . To a certain extent, i t is,like that of Persia
,Shiite. To a certain extent
,i t is
,like
that of Afghanistan, Sunnite, for between the break-upof the Mogul and the rise of the Sikh power, Cashm ir
was a portion of the Durani dom inion . That m any of
the converts have been forcibly m ade is stated by good
authorities, and the fact seem s likely. It is certain that,at the beginning of its history, Cashm irwas one of the
strongholds of Brahm in ism ; at the sam e tim e the reign of
the first Mahom etan king belongs to the fourteenth cen
tury . H is descendan ts and successors reign till (about)the end of the sixteen th cen tury ; when Cashm ir, ceasing
to be independent under kings of its own, becom es one of
the subahs of the Mogul em pire. A s such, it is the least
part of itself. Pukhli and Bajowr belong to it. S o does
Swaut. S o do Caubul and Z abulistan . I m ention this
to show that, even in the way o f politics, its connectionshave run westwards.
D escription of Cashm ir by A bulfazel .
The whole of the cubah represents a garden in perpetual spring, andthe fortifications with which N ature has furnished it are of an astonishing
height, so that the grand and rom antic appearance cannot fail of delighting those who are fond of variety, as well as they who take pleasure inretirem ent. The water is rem arkably good, and the cataracts are en
chantingly m agnificent. It rains and snows here at the sam e seasons as
in Tartary and Persia ; and during the periodical rains in H indostan, herealso fall light showers. The soil is partly m arshy, and the rest wellwatered by rivers and lakes. V iolets, roses, narcissuses, and innum erableother flowers, grow wild here. The spring and autum n display scenes delightfully astonishing. The houses, which are built of wood, are of four
stories, and som e higher, and they are entirely open, without any court
yard. The roofs of the houses are planted with tulips, which produce a
352 casmum .
wonderful effect in the spring . In the lower apartm ents are kept thecattle and lum ber ; the fam ily live in the second story ; and the third and
fourth stories are used for warehouses. Earthquakes are very frequenthere, on which account they do not build their houses of brick or stone,but of wood, with which the country abounds. H ere are, however, m anyancient idolatrous tem ples, built of brick and stone, som e of which are in
perfect preservation, and others in ruins. H ere are various woollen m anu
factures, particularly of shawls, which are carried to all parts of the globe.A lthough Cashm ir is populous and m oney scarce, yet a thief or a beggaris scarcely known am ongst them . Excepting cherries and m ulberries,they have plenty of excellent fruits, especially m elons, apples, peaches.and apricots ; grapes, although in abundance, are of few kinds, and thoseindifferent. In general they let the vines twist round the trunks of them ulberry trees. The m ulberry trees are cultivated chiefly on account of
the leaves for the silkworm s, little of the fruit being eaten. The silkworm s’ eggs are brought from Kelut and Little Tibet, but those of thefirstplace are best. The inhabitants chichy live upon rice, fish, fresh and dried,and vegetables, and they drink wine. They boil the rice over night, and
set it by for use for the next day. They dry vegetables, to serve in thewinter. They have rice in plenty, but not rem arkably fine. Their wheat,which is black and sm all, is scarce, and m awng, barley, and nakhud are
produced, but in sm all quantity. They have a species of sheep, whichthey call Hundoo, resem bling those of Persia, the flesh of which is ex
ceedingly delicious and wholesom e. The inhabitants wear chiefly woollenclothes, an upper garm ent of which will last several years. Their horses
are sm all, but hardy and sure footed, and they are very cheap. Theybreed neitherelephantsnorcam els. Theircowsareblack andugly, butyieldplenty of m ilk, of which is m adegood butter. Every town in this soebah hasas m anyhandicraftsm en as are found in the large cities of othercountries.They have no fairs, all their goods being sold at regular shops. In their
cities and towns there are neither snakes, scorpions, norother venom ousreptiles Here is a m ountain calledMahades, and every place from whenceit can be seen is free from snakes, but the country in general aboundswithflies, gusts, bugs, and lice. Sparrows are very scarce, on account of the
general use of pellet bows. The inhabitants goupon the lakes in sm all
boats to enjoy the diversion of hawking. They have partridges ; the elkis also found here, and they train leopards to hunt them . Most of thetrade of this country is carried on by water, but m en also transport greatburdens upon their shoulders. W aterm an and carpenters are professionsin great repute here. Here dwell a great num ber of Brahm ins.
Cashm ir is the only portion of H indostan of which there
is a native history. When Akbar led his victorious
standards into the region of perpetual spring, the natives
presented him with a book called Raj Tutungi , written
354 CASHMIR.
captains are m ost particularly in the habit of retreatingwhen defeated. O f external enem ies the m ost form idable are the Turks, by whom invasion after invasion is
effected ; the way lying over the Baram ula pass. O f
internal m ovem en ts the chief are m ade by the Chuk,Reigns , and Magrey—nam es which I give as the nam es
of either actual tribes or of som ething m ore or less tribual .
The Chuks are probably, word for word, the Gukkers.
Mahom etanism was introduced as early as A .D . 134-1 .
I t took root, however, but slowly and im perfectly, untilthe end of the century, when Ali, a Syud, who had in
curred the anger of Tim ur, fled from his native city of
Ham adan (A .D . and, attended, i t is said, by 700
others, settled in Cashm ir. H is son , a fugitive also,introduced 300 m ore. And now the zeal for m akingproselytes burned bright and hot, and shrines m ultiplied,and persecution set-in . The Hindutem ples were either
burnt or thrown down . The Hindudevotees were forced
to abjure their religion . Industry, however, was en
couraged, and Cashm ir becam e, under its independen t
princes, what Abulfazel described it. The Rishis, a set
of Mahom etan ascetics, num bered, in the reign of Akbar,about 2000. They have since either sim ply decreased, or
becom e wholly extinct. S o m uch for the tim es described
by the last three authors of the chronicles of Cashm ir.
The work of Calhana m ay or m ay not be trustworthy
for the tim es im m ediately preceding those of the author.
The m ass o f his statem ents is fabulous.
Most of the kings bear Indian nam es. Som e, however,
are specially stated to be Turks ; whilst, in one o f the
very oldest and m ost decidedly fabulous dynasties, the
title of each and all of the kings is the Turk adjunct,khan. O ne of these Turanian kings introduced Buddhism .
Eventually, however, Brahm inism prevailed.
casmum . 355
Older, however, than either of the great Hinducreeds,was the worship of N agas or snake Gods. Abulfazel
relates that he found carvings of snakes in seven hundred
places—these being objects of respect.Whether, writes Wilson , the Cashm irian worship
of snakes was m ystical, at least in the earliest ages, m ay
be questioned. There is likewise reason to suppose that
this worship was diffused throughout the whole of India,as besides the num erous fables and traditions relating to
the N agas, or snake gods, scattered through the Puranas,vestiges of it still rem ain in the actual Observances of
the Hindus. It seem s not im probable that the destruction
of the whole serpent race by Janam éjaya, the son of Pa
ricshit, recorded in the Puranas as a historical fact, m ay
in reality im ply the subversion of the local and original
superstition , and the erection of the system of the Vedas
upon its ruins. The cultus itself was old. A strange
passage in Strabo tells, that Abisarus fed two serpents
one of which was 80, the other 140 cubits
long.
” Again,Tax iles showed Alexander an enorm ous
snake, which he reverenced as the sym bol of Dionysus.
These notices (from Wilson) are not given for nothing .
Like so m any other phenom ena,they point westwards.
Stories connected with snakes appear twice in Gardiner’s
account of the K afirs . S tories connected with snakes
appear m ore than once in the m ythology of Persia :
prom inent am ongst which is that of Iblis and Z ohauk
Iblis tem pts Z ohauk, a youth who, until the tim e of his
tem ptation, is well disposed and virtuous, to the com m it
tal of gross crim es, and to the indulgence of an epicurean
sensuality. Taste after taste is gratified. Every daysom ething newer and m ore delicate than the luxuries of
the day before appears at table and that with the prom isethat to-m orrow there shall be som ething m ore delicious
A A 2
356 cssnm m .
still . Pam pered and corrupted, Z ohauk now asks Iblis
how he can show his gratitude. By allowing m e to
kiss your naked shoulder. S o Zohauk stripped , and
Iblis kissed, and from the spot between the shoulder
blades, which be touched with his venom ous and deceptive
m outh, sprang two black snakes. Som e tim e after this
happened, Iblis, in the garb of a physician , visited Z ohauk,
and prescribed as the only m eans of preventing him from
being gnawed in to nothing by the serpents, a daily m eal
of hum an brains. S o Z ohauk fed the snakes ; even as
did Tax iles.
Now Z ohauk was a usurper, the true king beingJam shid, for som e tim e a fugitive in Zabulistan ; for som e
tim e a wanderer in Caubul—in both places a drinker of
wine.
O f Jam shid’s fam ily is the fam ous cham pion Rustam ,
who fights against (inter alias) the great Turanian cham
pion A frasiab, in Caubul, in S egistan, in Z abulistan and
elsewhere.
There is nothing new in the notice of these num erous
fictions. It is well known that they constitute the basis
of the great poem of Firdausi—the Shah Nam eh ;wherein the stories of Jam shid, Feridun , Kavah the
blacksm ith, Zohrab, and others form a cycle. There is
nothing new in the notice of them . There is no reason
for m entioning them on their own accoun t. The fact
that claim s attention is that of their localization in the
P aropam isus—on the P aropam isus itself and on each side
of it, in Cashm iras well as in Afghanistan, in Afghanistan
as well as in Cashm ir.
In both countries Jam shid is a real nam e . It was borne
by one of the kings of Cashm ir. It is hom e, at the
present tim e,by one of the tribes of the H azarehs, or
Afghans. Suhauk, too (word for word Z ohauk), is the
cssnm u. 359
Shine Arm ys .
Wood
R ight hand duchinRed
Behind
S tra it
That the Khajunah is the least Indian of the P aropa
m isan form s of speech has already been stated .
360 THE SIKHS , ETC .
CHAPTER XXXVIII .
Populations whose language is akin to the H indL—The Rajput and Jetdivision—The Sikhs.
THE second division is, in the way of creed, Sikh,Hindu, and Mahom etan .
In the way of cast, its noblest tribes are K shetriya
rather than either Brahm inic or Sudra ; though, of course,in the Sikh and Mahom etan districts, the spirit of cast
is abated .
The chief form of speech is the Hindi, of which the
dialects are num erous—the Hindi , rather than the Bengali, Uriya, or Marathi .Its area is bounded by Cashm ir, Afghanistan ,
Biluchis
tan , the Ocean , and the V indya m ountains—there orthereabouts. In the north
,it approaches the Him alayas,
in the east and north-east the Jum na—som etim es touchingit. In the east its boundaries are obscure. They lie
beyond the Chum bul, beyond the Sind, and, in som e
cases, beyond the Betws .
This contains
1 . The valley of the Indus.
2 . The Desert.3. The hilly districts of the Aravulli range, and the
drainage of the south-western feeders of the Jum na.
4. The drainage of the rivers that fall into the gulfsof Kutch and Cam bay.5 . The Peninsula of Gujerat.
36 2 THE sums, ETC .
of Alexander, have been found on the eastern side of the
Indus -though less abundantly than in the valley of the
Caubul river.
Word for word,Multan is supposed to be the country
of theMalli .
In the way of physical geography , the Punjab falls
into the hill-country, and the low-country. The hill
country (the details of which are im perfectly known)belongs to the rem nan t of the Great Sikh Em pire, rather
than to Britain . It was left to Gulab Singh .
O n the southern frontier of Cashm ir lie what were once
the petty independencies of P rlinch, Bajour, & c now
parts of Gulab Singh’s dom inion . They are Mahom etan
rather than either Hindu or Sikh . The rajahship of
Jum m a, the original territory of Gulab Singh, is Sikh.
The parts m arked in the m ap as the coun try of
The Bum bas is but little known . I cannot say in
what respect the Bum bas di ffer from an other population
with whom ,both geographically and ethnologi cally, they
are connected, viz . ,
The Kuhkars.—W ord for word, this is Canker ; and it
is a nam e which occurs frequently in the Mahom etan
historians. It seem s to be the general nam e for the m oun
taineers of the Salt range, and the ranges to the north.
That occupants of districts like these are hard to conquer,is what we expect apriori. W e find that it was their
habit to harass the arm ies of m ost of the invaders from
the west. The Kukkars and Bum bas form a natural di
vision of the Punjab population . 8 0 do the inhabitants
o f the level country.
Essentially these are (Jits) Juts—i . e. they are Jut in
blood,language, an d physical form though not, wholly,
Juts ea nom ine. They are Sikhs rather thanMahom etans ;
THE sums, are. 363
but, before they becam e Sikh, they were Jut in every
sense of the word.
The Sikh sect cam e into existence in the latter half of
the fifteenth century, its founder, Nanak Shah, having
been born in the district of Lahore, 146 9 . H e was
both the founder of a sect him self, and the father of a
founder, inasm uch as one of his two sons, Dherm Chand,took to asceticism and originated the sect nam ed, at first,Udasi but afterwards (and now) Nanak Putrah, or sons
of Nanak . It is one of the existing Sikh sects. Nanak
was a devotee, a philosopher, and a writer. The first of
the Sikh scriptures, the Adi Grun t’h, was com posed by
him . H e saw with equal pain the bigotry of the Maho
m etan , and the superstition of the Hindu. H e wished to
replace both by a pure and chari table m onotheism . Yet
his m eans were conciliatory . H e dealt tenderly with ah
surdities of both belief and practice. H e was a m an of
peace rather than war.
GuruAngaa succeeds him him self succeeded by
(3) Am era Das, succeeded, in his turn, by (4) Ram Das ;
who leaves his authority to
Arjunm al, who, adding to the chapters of the
original Adi Grunt’h, puts the whole into form , and givesshape and consistency to what is now a definite and im
portan t creed—the creed of a sect which up to this tim e
has com ported itself quietly, m ildly, inofi'
ensively. But
Arjunm al is m urdered by the Mahom etans ; and
E ar Govind succeeds him . But not as the head
of a peaceable population . The anger of the Sikhs is
awakened, and a long series of hostilities, destined, in the
end, to overthrow all theMahom etanism of the Punjab,now com m ences. Every Sikh now wears steel. Every
Sikh is a zealot, and a soldier. H er Govind,priest m i
litant and prophet captain, wears two swords, the one to
36 4 m e sums, arc.
revenge the death of his father, the other to destroy the
m iracles of Mahom et.” H e has converted a race of
peaceable enthusiasts into an arm y of fiery soldiers. In
16 44 his grandson
(7 H ar Ray succeeds him ; succeeded by
Bar Crishn , succeeded by
TeghBehadur—These are the dayswhen Aurungzebis em peror ; no good days for any new sect ; least of all
for one that has set itself against the Koran . The Sikhpower is broken—partly by the strong hand of the em
peror, partly by internal dissensions. In the days of
Aurungzeb and Tegh Behadur, m iracles are wrought by
the Sikh gurus or priests, especially by H ar Crishn , and
Ram Ray. Tegh Behadur him self is m urdered : even as
A rjunm al was m urdered. Like causes, like effects. Out of
the blood of Arjunm al rose the awakened spirit of the
Sikhs, under H ar Govind. Out of the blood of Tegh
Behadur rises the power of his son ,Guru Govind—When his father died he was a
stripling ; but be devoted him self to revenge. Like the
Pindari and Mahratta chieftains, GuruGovind opened
the ranks of his arm y and the gates of his faith to all
com ers. Nanak wished to abolish cast, and taught that
before God all m en were equal. It was a saying of Guru
G ovind’
s, that the four tribes of Hindus, the Brahm ins,the K shetriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Sudras, would, like
lim e, betel-nut, betel-leaf, and catechu, becom e all of one
colour when chewed. The nam e Sikh he changed into
Singh (Lion) , a nam e first assum ed by the Rajputs. H e
required that every m an should bear arm s, should wear
a blue dress, should let his hair grow, and should use,as a part of his salutations, Glory to the Guru(spiritual
leader). The Grunt’h , or book of the scriptures, was to
be his law, his duty obedience to his chief, his pleasure
36 6 THE SIKHS , ETC .
retaining, as Sikhs, the distinctive appellations as Maho
m etans. Two of these are founded on their pedigree ,two on their country
Syud Singh Mogul Singh
Sheikh Singh Patan Singh .
The latter part of G ovind’
s life is obscure. H e w as
the last ruler of the Sikhs who was, at one and the sam e
tim e,a religious chief, and universally acknowledged to
be such . The num ber ten was fated, and Govind was
the ninth from Nanak . H e was the last head of a united
S ikhdom . H is friend, however, and follower, Bands ,availed him self of the confusion which set-in after the
death of Aurungzeb, plundered the country, and defeated
som e of the m inor Mahom etan chiefs,especially Foujdar
Khan , governor of Sirhind,and m urderer of the in fant
children of Govind. Quarter was neither asked nor
given . The wife and children of the m urderer were
slaughtered. There was an indiscrim inate m assacre in
Sirhind there was the sam e, or sadder, bloodshed, when
the province of Saharanpur was invaded. The buried
dead are said to have been disin terred ; the unburied
were m utilated and exposed to wild beasts.
The power as well as the tem per of these savage sec
tarians has becom e form idable ; but it is broken . The
following notice of the death of Banda and his followers
is from a Mahom etan , and an enem y . They not only
behaved firm ly during the execution, but would dispute
and wrangle with each other, who should suffer first.
Bands was at last produced, his son being seated on his
lap. H is father was ordered to cut his throat,which he
did without uttering one word. Being then broughtnearer to the m agistrate’
s tribunal, the latter ordered his
flesh to be torn off with red-hot pincers, and i t was in
THE sums, ETC . 36 7
those m om ents he expired ; his black soul taking its
flight by one of those wounds, towards the regions forwhich it was so well fitted .
” A proof that Bands , with
all his authority and bravery, was no true religious chief
to the whole Sikh sect is found in the fact of som e
writers having considered him a heretic. H e departed
from m ore than one of the institutions of Nanak,and he
put to death som e of G ovind’
s m ost devoted followers for
nbt doing as he did .
The extirpation of the Sikhs is now attem pted . The
rem nant flies to the hills. Y et, thirty years afterwards,
when Nadir Shah invades India, we find them descending
upon the plains.
In 1805 , the country, according to Sir T . Malcolm,
who , being with the arm y under Lord Lake,describes
what he saw and heard, was weak, distracted, disunited .
There were different districts, and differen t chieftaincies
in the country between the Bees and Ravi . Kunyi t
Sinh of Lahore, Futteb Sinh of Aliwal, and Jud’
h Sinh
of Ram gadia, are the principal chiefs.
”
How fam iliar are, at least, two of the nam es, now !
The consolidation of the Sikh power under Runji t Singh,and its subsequent overthrow, are events that have takenplace before our eyes.
The Punjab is a district wherein the traces of either
anything Tam ul from the south , or anything Bhot fromthe north, are at a m inimum . W e cannot
,indeed, say that
they exist at all. A t the sam e tim e, we cannot say that
they do not.
O f recent intrusion there has been abundance. The
exten t to which the valley of the m ain stream of the
Indus, is m ore or less, Afghan and Biluch has already
been noticed. Turk nam es (Hissar, &c.) of geographical
localities are num erous. Upon the whole,however
, the
36 8 THE sums, src.
Punjab has been a coun try to pass through rather than
to settle in .
Bahawalpur (Daudputra) .—This is one of the pre
em inen t Biluch districts of India,—whatever that wordm ay m ean the Biluch intrusion being recen t. The creed
is chiefly Mahom etan ,the older elem ents of the popula
tion Jut.
370 SIND .
cam el is the chief anim al of the Sind Juts, who live
together in large com m unities, som etim es with fix ed ,
som etim es with m ovable, dwellings. Som etim es they hire
them selves to the Biluch landowners as agricultural
labourers.
S indis to the west of S im h—A s far within the lim its o f
Mehran as H orm ara, on the K alam at creek,lives a sm all
tribe which believes that it cam e originally from Sind .
Whether this be true is uncertain . It is only certain
that considerably to the west of Cape Monze a Sindi
population is to be found.
The Med.—This is the nam e for the m aritim e and
fishing tribes for the eastern coast of Mekran . The Meds
fall into four divisions
The Gazbur The Jellar Z aiH orm ari Ghelm ar Z ai.
These m ay or m ay not be in the sam e category with
the K alam atti tribes.
The Num ri . —This nam e is som etim es spelt Lum ri . It
is that of the chief population of the sm all province of
Luz , one of the num erous dependencies of the Khanate
of Khelaut. The m inute detai ls of the Num ri group
differ. The m ost specific account, however, is the follow
m g.
Jam utri division
Shuru
Burah
Shukh
Warah
Mungayah
1600
The Arab Gudur tribe is, perhaps, other than Num ri
FightingMen.
m uster 6 00
200
300
100
100
sm n. 37 1
inasm uch as it professes to be, what its nam e suggests,A rabian in origin .
The Num ri is the chief population of Luz . But itis not confined to the province . The Jokias and Jukrias
of Sind differ from the Num ri in their political relations
on ly . The Num ri areMahom etans.
The Chuta.—O n the upper and m iddle part of the Hub
river,which falls into the sea at CapeMonze, lies a rugged
district occupied by the Chuta, whose origin is said to be
Sum rah, whose dress is Brahii i, whose m anners are pas
toral,whose houses are huts. They are, probably, in
the sam e category as the Num ri .
They bring us to Sind proper .
The history of Sind gives the following periods
( l . ) From the earliest tim es to theMahom etan conquest .—During this period the invasion of Alexander tookplace ; one of the results of which was the descent of the
Indus by N earchus . But, before this, Turanian occu
pancies had been effected, and Indoscythaa is the nam e
of one portion of the Sind population .
From the Mahom etan conquest to the end of the
G huznevid dynasty .—TheMahom etan conquest was one
of the conquests of the Kalifat. This m eans that theconquerors were Arabs rather than Persians or A fghans.
Under Mahm ud of G huzni the influence would be bothA fghan and Turk .
O f the Sum rah and Sum m a dynasties which succeeded,the latter, at least, appears to havebeen Hindu. A t the pre
sent tim e there are few or no K shetriyas in Sind ; consequently few or no Rajputs. The Sum m a chiefs, however,conquered Kutch . N ow, Kutch is, to a great extent
,
Rajput. More than this, som e of the Rajput fam ilies affecta Sum m a
, or Sind, origin . Jam , a Bhot word, was the titleof the Sum m as, who were overthrown by Shah Beg
B B 2
372 sm n .
Arzhun, prince of Candahar, 15 19 . Soon after
which Mirza Isa Tirkhan , a m ilitary adventurer, raised
his fam ily to power. The prince of Candahar seem s to
have been an Afghan ; Isa Tirkhan, a Turk. The next
were
The K aloras and Talpuraa—Long before 1736 the
power of the central Governm ent had been dim inished,and the protection of its distant States had becom e im
possible to the descendan ts of Akbar and Aurungzeb .
Meanwhile, the descendan ts of one Adam Shah, of the
Kalora tribe, who, in the fifteenth century, had im bibed
fanaticism from the teaching of a holy m an, Mian Maho
m ed Mikidy, had becom e powerful, both in religious
influence and in secular possessions. They had appro
priated lands belonging to others, an d had defended theirappropriations by the sword. They were a set of fighting,
form idable fakirs. In 1717 Mian Nur Mahom ed had
obtained from Mahom ed Shah the title of the Friend of
God, and the governm ent of S ewestan . By’
36 , he was,
to all intents and purposes, the ruler of Sind.By 176 8 the Kalora dynasty was overthrown by
the Talpurs.
In’
43the British replaced the Talpurs.
A t the present m om ent Sind is the least Indian partof India. The extent to which it has adm itted foreigninfluences has been suggested by the preceding sketch of
its history .
The Sindi form of speech falls into dialects and sub
dialects, each of which approaches the language of its
neighbourhood. Thus the Siraiki of Upper Sind con
tains num erous Jutki words ; whilst the Kutch dialect has
Gujerati elem ents ; and a third dialect, belonging to the
Thull, or Desert, and spoken as far as Jessulm ir, has
borrowed from , or given to, the Marwar. It is the lan
374 S IND .
Kutch . TheMeyanna, however, of theMeyanné district
in Kutch, are robbers by profession, and but half Ma
hom etans in creed. A section of them called Munkaneglects circum cision . When aMunka dies a bundle o f
burning grass is laid on his face previous to interm ent.
A rabfam ilies.—Synds, or descendan ts of the Prophet,
Kurayshi , or descendants of the ancient Koreish , A lawi
and Abbasi, descendan ts of Ali and Abbas, are all to
be found in Sind.Mem an.
—The Mem ana, num erous about Hyderabad,Sehwan, and Kurraché, are industrious, well inform ed,and sharp bargainers. I do not know their special cha
racteristics, or whence they get their nam e. They are
Mahom etans.
The Khwaj a.—The Khwajo are heretics, holding the
Ism aelite creed. They am oun t to som e 300 fam ilies,and are believed to be of Persian origin .
The S idi .—Under the Am irs there was a considerable
im portation of slaves from the eastern coast of Africa.
The trade has now either ceased or decreased . The full
blood African is called Sidi ; the half-blood, Gaddo ; the
Quadroon , G am brari .
The Khosa fall in to two divisions. The first con
tains those of Upper Sind, who are peaceable cultivators .
The second is represented by a body of robbers, who ,within the presen t cen tury, left Sind, and betook themselves to the Desert, where they joined the Sodha in theirforays, being num erous, bold, and well m ounted.Sind leads toKutch.
-O f actual Juts, ao nom ine, Kutch contains fewor none. Their analogues, however, and perhaps their congenets, areThe Katti . —A Katti is a herdsm an, occupant of the
districts of P awur, Puchur, and Parkur, or the parts on
KUTCH . 5
the north, rather than the south of Kutch, resem bling in
dress, habits, and dialect,The Ahir, with whom , however, he does not inter
m arry .
The Rehberi. -Neither the Ahir nor the Rehberi , stillless the Katti, refuse to eat with Mahom etans. Their
widows are free to form second m arriages.
The Rajputs are either Jareyas or W aghelas . The
W aghelaRajputs, or theRajputs of the district ofWagur
(the m ost eastern part of Kutch) , are few in num bers,and unim portant in respect to their influence. A few
fam ilies represent their original power ; for powerful they
were before the rise of the Jareyas. They resem ble the
Rajputs of Gujerat, except that they are som ewhat lessscrupulous. This is what we expect from their neighbourhood and relations ; for the leading Rajputs of
Kutch, the Jareyas, are half Mahom etan . They eat
food cooked by Mahom etans, and swear by Allah .
Som e, indeed, are stricter, and adhere to the cultus of
Vishnu. The general character, however, of the Jareya
Hinduism is lax . The m ore a Jereya venerates Vishnuthe m ore he abstains from spiri ts and indulges in opium .
The nearer he approaches the Mahom etan the less hetakes of opium , and the m ore of spirits. The two vicesseem to stand in an inverse ratio to each other. In both
of them few ; in one alm ost all, indulge. Every villagehas its still, som etim es applied to sugar, som etim es to
dates, som etim es to carrots . The Jareya wakes to drinkand drinks to sleep . H is bard, a m usician (bhat orlunga), am uses him during the waking intervals with song
or story . H is wives intrigue. It is in vain that, after
the strictest fashion of the Mahom etans, they are se
cluded. They in trigue with high and low . They in
trigue and do worse . In no part of India is fem ale
376 sures .
infanticide m ore general than in the Jareya districts.
S om etim es it is effected by m eans of opium , som etim es
by drowning the infant in m ilk, som etim es by sm othering.
The father hears that his wife has been delivered, andthat the child is in heaven . S o he bathes and asks no
questions. Should the m other hesitate or delay, be de
clares his resolution not to enter her house as long as the
child lives.In respect to fem ale infanticide but too m any of the
Mahom etans act after the m anner of the Rajputs ; with
whom they agree in blood, and differ only in creed .
To the north of the W aghela district lies Parhur, an
oasis, and, in cases of attack, a place of refuge. Its one
poor town,and its twenty poor villages, represen t the
power, such as it is, of the Sodha Rajputs, or the Rajputs of the Desert, between Kutch, Sind, and Jessulm ir.
Less Hindu than even the Jareya, the S odhas are dis
tinguished by their creed only from the Mahom etans
of their area and neighbourhood. They are herdsm en,
poor and unlettered . They interm arry with the Rajputs
around them ,but not with each other. A nd they give
their daughters,who are rem arkable for their beauty, to
the Mahom etans. In doing this, they show them selves
in a strong contrast to the Jareyas , with whom the birth
of a girl child is not only a m isfortune, but the cause of a
crim e. The Sodha practice, on the other hand, like that
of the Circassians, m akes capital out of the fem ale part
of the fam ily . The Rajput father sells. The Maho
m etan husband buys.
A Sodha gives his daughter or sister one day in m ar
riage, and has no sam ple, the next, in driving-ofi'
the
cattle of his bridegroom .
The Chawrah.-The geographical nam es Kurrir, Khori,
and Kawra, appear in the parts to the north of Kutch ,
378 eum nar.
Four are Rajpfit, viz . Thurad (cum Morwara), W ao,
S oeghaum , Deodur, and Suntulptir (cum Charchut) .
Two are Kol, or K li li—Bhabhur and Kankruj .In the north-eastern parts of P ahlunpfir the language
approaches the Marwari . Again—though the largerportion of the area is Mahom etan in respect to its
dynas ties, the decided m ajority of the population is
Hindu; the Gujerati, rather than the Hindostani,being
the language of even theMahom etan m inority. In Sun
tulpur there is a Ahir population . Terwara and Deodar,though Rajput in the way of politics, are as thoroughly
Kuli as Bhabhur and K ankruj . The Kols affect a
Rajput origin , and explain their loss of cast by the fact
o f their ancestors having m ade m arriages of disparage
m en t. The Kols, too, where they com e in contact with
the Bhils, look upon them selves as the superior people.
In P ahlunptir the Mahom etans are from either som e
other part or from Afghanistan, the ruling fam ily itselfbeing Patan . O f the other two divisions—the Sheiks andSynds—the form er call them selves after the nam e of the
country from which they cam e, and are Behari, Nagori,
or MundoriMussulm auns, according as they cam e from
Behar, Nagore, or Mundore. Others, of Rajput origin ,are Purm as, Chowras, and Rahtors. The Boraks speak
Arabic. The Mehm ans are descended from the Sind
Lohanas.
Am ongst the H indus the Brahm ins are
Owdich Brahm ins 3. Meywara Brahm ins2 . Suhusra O wdich 4 . O m ewul Brahm ins
5 . Sirm ali Brahm ins.
To which add certain half-bloods, who have lost cast bym arriages of disparagem en t.
The K shatryas are either Rajputs or Banians .
The Rajputs are
eum nar. 379
Deora.
The Banians are
Visa Sirm ali 4. Bussa Sirm ali
2 . U swal 5 . Pancha
3. Pirwal 6 . W ussawul Nagra7 . Dussawul Nagra.
O i the Sudras, the m ost im portant class is that of theKfim hi, or cultivators, who fall in to the Leora, the A r
juna, and the Kurwa divisions.
That the Kuli affect a Rajput origin has already beenstated. Hence they take Rajput patronym ics, and are
Rathor K li li 4. S onghurra Chowan
2 . W aghela Kfili 5 . Dabi K lili
3. S olunkhi Kiili 6 . Mukwena Khli .
These detai ls m ay serve as a sam ple of the com plexities
o f Indian ethnology—in the parts under notice m ore complex than usual . S ind, Gujerathi, Bhil, Kuli, Rajput,and Mahom etan populations, m eet in the parts betweenMarwar and K attiwar ; Kattiwar being the nam e for the
country of the Katti, the peninsular portion of Gujerat .For this, the newer occupants are Rajputs, the older
Ahirs, Katti, and Babrias, i . e. what we have observed inKutch repeats i tself here. In Jbalawar the Rajputs are
of the Jhala branch . They either take their nam e from
or give it to, the district. In H allar they are Jareyas,guilty here, as elsewhere, of fem ale infanticide. The
Rajah of Purbunda in S oruth is a Jetwa Rajput.
G ohilwar is the occupancy of the G ohillas, whose nam e
is conspicuous in the history of Marwar. When the
380 GUJERAT .
Rahtors from Canuj invaded Marwar,they found the
G ohillas in the land, and ejected them from it. The
result was the settlem ent in G ohilwar. This m ay be a
true history, or it m ay m erely be a hypothesis founded
upon the appearance of the nam e in two places.
In m ost, perhaps in all , of the districts of the pen insula
there are Katti . Their chief locality, however, is, as the
nam e suggests, the central district of
K attiwar proper.—The Katti of K attiwar proper con
sider them selves to be descended from Khat, who was
produced by Kurrun . Kurrun struck his rod on the
ground, and out cam e Khat. The function of Khat was
to steal certain cattle from Berat or Dholka. H e after
wards m arried the daughter of a nAhir in the district of
F owar, between Sind and Kutch. H e had eight sons.
H is descendants seek their fortune and join the Charun
who are doing the sam e . They reach the town of Dhauk,
the chief of which was Walla Rajput, who m arries one
of their wom en, and becom es a Katti . From Walla com e
the S hakayut, or chief nobles ; the other division con
sisting of the Urtis (Ourteea) or interiors. The Katti
then wen t to Kutch, m oving thence under a leader who
saw the sun and took advice from it, in a dream . They,then, cam e into their present occupancy which was (till
then) held by Ahirs and Babrias. They expelled
The Babrias, who still give their nam e to Babriawar,a district on the sea-coas t, south of K attiwar proper, in
which they are the chief inhabitants ; poor, rude, pre
datory ; less predatory now, however, than they have
been . The Babrias are said to be the offspri ng of an Ahir
with a Kuli wom an . They in term arry with the Ahirs.
The S idi of Muzuferabad, or Jafarabad.—Muzuferabad
is the fort of Babriawar. The governor is always a S idi ,i . e. an African in blood, and a slave in origin . The details
GUJERAT.
m etan elem ents . Som e of the districts belong to theCom pany, som e to the Guikowar, som e to S india’
s terri
tory. Som e are independent . Som e are m ere villagechieftaincies.
The parts between the Nerbudda and Tapti are Bhil ;Bhil and Rajput, but not without Mahom etan elem ents .
Rajpipla, to the north-east of Surat, is, pre-em inently,a Bhil area. S o are the m ore im practicable districts of
the collectorate of Surat, or the parts between the Tapti
and the Dam aun Gunga ; in which, however, we pass (as
already stated) from the Gujerathi to the Maratta area.
As a rule, K andeish is Bhil, so that its details will be
given when that population com es under notice.
THE RAJPUTS . 383
CHAPTER XI
Populations speaking either H indi or a language to it.—The
put and Jut divisions—Rajputana, a warra, orBaiasthan.
Ton, who takes the Rajput districts as he found them
when he wrote, gives the following boundaries,1 . To the north—the sandy desert beyond Bikanir.
2 . To the south—the Nerbudda.
3. To the west—theMahom etan di stricts on the Indus.
4. To the east—the river Sind, a feeder, from the
south of the Ganges.
This gives us Bikanir, Jessulm ir, Marwar, Mewar,Ajm ir, Jeypfir, Blindi, Kotah, and Malwa, and other
districts of less im portance ; altogether a very considerableportion of India.
It also leads us to ask the im port of the word Rajput inits stricter sense. In any other country but a country of
casts, like India, Rajputana would be a land of tribes ;one or m ore of which possessed (or claim ed) a superiority
over the others. In India it is this, with the phenom ena
of cas t superadded.
The highest tribual di vision seem s to be a hula, word
for word, the Afghan kheil. A hula contains so m anysachas ; a cache so m any gotras. The races are thirty-six
in num ber, som e being of solar, som e o f lunar, descent .
The Rajputs of Mewar, as they exist at the present
384 THE aururs.
m om en t, are Rajputs of the S isodia division ; S isodia
being the nam e of a cache . The hula to which it belongs
is the G ehlot, or G rahilot—Suryavansi (Solar or Sunbom ) in blood, and attached to the Lord of Chitor.
S illaditya, the last prince of Gujni, leaves a posthum ous
son nam ed G rahaditya, whence G rahilot, or G ehlot. In
the sixth century this nam e is replaced by Ahar ; the
Aharya dynas ty ruling in Chitor. Chi tor, however,they leave in the twelfth cen tury, under two brothers,Rahup andMahup. Rahup settles in D ongurpur, where,at the present m om ent, his descendants, the Aharya
Rajputs, are to be found. Meanwhile, Mahup fix es
him self in S isodia. All this seem s to be m ere logography .
What, however, are the real facts Out of the twenty
four sachas in to which the G ehlot hula is divided, eight
are“alm ost extinct,
”eleven are
“sm all and obscure.
”
In D ongurpur there are som e Aharyas ; in the Desert
som eMangulias ; in Marwar som e P iparras ; in Mewar
the proud and powerful S isodias . The following legend
shows how m ythologies degenerate. Colonel Tod, our
authority, is speaking of a part of Mewar.
In these wilds an ancient Rana of Cheetore had sat down to a gate
(feast), consisting of the gam e slain’
1n the chase and being very hungryhe hastily swallowed a piece of m eat to which a gad-fly adhered The
fly grievously torm ented the Rana’
s stom ach, and he sent for a physician.
The wise m an (held) secretly ordered an attendant to cut of the tip of a
cow’s car, as the only m eans of saving the m onarch’
s life. On obtainingthis forbidden m orsel, the bed folded it in a piece of thin cloth, and
attaching a string to it, m ade the royal patient swallow it. The gad-fly
fastened on the bait, and was dragged to light. The physician was re
warded but the curious Rana insisted on knowing by what m eans the
cure was effected and when he heard that a piece of sacred kine hadpassed his lips,be determ ined to expiate the enorm ity in a m annerwhichits heinousness required, and to swallow boiling lead (seesa) ! A vessel
was put on the fire, and the m etal soon m elted ; when, praying thathis involuntary offence m ight be forgiven,
he boldly drank it off ; but 10 1it passed through him like water. From that day the nam e of the tribewas changed from Aharya to Seesodia.
38 6 THE RAJPU'l‘
S .
or false. There is a hula called Hun,of which all we know
is that Hun is what it is called.
There is a hula called Jit. This, however, is neither
m ore nor less than the denom ination of that widelyspread group of tribes which has already been noticed.
Nearest to Sind and the Punjab liesJessulm fr, a true Rajput district, the Rajputs being of
the Bhat section . The cultivators,however, are, as is
expected, Jut.
B ikanir, Jut and Rajput, differs from Jessulm ir
chiefly in the real or supposed origin of its nobles, the
Rajputs of Bikan ir being Rahtors from Marwar, who
entered the country under a chief nam ed Bika ; whence
the nam e Bikanir.
Bhutnair, on the northern frontier of Bikanir,is
,pro
bably, one of the m ore especially Turanian parts o f
India. It lies on the road from the Indus to the G anges,and, as such , is likely to have been im portant in the
eyes of the invaders. A little to the east stands Hissar,Turk in nam e. The opponent of the earlier Rajputs
was Chugti (Tshagatai) Khan .
In the notices of the wars of the Jessulm ir frontier
the nam e Barahi continually occurs. Word for word,this is Brahul .
The P okurna Brahm ins of these parts are of suspicious
purity . The bridegroom buys his bride, Turk fashion .
'
I he horse has am ongst the P okurnas undue and nu
Indian im portance. The bridle is an object of real or
feigned respect. S o is a pickaxe ; for the P okurna Brah
m ins are said to have earned their rank by digging the
great P okurna reservoir.Marwar.
—From Bikanir Bhutnair— from Marwar
Bikan ir—this is the order of invasion . Bika was a
E shtor Rajput of Marwar . Like all the countries
THE RAJPUTS . 38 7
already m entioned, Marwar is, m ore or less, Jut. But
this i t m ay be without being other than Hindu. It is,however, som ething m ore than Jut. It is Maruwfir,
Martisthan,or Marudesa—not the country of Death (as
has been argued), but the country of theMairs.
In the thirteenth century, i. e. 1212, eighteen
years after leaving Cam ij (m ark the m ultiples of six ),
S eoj i and S aitram , Rahtor Rajputs, invaded the coun try
of the G ohillas and other Hindupopulations, occupants
of the valley of the L tiny ; occupants, too, of the western
skirts of the Aravulli, but not occupants of the range
itself. There were Brahm ins am ongst them , e. g . the
Falls Brahm ins, who invoked the aid of the strangers
against certain Mair tribes of the contiguous hills. The
help was given . Land was appropriated . The original
Brahm ins were m ade uncom fortable in a land once their
own . O thers,too
,besides them ,
got oppressed and
ejected ; so that, in the course of tim e, the district o f
Marwar becam e Rajput. Mundore first, and afterwards
Jodpur, were founded as capitals.
The m ost num erous of the inhabitants of Marwar are
the Juts . Colonel Tod considered that they form edabout five-eighths of the population
, the Rajputs form
ing two-eighths. The chief Brahm ins are of the S an
chora class.
Am ber or Jeipun—Mewar,like Marwar, is Jut and Raj
put. Mewar,like Marwar, is, m ore or less, other than
Hindu. The Minas are to Mewar as the Mairs are to
Marwar.
Beyond the Chum bul, the pure Rajput character is
less prom inent. Beyond the Chum bul, there has been
contact with either the Gonds or a population akin to
them . There has , also , been the Brahm inism of the north
bank of the Ganges. There has,also
,been the subse
c c 2
388 THE RAJPUTS .
quen t intrusion of the Mahrattas. This excludes theparts about Gwalior (S india
’
s territory), and Bundelcund, from the Rajputana o f Tod
, though, in m any
respects, they are truly Rajput.
Bhurtpur and Dholpur are Jaut.
Bhopal.-P artly on the drainage o f the Ganges and
partly on that of the Indus, Bhopal is, m ore or less, a
watershed ; and as it is in physical geography so is it inethnology . I t is Hinduand Gond ; so m uch so
,that I
find the statem en t that the boundary between Gondwana and Malwa ran through the m etropolis ; one gate
belonging to one district, the other to the other. Som e
part of the population of the hillier di stricts is Gond at
this m om en t. The bulk is Hindu; but the N awaub is a
Mahom etan of Afghan blood, and so are m any of his
subjects.
Rewas (Bagelcund) . -That the Rajputs extended thus
far is a m atter of history. The soil, however, is essen
tially and originally Gond .
Malwa is Rajput in the north, Bhi l and Mahratta on
the south .
390 INDIANS or run om ens.
The nam e Hissar points to a Turk, the nam e Hurrians to
an Iranian, occupancy .
More than this, the two sm all, but fam ous rivers, the
S ersli ti and the Caggar, find their channels in the sands
of Hurrians ; the S ersfiti being, word for word, the
S eraswati , and the C aggar being identified with the
Drishadwati ; these in their turn being the rivers upon
which the Institutes of Menu place the first occupancyo f the Brahm ins, or Brahm averta. The sacro-sancti
tude of rivers (im possible in the Desert and kept with
in m oderate lim its on the water-system of the Indus,)now becom es conspicuous. The Ganges throughout its
course is holy . I ts feeders to the north are holy also.
They are holy in the eyes of both the Hindu and the
Bhot. W as it not said, when the Kooch, Bodo, and
Dhim al were under notice, that the Pantheon of those
sem i-pagan populations consisted in the deities of the
stream s and stream lets of their irriguous countries ?
And will it not be seen , when we com e to O ud, that,at the presen t m om en t
,both Mahom etans and Hindus
believe that to swear by a river is to take the m ost binding of oaths ?
That a natural group begins in these parts is true . And
it is also true that it is pre-em inently Brahm inic. In no
part of India do the m em bers of the holy class bear so
great a proportion to the rest of the population as in the
districts about to be noticed. A t the sam e tim e no de
cided line can be drawn. Still less can Rajput blood
and Rajput m odes of thought be excluded. In m any
respects Oud is one of the m ost Rajput countries of
India. It is the seat of the great Solar and Lunar
dynasties . What the S ersfiti district is in Menu, thatis Oud in the Ram ayana.
Neither m ust a great am ount of Mahom etanism be
INDIAN S 0 1‘
THE GANGES . 39 1‘
ignored. Though no portion of the presen t area be
Mahom etan after the fashion of Sind,the fact of Delhi
having been the m etropolis of the Great Mogul is importan t.
To recapitulate
In the eyes o f the author of the Institutes the partsabout the S eraswati were the first occupancies of the
Brahm in.
In the eyes of the m ilitary critic they are the parts
for which a foreign arm y would, m ost especially, m ake
its way.
In the eyes of the actual historian they are the locali
ties of the first Turk andMongol occupancies.
What all this points to is eviden t. The parts aboutthe S ersii ti are the term inus of the high road to India,and beyond the S erst
'
i ti the pre-em inently Indian parts of
India begin .
The district, however, which first com es under notice
is som ewhat exceptional.Rohilcund.
—The nam e is Hindu, the area to which itapplies Hinduand Afghan . R ob , in the Punjabi dialect,m eans a hilly district
, and denotes the eastern fron tier of
the Biluch and Patan countries. The western boundaryof Dera Ghazi Khan is called B ob . The Rohillas, then,of R ohilcund are P atans or Afghans. The settlem en t
was m ade in the beginning of the last cen tury. A t the
present tim e the m ajority of the population of Bareilly
(and perhaps of the coun try round) is Mahom etan rather
than Brahm inic.
Cam ij .—Less im portant, at the present m om ent, than
Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, and the other great ci ties of t he
Doab, Canfij claim s atten tion from i ts an tiquity, and from
the nam e it gives to the chief division of the Brahm inical
392 IND IAN S or 1 111) om ens.
cast. Before the Ghuznevid conquest, itwas the m etro
polis of a large em pire, which the Rahtor Rajputs believe
to have belonged to their ancestors. The Cam ij (Cana
cubya), Brahm ins and the Ujein Rajputs are the noblest
divisions of their respective classes.
Oud.-Brahm inic, Rajput, and Mahom etan ,
Oud, along
its northern frontier, is Sub-him alayan , i . c. it touches
Nepal . Whether there are Bhot elem ents in Oud will
be considered in the sequel .Bahar.
—Bahar, or the kingdom ofMagada is the m othercoun try of the language of the Buddhist scriptures—thePali . In (say) the seventh cen tury , or the tim e when the
C hinese traveller H iouen Thsang visited India, Buddhism
was, if not the dom inan t creed, at least, on a par with
Brahm inism . A t the present tim e, Bahar is one of the
least Buddhist parts of Hindostan .
In north Behar Bhot elem en ts present them selves.
In Delhi, in Agra, and in Allahabad, the language is
Hindi ; being spoken in the greatest purity about Agra.
In Bahar it changes character. Still i t is Hindi rather
than Bengali .BengaL
—The Bengali form of speech belongs to the
provinces from which it takes its nam e, from which it hasextended itself both into Asam and Arakan ; where ithas encroached upon the Burm ese and Tibetan . That
it is bounded on the north by the Kooch, Bodo, Dhim al,Garo, Aka, Abor, D ofla
,and other dialects, has already
been suggested in the notice of those tribes. In Sylhetand Tippera the Bengali is sim ilarly intrusive.
From the num ber of individuals by whom it is spoken,and from its geographical con tiguity to the Indo-gangetic
pen insula, the Bengali is, perhaps, the m ost im portant ofIndian languages.
394 BENGAL AND oussa.
sunderbunds which are inhabited by but few occupan ts,
and those unhealthy sufferers from fever,sufl
'
erers fromague, sufferers from dysentery, sufferers from cutaneousdisorders.
According to Stirling the m en and wom en of Orissaare even inferior to the Bengalis.
O f both we m ay say, with safety, that the language isIndian . O f neither can we safely say that the blood and
language coincide. The lower Ganges but just separates
the northernm ost m em bers of the Tam ul, from the south
ernm ost m em bers of the Bhot, stock . There are the Kols
and S ontals in the Rajm ahal hills. There are som e
m iserable undersized S ontals in the jungles ofMidnapfir.
They are tribes denom inated im pure in Dinajpur, the
district in which stood the ancient Gour m etropolis.
There is a tract in Pum ia called G ondwara. In the
Mechpara districts of Rungpur there are both Bodos
and Garos. Surely, then, there is a m ixture of blood in
both Bengal and Orissa ; and that m ixture is three-fold .
In Bengal, too, and in Orissa, the m ilitary elem ent
(by which I m ean that cast which has elsewhere been
called Rajput and Kshetriya) notably decreases. There
are Brahm ins in both districts and these num erous. There
are Sudras ; who are num erous also . There are m ixed
classes and im pure classes—num erous as well . But the
analogues to the Rajputs are few . The nearest approach
to them is in what is called the m ilitia of Orissa where
in the landowners take the appearance of petty feudalists, and can call in to the field a certain num ber of arm edfollowers. It is, however, specially stated, that the bloodof these fighting-m en is m ixed ; som e being of Telinga,som e of Mahratta, som e of Afghan, som e of Khondorigin.
BENGAL AND ORISS A. 395
Asam
Bundelcund and S india’
s country.—O f the districts to the
south of the Ganges, between the proper Rajput country
on the west, Orissa and Bengal on the east, and Gond
wana on the south, I say but little . S india’
s coun try
and Bundelcund are the m ost im portan t of them . Their
ethnological character is m ixed the elem ents being what
we expect from their geographical relations. To the
north lie the southern portions of the Doab, Allahabad,and Bahar ; to the south and east decided Gond districts
to the west a region as decidedly Rajput. Such being
the case, it is safe to say thus m uch—that1 . The parts to the west of the Chum bul are chiefly
Rajput with superinduced Mahratta elem ents
2 . The parts to the east of the Soane are chiefly Kol
3. The actual valley of the Ganges is in the sam e
category with the districts on the opposite side
396 BUNDELCUND, are.
4 . The Gondwana and Mahratta frontiers are, m ore or
less,Mahratta and Gond.
The language is an outlying form of the Hindi : the
creed Brahm inic . The Jains, however, begin to show
them selves ; increasing in num bers and im portance as we
m ove towards the south and south-west ; being num erous
in Central India, num erous in the Mahratta countries,and pre-em inently num erous in the area o f the Tulava
language on theMahratta and Canarese frontiers .
398 m s sus-nm uarass.
they becom e confluent, and two or three sm aller form
one larger one. Eventually they get absorbed by the
powers of their neighbourhood .
In the way, K istewar, Hanur, & c . , between Cashm ir
and the Sutlej, belong to Gulab S ing’
s dom inion whilst
Gurwhal is divided between Great Britain and the Raja
of Bisihur. Kum aon is wholly British the parts to the
east of Kum aon , Nepalese .
As a general rule, the blood of the Rajas and their
descendants is either actually Rajput, or believed to be
ao . The creed, too , is, as a general rule, Brahm inic .
There is,however, som ething Sikh in the western and
som ething Buddhist in the eastern districts .
Where both the physical conform ation and the lan
guage are Bhot, we have, o f course, an actual Tibetanor Nepalese. Where one only of these characteristics
occurs, we have a possible one. Where, both being
absent, we have Tibetan custom s, Tibetan superati
tions, or Tibetan nam es of places, we have the elem ents
of an interesting investigation . That these do occur is afact. I em unable, however, to give the details. Captain
Cunningham finds Tibetan nam es beyond the lim i t of the
existing Tibetan localities . Most writers have noticed
instances of the Tibetan practice of polyandria in Kistewar, S irm or
, & c .
From Cashm ir to the Sutlej , the frontier with whichthe Hindu area com es in con tact is Ladaki—i . c. it is
Ladakh, rather than Tibet proper, which overlies the hillcountry belonging to Gholab Sing.
The Rajaship of Bisihur touches Kunawer and Hun
grung.
Kum aon (which is British) , and the forty-six Rajaships
(which are Nepalese) , underlie Tibet proper.In easter nNepal, in Sikkim ,
and in the parts beyond, lie,
THE SUB-H IMALAYAN S . 399
between the Hindus and the Tibetans, an interm ediate
series of m inor populations,Magar, Gurung, and the like .
It is not necessary to give the details and order of these .
It has been done already.
From Kum aon to Nepal proper, the language (a
variety of the Hindi) is called Khas . In Nepal proper
it is called P arbatiya or Purbutti, i . e. the H ighland form
of speech .
Kum aon.—Kum aon, being British , is known, in detail,
through an elaborate report by Traill . In the northern
districts the people are strong, but short, stout-built,and fair-skinned . In the south the colour is darker, the
stature greater, the form m ore spare. In the interm e
diate districts the type is also in term ediate .
Spirits,as a stim ulus, are com m oner in Gurwhal than
in Kum aon . In both provinces tobacco is sm oked by all
but the high-class Brahm ins, who substitute for it theinspissated juice of the hem p .
The Hinduism of Kum aon is of that im perfect kind,which leaves room for innum erable vestiges of the
original paganism to show them selves. Every Village hasits own especial deity, and, hum bler than the Hindutem ples (but not less venerated) their shrines are found
over the whole country . The region , too, of spirits isboth wide and populous. The individual who has died aviolent death m ay revisit the earth as a t it
,to haunt his
posterity through m any generations, and to be appeased by
sacrifices and offerings. The bachelor who,without get
ting m arried, dies at an advanced age, becém es a will-of
the-wisp , or Tola, whose society is shunned even by his
brother spirits ; for which reason he is only seen in lone
places. The ghosts of m en killed in hun ting haunt theforests in which theirdeaths occurred, and these are A iri .
To hear the voice o f an Airi (and it m ay be heard halloo
400 KUMAON .
ing to its dogs) is to becom e obnoxious to som e future
m isfortune . TheMasdn are the ghosts of young children ,
buried instead of being burn t. TheMasén haunt villages
in the shape of wild anim als. The Acheri are the ghosts
of young children also ; but of fem ales. They it is who
love the lonely m oun tain-top, better than the inhabited
village—but only during the daytim e. At dusk they
descend to hold revel . To m eet with a train of Acheri is
death . Neither is it safe to cross the spots where the
revels are usually held, even in the daytim e, and when
they are not there . The intruder m ay get m olested ;especially if she be a fem ale, or wear any red in her dress ;for red is the colour that the Acheri m ost especially dis
like. Num erous optical phenom ena that present them
selves under certain atm ospheric conditions, in m oun
tainous countries, are attributed to the A cheri .
The village-gods are, in nam e at least, Hindu. Som e
of these are obnoxi ous to m en , som e to wom en, som e
to children, som e to cattle. Rum a, one of them , m oves
from place to place riding on a rock, never m olesting
m en, but by no m eans sparing fem ales. Should he take a
fancy to one her fate is fix ed. She will be haunted by
him in her dream s,pine and die.
The Bogsa is a sorcerer, endued with the property of
becom ing a wild beast at will. Lycanthropia, then , or its
analogue, is a Kum aon superstition ; as is the belief in the
evil eye.
Kum aon , though now British, is an acquisition fromNepal ; so that, in reference to its political history, itm ust be looked upon as a portion of the
N epalese Empire.—This falls in to two extrem ely na
tural divisions a western and an eastern . The fo rm er,originally containing Kum aon, now contains what m ay be
called the districts of the forty-six Rajaships.
402 NEPAL.
22 . Roalpa 31 . A rgha 41 . Dhor
23. Malebum 32. Kachi 42. G ajarkot
24. Kalagong 33. Gulm i 43. Rising
G hurikot 34. Palpa 44. G hiring
25 . Balihang 35 . Garahang 45 . Tanahung26 . Gutum 36 . Poin
27 . Dharm a 37. Satahung28 . Galkot 38 . Birkot 48 . Musikot
29 . Ism a 39 . N ayakot 49 . Gorka.
30. Burkot 40 . Kaski
O f these the m ost im portant are, Melebum , Yum ila,
and Gorka. Malebum belongs to the debateable land
between the two divisions. The Raja of Yum ila was a
sort of Kaiser, or em peror, to the res t. They all, or
nearly all, acknowledged his suprem acy. They took from
him the tiha, or m ark of authority. They allowed him
to in terfere in their private quarrels when the balance ofpower was endangered. O n the other hand, they yielded
as m uch actual obedience as their inclinations, regulated
by their power of resistance, prom pted. Still, the Raja
of Yum ila was the Raja param ount. Besides adm itting
the suprem acy of a head, the chiefs form ed am ongstthem selves subordinate confederations. Thus ; Lam jun
m arched with Tanahung and Kaski ; Tanahung beingfollowed by Dhor, and Kaski by Satahung . Birkot
,in
like m anner, headed Garahang, Poin, and N ayakot. And
so acted others towards others. There was a league
called A thabhai, or the eight, another called Satbhai, or
the seven , brothers. The brotherhood, in these cases,
m ight be real or im aginary .
In regard to its constituent population, the Rajaship ofYum ila is the m ost Bhot, about one-fourth being Hindu,and three-fourths Tibetan .
NEPA L. 403
Yum ila, so far as it is other than Hindu, seem s to be,to agreat extent, Tibetan .
Malebum , so far as it is other than Hindu, seem s to be,to a great exten t, Gurung.
InMalebum , however, we find the nam e Jareya ; it be
ing believed that an im pure chief of that nam e had once
great power in Malcham . H is daughter m arried a G autam iya (Buddhist) Brahm in, by whom she had twenty-twosons, i . e. the twenty-two Rajas of the Baisi group .
The term Jareya points to Rajasthan indeed, Rajput
blood (either real or pretended) still continues to be the
rule.
In the ordinary m aps Melebum is the m ost conspicuous
nam e for these parts . It is, in reality, the nam e of the
State, which, until the rise of the Gorka dynasty, was
the head of the forty-six Rajaships.
As Malebum and Yum ila rose at the expense of the
petty States around them ,Gorkha rose at the expense of
Melebum and Yum ila.
G'
rorkha, so far as it was other than Hindu, seem s to
have been chiefly Magar. The details of its history, asa sovereign dynasty, are given by both Ham ilton and
Kirkpatrick.
O f the Hindus of Nepal, the blood seem s to be, for
the m ost part, either Rajput or Brahm inic . The de
scendants of a Brahm in father and a native m other take
high rank in Nepal. Lower than their fathers, higher
than their m others, they take the rank of Kshetriya ; bear
the ti tle of the father and wear the thread.
The Khas fall into divisions, being Thfipa, Bishnyat,Bhandari
,Karki, Khflnkfi, Adhikari, Bisht, Kunwar,
Banish, and the like. They fall, too, into sub-divisions,e. y . the
D 1) 2
404 NEPAL.
Bagyal
Takuryal
Palam i
Lam inchanya
P owar
G him irya
Gudar Parajuli
Deoja
are m em bers of the Thfipa.
Akin to the Khas, yet differing in the real or supposed
details of their origin (inasm uch as their fathers were
K shetriyas rather than Brahm ins, and their m others Hindu
rather than Nepalese), the Ekthariah fall into the
Burathoki Bohara
Rays. Chiloti
Ravat Dangi
Katwal Raim arjhi
Khati Bhukhandi
Maghati Bhusal
Chohan Khutal
Bogbati D ikshit
Khatil Pandit
Bavan Parsai
Mahat Chokhal
Barwal Chobara
Durrah
sections differing only in the details of their origin fromthe Thakuri, whose blood is royal , their ancestors having
been the dynasts of som e petty principality . The divisions of the Thakuri, are
SahiMalla
406 NEPAL .
pang, Dhim al , and Bodo tribes ? O r are they a tertium
quid
Cham ars.-These have already been noticed. They
occupy parts of Kunawer ; and (Bhot fashion) practisepolyandria.
D omanga—In the sam e districts as the Chum ars. Word
for word, Dom ang is
Dom .—The Dom s of Kum aon have already been no
ticed. So have the
Rawat of the sam e country .
The Tham .—These are the occupants of the tw ai, or
belt of forest at the foot of the Him alayas . The Tharu
first show them selves in Oud, and extend far eastwards.
In the western half of Nepal , and on the alluvia of
the rivers which form the Gunduk, lie
I . The D enwar 3. The Kum bel
2 . Durri 4. Manjhi
5 . The Eram bo .
These have been described by Mr. Hodgson as dark
skinned, light-lim bed, oval-faced, and high-featured m en ;
m ore like the Khonds than the Tibetans or Nepalese .
They consider them selves Hindus and belong chiefly tothe Magar frontier.Further to the east, where the Nepalese populations are
Murm i , Lim bu, and Kirata, and where the Hindus are
the Hindus of north Bahar, lie (along with certain Tha
rus, whom they resem ble) theGangai, chicfly in Morang ; the
Bhawar,an im pure tribe, once dom inant the
Batar, and the
Aniwar, once extended far beyond the frontier of Ba
har. The
Rajbansi Kooch have already been noticed . They are
succeeded by the Dhim al, Bodo, and Gharo congeners
NEPAL. 407
of whom m ust originally have extended to the Ganges, or
even beyond it. It is with Bengalis, on one side, and the
Lepchas and Lhopa,'
on the other, that these m ost espe
cially com e in contact.
That the whole of A sam , even where the language is
Bengali, and the creed Brahm inic, is Bhot or Burm ese in
blood,has already been stated .
The heterogeneous character of the tribe and cast
nam es of Nepal requires a special analysis. The lists
given above are only a few out of m any. What is gene
ral,what special what natural, what artificial, should be
distinguished .
408 m s nann rras.
CHAPTER XLIII.
TheMahrattas.
T11 11 presen t section is pre-em inen tly a natural one ;differing, in m any significant respects, from all the pre
ceding. In the first place, the Mahrattas are the m ost
southern m em bers of the group to which they belong.
In the next, they belong to a broken ,if not a m ountain
ous, country. Deserts like those of Bikanir, alluvia like
those of the Gangetic distri cts, find no place within the
Mahratta area. A t the sam e tim e,none of its levels are
so high as the m oun tain-basin of Cashm ir.
Again, the Mahratta country faces the sea ; the sea that
connects India with Persia, Arabia, Africa, and Europe .
It will, therefore, not surprise us if we find African and
Mahratta elem ents in contact.
The m ain difl'
erentia), however, lie in the relations of the
Mahrattas to the populations whose language is akin to
the Tam ul. Up to the present tim e, the northernm ost
m em bers of this class appear as intruders upon the proper
Hinduareas. That they are not this we reasonably infer ;the inference being that the intrusion has been on the
other side. It was the Bhils and Kols who were the
aborigines, the Rajputs and their congeners who were thestrangers. A t the sam e tim e, as the m ap now stands, the
Kol and Bhil distri cts take the appearance of exceptional
prolongations from the south . Their occupancies inden tthe Hinduand Gujerathi frontiers. They only, however,indent them .
410 m a m aarras.
the Mahratta is m ore Tam ul than Sanskri t. ” Such isthe train of reasoning.
The alphabet isa derivation from the Devanagari, whichit closely resem bles. It does this because it has been butrecen tly adopted. The literature it em bodies is unimportant.
The historical area of the Mahrattas is far wider than
the ethnological . Its extension , however, is recent. I t
began in the reigns of Shah Jehan and Aurungzeb, being
founded by Sivaj i, whose blood seem s to have beenm ixed
,i . e. Rajput as well as Mahratta . H e was the
son of Shahji, who was the son of Maloji, who was theson of Bapji, who was the husband of a lady of the very
respec table Mahratta fam ily of the Bhonslay. Malojientered the service of a chief who, though, perhaps, infact a sim ple Mahratta, had fair pretensions to som e
Rajput blood. At any rate, he bore him self as a m an
who is, at once, proud and practical. When Shahj i, a
child, was presented to him , his own daughter (a child
also) was also in his presence. What a fine couple they
would m ake,”was his observation—heard byMaloji , and
hoarded-up in the treasure-house of his m em ory until
som e years had passed, and a public occasion broughthim
before his chief, and gave him an opportuni ty of rem ind
ing him of what he called a betrothal of his (the chief’s)
daughter to his (Shahji’
s) son. As Shahji had risen in the
world,his version of the story was adm itted, the m arriage
was effected, and Sivaj i, the m ost prom inent hero of all
India, was the offspring. If the details of his career are
withheld from the reader, it is not because they are foreign
to ethnology. The biography of the representative m en of
the ruder portions of m ankind is pre-em inently an ethno
logical subject. The life,however
,of Sivaji belongs to
Indian history in general . In the way, however, of ex
THE 41 1
tending the political power of his nation, his father did alittle before him . H e carried it southwards. In the ser
vice of, and (perhaps) second in com m and to, the Raja of
Bejapfir, he received a grant of land and power in the
Carnatic . This brought him to the parts about Madras,where the Polygar of Mudkul was at war with the Rajaof Tanjore. Shahji joined the form er
,helping him to
conquer his opponent ; quarrelled with him about the
spoils ; defeated him ; so that the descendants of Shahj i
were Rajas of Tanjore when that district becam e a
British dependency . Sivaj i him self turned his sword
northwards. A tfirst the captain of an organized body of
banditti, then the zem indar of Punah, then a self-im posedpoten tate to the districts of his im m ediate neighbourhood
,
he is invited by Aurungzeb to join bim in the war against
his brothers. H e plays his own gam e, however, and re
fuses to connect his fortunes with those of the im perial
bigot ; of whom,however, it was his future fate to hear
and see m ore than enough . H e plays his own gam e ; with
the Raja of Bejapfir as his first opponent. From him he
wins m ore than one valuable fortress. H e, then, takes
the im portant towns of Kalian and Surat, extending hispower to the sea. A h Indian navy is first heard of in the
days of Sivaji . It is, however, em ployed against him .
W e shall notice i t in the sequel, when the sub-African
districts of the western coast of India com e under notice ;when the Sidis of Abyssinian blood appear as elem ents of
the heterogeneous population of Hindostan . The event
ful life, however, of Sivaj i draws towards its close, and
he dies m aster of the whole of the Konkan , and of a
large block of territory in the interior. This he leaves
in a strong position, and in an aggressive attitude ;fresh and full of vigour, and (as such) strongly con
trasted with the decrepit em pire of the Moguls. I t
4 12 THE 111 311111 1 1 3.
was em inently a Hindu rather than aMahom etan organization .
The Mogul em pire is breaking up. It has strength
enough to reduce the kingdom s of Bejaptir and H ydera
bad ; but not strength enough to defend them against the
Mahrattas. Neither are the southern districts of the
Rajput country free from the Mahratta inroads . Berar
on the Gond, and Kandeish on the Bhil country , are
plundered. Meanwhile, the districts of Aurungabad,
Beder,and parts of Berar, are consolidated by the N i
zam -ud-Mulk into a kingdom destined to retain the titleof the founder, but not des tined to be held by his succes
sors. The dom inion of the Nizam will becom e Mahratta.
The founder, however, of the nam e was a Turk, Kulich
Khan ,son of Ghazi-ud-Khan . The Turks, who had been
introduced into India by the conquest of Baber, were
sim ply Moguls. The Turks who, from tim e to tim e, were
introduced as m ercenaries, were distinguished as T
(or Turanian) Moguls. Kulich Khan was the chief of
the Turani Moguls of the D ekkan . H e effects the sepa
ration of the Nizam districts from the em pire . H e fails
to keep them free from the Mahrattas, who, about the sam e
tim e,conquer Gujerat.
A d ) . 1732 .
The em pire grows weaker and weaker.
Delhi is sacked by Kuli-Khan .
A few years later the power of the RoA ‘D ° 1745-41 hilla Afghans is established in the im m e
diate neighbourhood of the capital, and R ohilcund be
com es the seat of disturbance and the source of danger .
Indeed, the Afghan aggressions have a double origin,Rohilcund and A fghani stan itself. The Durani dynasty
is rising in power ; and the two representatives of the
Patan nam e unite in hostility to theMoguls . The weak
est of the successors of Akbar calls in the treacherous
414 THE Mas sar ms.
The Guicowar, Sindia, and H olcar territories, are
sam e.
Specim en of the language .
fl am thi .
Man (hom o) m anash
purush
baiko
doksheh
kes
dolehkan
tshundr
S tone patthar
The num erals, the Bengal i,are Hindi.
THE RAJMAHALIS . 415
CHAPTER XLIV.
The populations whose language is akin to the Tam ul.—’1‘he Bajm ahali
m ountaineers—The Kols—The Khonds.—The Soul's.
IT has already been stated that the Tam ul populationsand their congeners have been called the natives of
southern India. It has also been suggested that thisterm is inaccurate. That the parts about Cape Com orin
are Tam ul is true ; and true it is that the D ekkan ,or
southern half of India, is what m ay be called Tam il
iform . But it is by no m eans true that these districtsconstitute the whole of the Tam ul area. This extendsnot only far beyond them ,
but far beyond them to the
north. A t one point it actually touches the Ganges, and
that at the present tim e, and in an unequivocal m anner.More than this, it all but touches the southern lim it of
the Bhot and Burm ese areas—a fact to which attention
has already been directed. The occupants of
The Raj m ahal hills, on the southern bank of the
Ganges, in the parts about Bogilpur, have long been
known as a population whose language and m anners dif
fer from that of the ordinary Hindu of the districts
around . In the Asia P olyglotta, a specim en of their
dialect stands by itself, isolated on all sides, 1. e. with
no Hindu, no Tam ul, no Tibetan aflinitiee—the Garo
being isolated also . No wonder. When the Asia Poly
glotta was written , the Tam ul class was lim ited to the
south of India, the Khond, Gond, and K ol for ms of
speech being wholly, or all but, unknown .
416 m s 111 1 111 111 11 3.
The extent to which it agrees with these m ay be
inferred from the following com parison of the pro
nouns.
For a long tim e the Rajm ahali m ountaineers were the
terror of the neighbouring districts. They robbed, they
levied blackm ail . A strong bam boo bow with a poisoned
arrow was their weapon . With this they m ade them selves
form idable to theMahom etan powers, troublesom e to theCom pany . With this they defended their dense jungles,or rather the jungles defended them . Every arrow was
unseen , certain , fatal. The Com pany failed in their
m easures of coercion , as the Mahom etans had failed
before them .
Kindness was then tried, and it was successful. The
epitaph of Cleveland, bearing date 1784, records that
without bloodshed or the terrors of authority, em ploy
ing only the m eans of conciliation, confidence, and
benevolence, he attem pted and accom plished the entire
subjection of the lawless and savage inhabitants of the
jungleterry of Rfijam ahal, who had long infested the
neighbouring lands by their predatory incursions, inspired
them with a taste for the arts of civilized life, and ate
teched them to the Bri tish Governm en t by conquest
over their m inds, the m ost perm anent, as the m ost rational,
418 THE KOLS .
Hindus to certain populations distingui shed from them
selves, and that it is also a term of general application ,
has already been stated the Kols of Gujerat having been
brought under notice when the ruder tribes of western
India com m anded our attention . Word for word, the
two nam es are iden tical . Between the eastern Kols o f
Monghir, Ram gurh, Chuta N agptir, Gangpur, S irg'ujah ,
and Sum bhulptir and the Uraon and Rajm ahalis the chief
difference seem s to be that of dialect.
The divisions and subdivisions of the Kol nam e are
num erous.The Sontals, indigenous to Chuta Nagpur and the parts
about Palam ow,have, since the beginning of the present
century, intruded them selves in to som e of the Rajm ahali
occupancies,which now contain two separate populations,allied to each other
,though speaking languages which are
said to be m utually unintelligible. It was with thesenorthern and intrusive Kols that the recent disturbancesarose . Like Kol, the nam e Sontal is found in western
, as
well as eastern, India. There was a S ontalpfir in Gujerat.According to the Sontal m ythology, the first two
m ortals bore the nam es of P ilchu-hanam and P ilchu
brudhi, one being a m ale, the other a fem ale ; being
also brother and sister to each other, and the children
of a duck ’
s egg . A deity nam ed Lita, or Marang Burn,brought them together as m an and wife. In Orissa, this
Lita, or Marang Burn ,is very specially worshipped, and
that both privately, as a dom estic deity,and in public,
by m eans of feasts and festivals. O f this god there is a
stone im age at Sikar-ghat, a place of resort and cere
m ony. I t stands on one of the feeders of the Ganges,which receives in its waters, twice a year, a bone of som e
deceased Son tal, thrown in by one of the surviving
relations, who m akes a pilgrim age to the spot for the
THE som ars. 419
purpose of doing so . Other cerem onies accom pany this
act—lustral, or purificational, in character.Man iko is the elder brother of Marang Buru, and is
invoked once a year by the N aikis (m ark the word) or
priests,who sacrifice to him fowls—Bodo and Dhim al
fashion . H is sister’s nam e is Jaherera.
Connected with every Son tal village is a grove called
Jaher, in which the Manjhi-hanam , or thefounder of the
village,is periodically worshipped.
The dom estic gods are called Odah-Bonga. Bonga
m eans deity. Abge Bonga is the nam e of a god who is
worshipped twice a year. The offerings to him consist
of ram s,he-goats , and red cocks, upon which all the
m ales (but none of the fem ales) regale them selves—burning the leavings.
Rankini, a bloody-m inded fem ale, is said to be occa
sionally propitiated by hum an sacrifices.
The S ontals swear by the skin or by the head of the
tiger. They swear also by their gods and by the lives
of their children .
The H o.—The H o are the best known of all the Kols ;
not, however, because they have been visited by the
greatest num ber of Europeans, but because they havebeen m ade the subject of a valuable m onograph by
Lieutenant Tickell in the Joum al of the A siatic Society
of Bengal . ‘ The parts about S ingbhfim are their
locality .
The H o are locom otive agriculturists ; i . e. they sow
the soil, and work it with the hoe ; but are unskilled in
the art of m anuring . Hence, the lands on which theysettle soon becom e exhausted, and fresh clearings are te
quired . Their villages, too, are sm all, though the houses
of which they consist are well-built. The walls are of
V ol . ix . part ii.
a E 2
420 THE 110 .
m ud, but strong and solid . The roofs are of thatch, well
laid on. The veranda is supported by wooden pillars,rudely carved . The residence of the fam ily consists o f
three room s, one for eating, one for sleeping, one for
stores. The outhouses are at a little distance ; som e for
pigs, som e for poultry, som e for servants.The H o dress but lightly, som e of them wearing next
to nothing. The wom en work . The m en hunt—or
rather hawk ; for falconry is both their business and their
pastim e. The bow is the chief weapon .
A H o bridegroom buys his bride or rather,his father
buys her for him ,the price being so m any head of cattle .
Whether, however, the m atch is to take place at all de
pends, to an inordinate extent, upon the om ens that the
parties concerned m eet in their way from house to house.
Should anythingunlucky present i tself, a sacrifice of fowls
is m ade, and prayers put up to S ingbonga (of whom m orewill be said hereafter) , to the efl
'
ect that, if the parties still
wish to be united, better om ens m ay attend their nextnegotiation . After looking over Captain Tickell
’
s list
of evil auguries, I wonder that H o m arriages ever take
place. It contains alm ost everything that either runs or
flies. If a vulture, crow , m agpie, oriole, woodpecker,
jackall, hare, bee, snake, & c ., pass behind the negotiator,
there will be a death. I f a certain kind of ichneum ondrag a certain kind of spider across the road, the bride will
be dragged away by a tiger the first tim e she goes out forwood or water. If a hawk seize a bird, the sam e. I f a
certain kind of vulture fly singly, or in front of its flock ,
death to one of the four parents—death to the bride’sparent if the village of the bride, to the bridegroom
’
s if
his village, be the nearest—death to a father if the birdbe a m ale, to the m other if a fem ale. I f the great wood
hawk hover overhead, death to both m other and son at
422 m a 110 .
ravine, and as they had no houses to live in, the gods told them to in.
habit a huge crab’
s cave (Katkom ot) . They grow adult, and Sing Bongacam e to see them every day, and called them his grandchildren ; but at
length seeing no hopes of any progeny, from their extrem e sim plicity,he taught them the art of m aking Eely (rice beer), the use of whichcaused these sensations, which were in due tim e the m eans of peoplingthe world.A fter the creation of m an, S ing Bonga, or the sun, m arried Chandoo
Om ol, or the m oon, from whence sprung four sons and num erous daugh
ters. N ow the four sons kept with their father, and the daughters livedwith their m other, and as the sun rose every day, with his four hot, herysons in addition, the whole world began to burn and all the anim als
and m an perishing with heat, entreated the m oon to save them : so
the m oon resolved within herself to destroy the sun'
s sons, and went, andaccosting the father, said, Our children do m uch harm to the world,and will soon destroy your labour. I am determ ined to eat m ine ; do
youalso devour yours.” The sun prom ised he would follow the m oon
'
s
exam ple ; and so when she hid all her daughters, and cam e and told himshe had devoured them ,
be destroyed and eat all four of his children ;after which the m oon released her daughters from confinem ent. This
artifice so enraged the sun, that he drew his sword and cut the m oon in
half, but repenting afterwards of his anger, allowed her to get whole incertain days, though she still rem ained condem ned to be in half atothers,and so she rem ained, and all her daughters, with her, whi ch are the
stars.
N ow, som e tim e after the first m an and wom an had lived together andknown each other, S ing Bonga cam e down and asked them what progenythey had ; they say unto him , Grandfather, we have twelve sons and
twelve daughters.”These twenty-fonr lifted up their voices and said,
Great grandfather, how can we brothers and sisters all live together2”
S ing Bonga said, Go youand m ake preparations and m ake a great feast,rice and huti
‘
aloes’
flesh, and bullocks’
flesh, goats, sheep, pigs, and fowlsof the air, and vegetables and they did so : and when the feast was
prepared, S ing Bonga said, Take ye two by two, m an and wom an, thatwhich shall please youm ost, and that shall ye have for share, to eat all
the days of your life, apart from the rest, so that none shall touch his
brother’s share.
”
And so when the feast was prepared, the first pair and the second pairtook hufi'
aloes’
and bullocks’ flesh, even as m uch as they could carry,and these becam e the Kol and Bhoom ij race then a pair tookthe rice ; and other pairs, m ale and fem ale, rice and vegetables, andthese becam e Bram ins, Rajpoots, Chuttries, and other H indoos and
others took away the goat’
s flesh and fish, and becam e other kinds of
H indoos ; the Bhooians took the shell-fish. Lastly, when nothing was leftbut the pigs
’
flesh, cam e two pair and took it away, and these are Sontalsand Koorm ees to this day and when all the feast was cleared away, there
THE H0 . 423
rem ained one pairwho had nothing, and to them the Kols gave of their
share, and these are Ghassees to this hour.
And so all these went and lived separately, and peopled the world,and m ultiplied exceedingly, and Sing Bonga taught those who lived infar countries other languages, and he gave people of different trades theirim rflem ents.
And after this from the Kols, from their senior house, sprung theEnglish, who also eat of bullocks’ flesh. But they are the senior children,and the Kols the junior 1And after the world was peopled, Sirm a Thakoor destroyed it once,with the exception of sixteen people, because people becam e incestuous,and unm indful of God, or their superiors.W icked m en are born again as dogs, pigs, or lizards. Suttees never
are born again, but rem ain burning for ever in their pits, and com e
out at night, wandering about, still burning. Good people after deathare born again in som e better condition in life than form erly. And this
order of things will rem ain for ever and ever.
W hen m en die, their spirits go to the S ing Bonga, who asks them how
they have lived, and judges them . The wicked he whips with thornybushes, and som etim es buries them in great heaps of hum an ordure,and aftera while sends them back to be born in this world as dogs, cats,bullocks, lizards, &c. The good m an he sends back to be born a still
greater and better m an than he lived before, and all that he had given
away in charity, Sing Bonga shows him heaped up in heaven, and restoresit to him .
Other deities are Nagé Erra, Desa U li, Marang Bonga,d Pangtira, hi s wife—village godsChanala Basum Bonga, whose wife is also Panghta,
the god of m arried wom en
H oraten K o, a god of the roads ;Mahli Bonga and ChanduOm ol
Jaer Buri is the wife of Desa Uli.Pigs and fowls are the chief offerings. Idols are
wholly wanting . There is singing, dancing, and drink
ing at the festivals, som e of which degenerate into orgies.
O f dom estic worship there is not a little. Every case of
sickness involves a sacrifice, and an application to the
soothsayer. That the H 0 is em inently addicted to super
stitions is clear. Whether he be m ore so than the rest of
the rude world is doubtful .
424 11 111 H0 .
The nam e for a H o tribe is kili—word for word, theAfghan kheil. A m an cannot m arry a wom an of his own
hilz’
, nor eat with a m an of a different one.
The Bendkars.—The Bendkars form a single tribe con
sisting of about 300 individuals, their occupancy beingthe Bendkar Bum or the Bendkar hills. These lie to
the north of K eonjur and the south of K olehan.
The Bendkars speak either the H o or the Uriya ; arehalf Hindus ; worshippers of Kali ; eat neither pork nor
beef ; drink water from a H o’
s hand, but will eat with
neither H o nor Hindu. They burn their dead.
Water
m idh
barriapia
ponla upuria
m onegotang m oneys
turingotang turrya
sath
iralgotang ath
aregotang nou
gelgotang das
As far as I can judge from som e short vocabularies from
H indu.
426 THE xnonns.
whilst the sect of Tari holds that she will eventually win,
the sect of Bura believes in the final prevalence of good .
Meanwhile, the struggle goes ou, the weapons being bail,and rain, and wind, and lightning, and thunder. The
com et of’
43 was watched by the Kols with intense
interest. They took it for a new weapon .
The first class of the m inor gods of the Khond P an
theon is the offspring of Bura and Teri, and their offices
(which m ay be collected in detail from the subjoined list)are to m eet the prim ary wan ts of m an—wants originatingout o f the introduction of evil . There are
P idzuPeunn the God of Rain .
Burbi Peunn the Goddess of N ew Vegetation and
First Fruits.
P etterri P ennuthe God of Increase and Gains .
K lam bo Peunn the God of the Chase .
Loha Peunn the Iron God, i . e. the God of W ar.
Sundi P ennu the God of Boundaries. These are
invoked in all cerem onials next to Ram and Teri.The sinless m en , who, having at once and from the
first rejected evil, were taken up by Bura, form the
next class. They are tutelary to the di fferent Khondtribes.
The third class consists of deities sprung from the godsof the other two—e. g .
N adzuP ennu the Village God .
Soro Peunn the Hill God.
Jori P ennu God of Stream s.
IdzuP ennu House-god .
Munda P ennu Tank God.
Suga Peunn God of Fountains.
Gossa P ennu God of Forests .
Kutti Peunn G od of Ravines.
Bhora P ennu God of New Fruits.
rm ) m om s. 427
Dinga P ennu, the Judge of the Dead, is the only one
of the Dii Minores who does not reside on the surface of
the earth, or a little above it ; for the ordinary habit of
the other deities is to m ove about in atm ospheric space, ia
visible to hum an eyes,but not invisible to the eyes of the
lower anim als. O f the spirits, then, Dinga P ennuis one ;but he is not one of the spirits that walk abroad upon the
earth . H e resides in the region beyond the sea, wherethe sun rises, upon a rock called Grippa Valli the
Leaping Rock . It is sm ooth and slippery, like a floor
covered with m ustard seed, and a black unfathom able
river flows around it. To this the souls of m en speedafter their death, and take bold leaps in order to get onit. Hence its nam e. Som e of these leaps succeed, butthe greater part fail, in which case the lim bs m ay be
broken, or the eyes knocked out by the attem pt, and
when this happens, the deform ity thereby con tracted is
com m unicated to the body next anim ated . Upon GrippaValli sits Dinga P ennuwriting the register of the deedsof m en
,and casting-up the account of their good and
evil actions. Should he adjudge im m ediate beatification ,the soul passes at once to the world of happy spirits.
Should the evil, however, outweigh the good, it is recomm itted to earth
,and sent to its own proper earthly tribe
to be te-born. Men have four souls. First, there is the
one which is capable of happy com m union with Bura.
Secondly,there is one attached to the tribes on earth,
and, in each particular tribe to which it belongs, it iste-born as often as it dies. Upon the birth of a child
the priest determ ines who i t is whose soul,having pre
viously departed in death, has thus returned. Thirdly,
there is a soul that is punished for sins done in the flesh ;and, fourthly, there is one that dies with the body.
Under such a thorough system of m etem psychosis as this
428 THE m om s.
is, it is only natural for the difi'
erent degrees of earthlv
prosperity or adversity to be looked upon as so m any
degrees of reward or punishm ent. Hence, the inflictions
m ost dreaded are neither m ore nor less than the penal ties
of a form er course of vice . O f these the m ost terrible
are poverty, bodily deform ity, epilepsy, cowardice, and
the want or loss of m ale ofl'
spring. The chief sins
are
1 . To refuse hospitality.
2. To break an oath or prom ise.
3. To Speak falsely, except to save a guest.
4. To break the pledge of friendship .
5 . To break an old law or custom .
6 . To com m it incest.
7 . To contract debts, the paym en t of which is ruinous
to a m an’
s tribe, the tribe being responsible .
8 . To skulk in tim e of war.
9 . To divulge a public secret.
The chief virtues are
1 . To kill a foe in public battle.
2. To die in public battle.
3. To be a priest.
To these add, am ongst the sacrificing tribes,
To be a victim to the Tari .
A strong feeling of pedigree,blood
,or tribe
, is indicated in this code, and it is no wonder that, in all feastings and cerem onies, a long array of ancestors is invoked.
N either is the belief wan ting t hat the kindest and worthiest of the departed spirits m ay be prevailed upon to
in tercede with Dinga Peunn for a discretionary and m er
ciful exercise of his form idable jurisdiction.
I t has been stated that Dinga P ennu, the judge of the
430 THE m oans.
Pannu. P idzuP ennuthen com es upon the priests when
the offerings are deposited under the tree, and the m ee t
ing is seated,and the great Janni , with two m inor
assistants, perform s the following worship apart.
The Janni first calls on Bura and Tari, and then on
P idzuP ennu, and all or m ost of the other gods, who (it
is hoped) will exert their influence with him . Then
follows the prayer, after which they kill the sheep ,
and either give its flesh away or leave it on the field .
The liquor they drink. The Janni stays a little longer
than the rest, in case any god m ay have to question him
concerning any om ission or im perfection of the cere
m onial. I f we have unconsciously om itted to do
honour on this occasion to any god, we pray of the other
deities to intercede for us, and pacify him .
”
The God of Increase and Gain is P etterri P ennu, wor
shipped at seed-tim e. A rude car is m ade of basket
work and bam boo . This the Janni drags to the head of
the tribe that takes precedence, and obtains from him a
little of each kind of seed and som e feathers. Having
m ade a circuit of the village with a like object, the car is
then accom panied to som e appointed field by the young
m en of the village beating each other and the air with
sticks. The seed thus carried out is the share of the evil
spirits, who are held to be driven out with the car. The
next day a hog is killed, and P etterri P ennu invoked.
After this the hog is eaten ; only, however, by the elders ;for the young m en went afield with the car. They have,however, their revenge for their exclusion, and waylay
the feasters on their return, pelting them with jungle
fruit. O n the third day the head of the chief tribe sowshis seed, after which the rest m ay do so too.
A stone in the neighbourhood of each village is dedicated to Klam bo P ennu, on which the huntsm an lays
m s m om s. 431
offerings, and also sharpens his ax e or arrow, K lam boP eunn being extrem e to m ark any neglect of him self, or
any violation of the rules of the chase.
L oha : Iron, and Loha P ennu, the god of war, is, lite
rally, the Iron God . In the grove sacred to Loha P ennuis buried a piece of iron , or an iron weapon . When war
threatens it appears above the surface, em erges further on
the eve of battle, and subsides when peace is m ade.Loha P ennu, however, presides only over the wars
between Khonds and enem ies other than Khond, or (atany rate) over those between differen t tribes. Quarrelswithin the tribe he leaves alone . The offering of a fowl,rice, and arrack, within the precincts of a holy grove and
in the presence of the assem bled warriors, precedes theinvocation to Loha P ennu.
And now , when all have snatched up their arm s, the
priest com m ands silence, and recites a hym n, concluding
by the words Arm and m arch." They m arch, and the
priest accom panies them to the enem y’s boundary, over
which an arrow is shot, by som e one indicated by the
divining sickle. Thirdly, a branch of som e tree growingon the enem y’s soil is cut off, and carried away to the spotwhere the exsertion of the iron indicates the invisible presence of Loha P ennu. Here it is clothed like one of the
enem y, and, with certain invocations, thrown down on the
sym bol or shrine of the divinity. The enem y has full
tim e given him for the com pletion of sim ilar rites.
The declaration, then , of a Khond war is a m atter of
no sm all form and cerem ony. S o, also, are the overtures
for peace and the ratifications of treaties . When one of
the two belligerent parties is weary of war, the interven
tion of som e friendly or neutral tribe is requested. I f
this be successful, a kind of m ixed com m ission of two old
m en on each side is appointed in order to ascertain the
432 m s m om s.
will of Loha Peunn as indicated by certain divinations .
In a basket of rice an arrow is placed upright. I f i trem ain so
, war proceeds. I f i t slant, the cerem onies thatbring in peace are continued. The population m akes a
procession . The priest, with rice and two eggs, calls on
Loha P ennu. They now hll a dish with hog’s fat, and
place a cotton wick in it. They light this, and if the
flam e be straight, the augury is for war ; if not, for
peace.
The peace-dance is one of long duration, and frantic
excitem en t.
Sundi Peunn, the God of Boundaries, m ay be invoked
by two hostile parties on the sam e occasion, inasm uch as,
ea: vi term ini, he is com m on to them both . H e m ay not,
however, be so invoked on the sam e day. Hence, when a
quarrel as to boundaries arises, there m ust be at leas t two
days before the fighting begins, for (as has been seen in the
case of Loha P ennu) it is part and parcel of the m ilitary
code of the Khonds for each belligerent to allow the
other tim e for his cerem onies.O f the cerem onials for the diviniti es of the third class
the two selected for notice are those for1 . The Village God, N adzuP ennu.
2. The God of Fountains, Sugu(or S idruju) Fenhu.
A stone under a cotton tree is the place of worship for
N adzuPeunn . The tree is planted when the village is
founded, and when the village is founded the priest says
to the tree, I bring you by order of Bura P ennu, whocom m anded us to build the village, as did also — and -e
d (nam ing som e ten or twelve divinities).The people feast and the tree is planted.A day or two afterwards the Janni m eets the villagers
again , when an old m an, stupid and clownish for theoccasion , gets up, with him , the following dialogue
434 m m knonns.
a sheep or a hog is sacrificed to SuguPenan . If all goes
favourably a stream of water will have passed from the
full well to the em pty one, underground, and along the
line that the priest took in his way back.
Salo a cattle-pen , and kallo is the nam e o f a certain
spirituous liquor. H ence, the Salo-kallo is the liquorprepared in the cattle-pen, or the Feast o f the Cattle-pen
liquor. It is a great yearly festival, and Bura P ennuis
the divinity in whose honour it is held. Every branch of
every tribe,every m em ber of every village celebrates it,
and it is at the tim e of the rice-harvest that such cele
bration takes place. It lasts five days ; during which the
celebrators eat freely, and over-freely, of the kennah,
which is ferm ented rice, with intoxicating, stim ulan t, or
narcotic properties. The Salo-kallo is a period of greatl icence. The m ost serious part of it consists in the re
citation by the Janni of the doctrines or legends of the
Khond Cosm ogony, the origin of Evil, the Antagonism
o f Tari and Bura, & c. A hog is the sacrifice.
The next great festival in honour of Bura is the Jakri,or Dragging ; the origin whereof is as follows
The wom an, Um bally Bylee, appm d as a tiger, and killed gam e everyother day, and all ate of it. There was at that tim e a fight between the
people of Kotrika and those of Mundika. But it was private strife,
carried on in wom anish fashion, before the art of taking life and that of
public battle were known. Um bally Bylee said, I will kill any one ofyour enem ies youplease.
”They said to her, Kill so and so and she
went as a Mleepa tiger, and killed him . Then the people placed unbounded faith in her, and said to her, Teach na this new knowledge, andshowus the art of killing .
”She replied, I will teach you; but thence
forward youm ust do one thing .
”And she accordingly taught the art of
Mleepa to a few, so that they practised it ; and she then said, N ow you
m ust worship m e by the sacrifice of m en, or the earth shall sink beneathyour feet, and water shall rise in its place, and 1 will abandon you.” The
earth heaved terribly—as som e think, from the wrath of Boora Pennu;som e, in obedience to the power of the Earth Goddess. Fear hlled the
m inds of all, and, as directed, they setup a pole beyond the village, andbrought hum an victim s, and all was prepared for the m criiiee. But now
T1111 KHONDS . 435
the God of Light sent a god bearing a m ountain, who straightway buriedUm bally Eylee therewith, and dragged forth a buffalo from the jungle
and said, L iberate the m an, and sacrifice the buffalo. I will teach you
the art of Mleepa in every form . And he taught that art, and the art
of public war.
S o, the buffalo having been dragged from the jungle,the festival took the nam e o f the Dragging.
But what is Mleepa P Mleepa is a kind of tiger.
The ordinary anim al is believed by the Khonds to be
good rather than had, a friend rather than an enem y . This
is because when he hunts down som e other wild anim al ,and eats only a part of it, the Khond, who m ay find the
rem ainder, has the benefit of its predaceous propensities.
I t is only when it is other than an ordinary anim al that
the tiger kills m en ; when it is either a tigriform m an, or,
perhaps, even Tari herself m etam orphosed. Tigers of this
kind areMleepa tigers.
Tari is m alevolen t and m ust be propitiated, and in the
necessity of appeasing an evil-m inded, rather than in the
spontaneity of feeling that delights in doing hom age to a
kind being, lies the chief difference between the worshipo f Tari and Bura. In other respects, what applies to the
one applies to the other also. The sect of Tari,like that
of Bura, believes that the latter has provided rem edies
for the consequences of the introduction of evil ; but i t
holds that these rem edies are only partial , incom plete, and
insufficient, that although the soul after death m ay enj oy
happiness under Bura, the body during life m ay be sorely
afflicted by the ill-nature of Tari .
Such earthly good as Tari perm its is on the express
condition of her being worshipped with hum an sacrifices,
upon which she feeds. The sacrifices are m ade periodi
cal ly and publicly, also on certain occasions by indi
viduals. The tribe,the subtribe, the village, m ay offer
them . A t the periodical sacrifices each head of a fam ily
F r 2
436 m s m oans.
procures a shred of the hum an flesh . The victim s are
provided by the tribe, each m em ber contributing accord
ing to his m eans. When special occasions dem and a
special victim ,whoever furnishes it receives its value, and
is exem pted from contribution for the next tim e o f
offering. Should an individual lose (say) a child, carried
off by a tiger, the tigerwill be held to have been Tari, and
the priest will be invoked . After certain form ula) he will
declare that Tari m ust be pacified, and the father will bind
him self to find a vi ctim within the year—a victim called
Tohki , or K eddt'
,by the Khonds them selves,Meriah by the
Oriyas . The Tokki, to be acceptable, m ust be the full
and unim peached property of the ofi'
erer, acquired bypurchase . It is better still if his father has been a victirn
before him , or if he has been devoted to the gods as a child .
The purchase of victim s is m ade from the m en of one o f
two casts, the Panwa (or Dom banga) and the Gabinda,som e of such wretches being attached to each village .
They procure them by kidnapping from the Hindus.Som etim es they sell their own offspring. A long intervalm ay elapse between the purchase of a victim and its im
m olation .
The Tahiti (or K eddi), being brought blindfold to the
village for which he is destined to becom e the offering,is
lodged with its head-m an,in fetters if an adult
,at liberty
if a child , and here he is honoured as a being con
secrated and hallowed, and, on the whole, scarcely
happy. Everyone welcom es him,and should he grow,
and have intercourse with any of the village fem ales, thefather or husband is only too thankful for the distinction .
Som etim es a fem ale, herself a victim ,is specifically awarded
to him , along with a portion of land and stock. The con
di tion of the parents is now inherited by the offspring, andthe children of suchunions are liable to be sacrificed, when
438 THE m om s.
those without. Let our cattle be so num erous that neither fish, frog, nor
worm m ay live in the drinking ponds beneaththeir tram pling feet. Let ourcattle so crowd our pastures that no vacant spot shall be visible to thosewho look at them from afar. Let our folds be so filled with the soil of
our sheep that we m ay dig in them as deep as a m an’
s height withoutm eeting a stone. Let our swine so abound that our hom e fields shall
need no ploughs but their rooting snouts. Let our poultry be so num e
rous as to hide the thatch of our houses. Let the stones at our fountainsbe worn hollow by the m ultitude of our brass vessels. Let our childrenhave it but for a tradition that in the days of their forefathers there weretigers and snakes. Letus have but one care, the yearly enlargem ent of
our houses to store our increasing wealth. Then we shal l m ultiply yourrites. W e know that this is your desire. Give 118 increase of wealth,and we will give youincrease of worship.
After this each individual present asks for what he
wishes ; and the priest con tinues
Um bally Eylee went to cut vegetables with a hook. She cut her fin
ger. The earth was then soft m ud ; but when the blood-drops fell i tbecam e firm . She said, “ Behold the good change ! out up m y body tocom plete it 1" The people answered, If we spil l our own blood we shallhave no descendants. W e will obtain victim s elsewhere. W ill not the
Dom bo and the Gahl sell their children when in distress l and shall we
not g ive our wealth for them ?”and they prayed thus
“May the gods send the exhausted Dom bo, his feet pierced withthorns, to our door !May the gods give os wealth.
”
Their prayer was answered. They procured and sacrificed a victim .
The whole earth becam e firm , and they obtained increase of wealth.
The next year m any victim s cam e for sale, and the people thanked thegods, saying , Youhave sent na victim s
, and have g iven us wealth.
”
Thencei‘
orward the world has been happy and rich, both in the portionwhich belongs to the Khonds, and the portion which belongs to Bajahs.And society, with its relations of father and m other, and wife and
child, and the bonds between ruler and subject arose. And there cam e
into use cows, bullocks, and bufi‘
aloes, sheep, and poultry. Then also
cam e into use the trees and the hills, and the pastures and grass, and irri
gated and dry fields, and the seeds suitable to the hills and to the valleys,and iron and ploughshares, and arrows and axes, and the juice of the
palm -trce, and love between the sons and daughters of the people,m aking new households. In this m anner did the necessity for the rite
of sacrifice arise.
Then, also, did hunting begin. A m an brought in a rat, a snake, and
a lizard, and inquired if they were fit to eat. Then the Earth Goddeu
cam e and rested on the Janni, and said to him ,
“ Give nam es to all the
wild anim als, distinguishing those that are fit and those that are naht
THE KHONDS . 439
foruse, and let m en go to the jungles and the hills, and kill the sam burand spotted deer, and all othergam e, with arrows and with poison .
”And
m en went to hunt.W hile hunting, they one day found the people of Darung
-abadi and
Laddabarri (tribes of the Souradah Zem indary, adjacent to Goom sur,
which do not offer hum an sacrifices) offering sacrifice. Their m anycurved axes Opened the bowels of the vict1m s, which dowed out. Theywho went to the hunt said, This cerem ony is ill-peri
'
orm ed. The god
dess will not rem ain with you.
”And the goddess left these awkward
sacrificers, and cam e with our ancestors. These people now cut trees
on ly. The deity preferred the sacrifice at the hands of our forefathers,and thenceforth the whole burden of the worship of the world has lainupon us, and we now discharge it.Tari Pennu in this way cam e with our ancestors. But they at firstknow only the form of worship necessary for them selves, not that neces
sary for the whole world . And there was still m uch fear ; and there
were but few children, and there were deadly snakes and tigers, and
thorns piercing the feet. They then called upon the Jann i, to inquirethe will of the goddess, by the suspended sickle. H e said, W e practisethe rite as it was first instituted, worshipping the first gods. W hat fault,what sin is ours ? The goddess replied, In a certain m onth, wash your
garm ents with ashes, or with stones ; m ake kenna ; purchase a childfeed him in every house ; pour oil on him and on his garm ents , and ask
for his spittle take him into the plain, when the Earth Goddess dem andshim let the Janni set him up call all the world let friendship reigncall upon the nam es of the htat pe0ple ; cut the victim in pieces ; leteach m an place a shred of the flesh in his fields, in his grain store, and
in his yard, and then kill a buffalo for food, and give a feast, with drink
ing and dancing to all . Then see how m any children will be born to
you, how m uch gam e will be yours, what crops, how few shall die. A ll
things will becom e right.
W e obeyed the goddess, and assem bled the people. Then the victim
child wept, and reviled, and uttered curses. A ll the people rejoiced,except those with whom the child had dwelt, and the Janni. They wereoverwhelm ed with grief ; their sorrows prevailed entirely over their
expectations of benefit, and they did not give either their m inds or their
faith to the gods. The world,” said they, “rejoices, we are filled with
despair ; " and they dem anded of the deity, “ W hy have you institutedthis m iserable heart-rending rite
'
i Then the Earth Goddess cam e again
and rested upon the Janni, and said, Away with this grief. Your answer
is this : when the victim shall weep,say to him , Blam e not na, blam e
your parents who sold you. W hat fault is ours ? The Earth Goddessdem ands a sacrifice. It is necessary to the world. The tiger begins torage, the snake to poison,
fevers and every pain afflict the people ; shallyoualone be exem pt from evil ? W hen youshall have given repose tothe world, youwill becom e a god, by the will of the gods.
440 THE knonns.
The victim answers
Have youno enem ies, no vile and useless child, no debtor to another
tribe who com pels youfor his debts to sell your lands ; no coward who intim e of battle skulks with another tribal Have younone of these to
seek out and sacn'
fice‘
l
The Jam ul—W e have acted upon quite difi‘
erent views. W e did not
kidnap youon the road, nor while gathering sticks in the jungle, norwhen at play . The souls of those whom youwould have us sacrifice can
never becom e gods. They are only fit to perish by epilepsy, falling inthe fire, or by ulcers, or other dread diseases. Such sacrifices would be ofno avail. To obtain you, we cleared the hill and the jungle, fearless of
the tiger and the snake. W e stinted ourselves to fill your parents , andgave them our brass vessels ; and they gave youto na as freely as one
gives light from a fire. Blam e them ! Blam e them !
The Victim .—And did I share the price which m y parents received !
Did I agree to the sale ? Younow tell m e this. N o one rem em bers hism other
’
s wom b, nor the taste of his m other’
s m ilk and I considered youm y parents. W here there was delicate food in the village, I was fed.
W hen the child of any one suffered, he grieved ; but if I sufl‘
ered, the
whole village grieved . W hen did you conceive this fraud, thi s wickedness to destroy m e ? You, 0 m y father, and you,—and you,—and you,O m y fathers ! do not destroy m e.
TheMullicko, or chief o f the village in which the vic
tim was kept, or his representive, now says
This usage is delivered down to na from the first people of the firsttim e. They practised it. The people of the m iddle tim e om itted it.The earth becam e soft. An order re established the rite. Oh, child, wem ust destroy you. Forgive us. Youwill becom e a god.
The Vtctim .—Oi this your intention I knew nothing ; I thought I was
to pass m y life with you. I assisted to build houses and to clear fields
for m y children. See l there are the palm -trees I planted. There is the
m owa tree 1 planted. There is the public building on which I laboured—its palings still white in your sight. I planted the tobacco which youare now eating. Look behind you! The cows and the sheep which Ihave tended look lovingly at m e. A ll this tim e yougave m e no hint of
m y intended fate. I toiled with youat every work with m y whole m ind.
Had I known of this doom , 1 had sti ll toiled, but with different feelings.
Let the whole burden of m y soul’
s grief, as I rem em ber the past, lieupon
you.
The Ohiqfi—Youare about to becom e a god. W e shall profit by yourfate. W e cannot argue with you. Do younot recollect that, when yourfather cam e to claim youruncom pleted price, yousnatched up a shin ing
brass vessel ; that we said, That is your father’
s,”and you threw it at
him , and ran away am ongst the sheep ? Do younot recollect the day on
442 THE knonns.
—A body anointed with spittle for oil ! Look, 0 world ! Look, and
tell See, how he com es at m e, leaping like a toad 1
The Janni replies
Child ! why speak thus? I am the friend of the gods ; the first intheir sight. Listen to m e. I did not persuade your father or yourm other to sell you. I did not desire theMullickos to sell their fields to
acquire your price. Your parents sold you. These Mullickos boughtyou. They consulted m e, inquiring, “ How m ay this child becom e
blessed ? " The hour is not yet over. W hen it is past how grateful wi llyoube to m e ! You, as a god, will gratefully approve and honour m e.
The Victim —My father begot m e ; the Mullickos bought m e, m y life
is devoted, and all will profit by m y death. But you, O Janni l who
m ake nothing of m y sufl'
erings, take to yourself all the virtue of m y
sacrifice. Youshall, however, in no respect profit by it.The J m m i .—The Deity created the world, and everything that lives ;
and I am his m inister and representative. God m ade you, theMulliekobought you, and I sacrifice you. The virtue of your death is not yours.but m ine ; but it will be attributed to youthrough m e.
The Victim —My curse be upon the m an who, while he did not share
in m y price, is first at m y death. Let the world ever be upon one side
while he is on the other. Let him , destitute and without stored food ,hope to live only through the distresses of others. Let him be the
poorest wretch alive. Let his wife and children think him foul. I amdying . I call upon all—upon those who bought m e, on those whose food1 have eaten, on those who are strangers here, on all who will now share
m y flesh—let all curse the Janni to the gods I
The Janm’
.-Dying creature, do youcontend with m e ? I shall not
allow youa place am ong the gods.The Victim —In dying I shall becom e a god, then will youknowwhom
youserve. N ow do yourwill on m e.
The cruelties of the absolute im m olation are now
drawing nearer and nearer still, and, in a few m inutes,the
'
victim will be torn to pieces, quivering with life, by
the fanatic and m addened crowd around him . The exact
spot for the sacrifice has been determ ined beforehand, i. e.
the night previous, and by a strange kind of divination .
A num ber of persons are sent in the dark with sticks in
their hands, and with orders to probe and poke som e
portion of the ground about the village in order to find a
crack or opening, for such is the spot indicated by the
Earth Goddess as the exact locality for the sacrifice. This
THE KHONDS . 443
being found, a short post is fix ed in it, in the m orning.
Round this they place four larger ones, and in the m iddle
the victim . The arm of a growing tree is now riven hal f
way down ,and the victim , forced into the cleft, like
Milo, is left for it to close on him ; the natural elasticity
of the tim ber being assisted by ropes round its open ex
trem ity . These the priest, with his assistants , draws
tighter and tighter . H e then wounds the victim
slightly with an ax e, and leaves him to the crowd. They
throw them selves on him ,and strip the hesh from the
extrem ities and trunk,leaving the head and in testines nu
touched.Such are the usual rites ; subject, however, to vari
ationa in the way of detail . In one district the victim is
slowly burn t to death, with horrible cruelties besides. A
low stage with a roof-like ridge is raised, and the victimfastened to it. Fire is then applied in such a m anner as
to m ake him writhe and struggle up and down the two
slopes alternately. The m ore tears he sheds the m oreabundantly will Tari allow a supply of rain. The next
day he is cut to pieces.
None but the worshipper can approach the victim .
S trong parties guard his rem ains against wild beasts the
night after the sacrifice, and, the next day, the chief and
priest consum e them along with the whole carcase of a
sheep,on a funeral pile . The ashes are scattered over
the fields,or m ade into a paste, and plastered over the
barns and granaries.
Two form ali ties are indispensable
1 . To the father or seller of the victim , as the casem ay be, a dhulj is given. This is a bullock
,equivalent to
a paym ent in full satisfaction of all dem ands.
2 . A bullock is sacrificed and m ade a feast of, with thefollowing prayer to Tari
444 m s 11110 1103.
0 Tarl Pennul Youhave afflicted na greatly have brought death to
our chi ldren and our bullocks, and failure to our com —have am icted usin every way. But we do not com plain of this. It is your desire only tocom pel us to perform your due rites, and then to raise up and enrich
na. W e were anciently enriched by this rite ; all around us are great
trom it ; therefore, by our cattle, our flocks, our pigs, and our grain,we
procured a victim and ofl'
ered a sacrifice. Do younow enrich us. Let
our herds be so num erous that they cannot be housed ; let children so
abound that thecare of them shall overcom e theirparents—as shall be seen
by theirburned hands ; letourheads ever strike against brass pots innum e
rable hanging from our roofs ; let the rats form their nests of shreds of scarlet cloth and silk ; let all the kites in the country be seen in the trees of
our village, from beasts being killed there every day. W e are ignorant of
what it is good to ask for. Youknow what is good forna. Give it tous .
When the victim has been cut to pieces, the deputies,who have been sen t from the several villages to receive a
shred of its flesh, return hom e . A t hom e, the few who
have rem ained behind , keep fast till their arrival. The
bearer of the flesh rolls it up in the leaf of the guglut
tree, and, when he gets near the village, lays it on a
cushion of grass, and deposits it in the place of the
public m eetings. H e then divides and subdivides it
am ongst the heads of fam ilies, saying
O Tari Pennul our village ofi’
ered such a person as a sacrifice, and
divided the flesh am ong all thepeople in honour of the gods. N ow, such a
village has offered such a one, and has sent na flesh for you. Be not dis
pleased with the quantity, we could only give them as m uch. If youwillgiveus wealth we will repeat the rite.
Other form ulas and feastings defer the full com pletionof the cerem ony until the fourth day from the return o f
the Jann i and his distribution of the flesh. A buffalo isthen slaughtered and feasted ou, its inedible parts beingleft for the spirit of the victim (Tokki, Keddi, or
Meriah) . Nor is this all . A year afterwards a hog issacrificed to Tari P ennuwith this invocation : O Tari
P ennu! up to this tim e we have been engaged in yourworship
,which we com m enced a year ago . Now the
rites are com pleted. Let us receive the benefit.
446 THE KHONDS .
no constancy is required on the part of the wife . A
wife, too , m ay qui t her husband, and take another, at
any tim e,except when she is eneeinte, within a year o f
her m arriage, or within a year of the birth of a child .
Nor is this all ; her property goes wi th her, being te
claim ed by her father . But the tribe at large is answer
able for the debts of its individual m em bers. Hence ,
when wives are capricious the com m unity suffers .
To any m an but a rich and powerful chief, who is able
to m ake large and sudden restitutions, and to his tribe, a
m arried daughter is a curse . By the death of our fem ale
infants before they see the light, the lives of m en without
num ber are saved, and we live in com parative peace .
The Soars.—Long as have been the notices of the Kols
and Khonds, they are but extracts from still m ore elabo
rate descriptions. O f the Sours I can give no such
accounts, having no data of equal or even approx im ate
m agnitude to refer to . As a general rule, they are said
to form the third or (coun ting the Uraon and Bajm a
halis) the fourth section of one great class , the so-called
aborigines of the eastern Ghauts, as opposed to the Bhi ls
and Kols of the west, and the Gonds of the cen tre .
With these they, in all probability, agree in m ost of the
points wherein they difl'
er from the ordinary Hindu.
Their area begins where that of the Khonds ends, and is
extended as far south as the Pennant—there or thereabouts . It is succeeded by that ofThe Chenehwars—an allied population, lying along the
m ountains that run southward, between the Kistna and
the P ennaur.
In one im portant respect both the Sours and the
Chenchwars differ from the Khonds, Kol, and Uraon .
They lie within the true Tam ul area, and, so doing, pre
sent no notable contrast,in the way of language, to the
THE KHONDS . 4—47
populations around them . Their languages are represented
by the following lists, in which the Chentsu(word forword
Chenchwar) presents the m ost Hindu form s—indeed , as
far as the following list is evidence, it is actually Hindi .
English. Khond. Savers .
lokka m andratlavu abobum u
kannuka am u
kirru luv
sudda sm ukaaham u
rakko m iyam o
pasukaju asi
vestam u aji
tam ba
W Y“
vonga
tute
togo
nayiaregna
anebagna
Gadaba.
lokkaho
ollo
nintiri
tum m b
g inna
yignam
supansoyi
vayi
pallamregan1
vondram goyi yam akatitti k)
’
adugesananu kerusim m ya
kondasing i
arkotsukka
eungol
rogg ilu
birelsunabbo
pam m aru
m enu
berulitarra
tsukka
nerupu
aru
kelluchede
m arom
vondu
rendum um e
nalu
anju
aru
yeguyettu
om badu
pottu
C hentsu.
m anus
m undayenkhl
kan
m u
dat
1ahu
had
but
khojudin
sarg
bolam asu
bhudaka
agin
ladipaththar
gate
As for the Kol form s of speech, they seem to extend
considerably towards the west, inasm uch as m ore than one
of the dialects from Gondwana, and (as such), ao nom ine,Such are the C tir and Chunuh
H indi .
Gond is decidedly K ol.
448 THE soups.
specim ens. The details, however, of the line of dem ar
cation are obscure.
The Gonds.—Mutatis mutandis, what applies to the
Sours and Chenchwars applies to the Gonds—they areKol
,Khond, or Uraon in the points wherein they m os t
especially differ from the Hindus. O f the details o f
their creed we know but little. O f the poetry or legend
the following is a sam ple
Sandsurniee’
s song bear, 0 Father.
S ix wives he took, S ing-Baba not born,
Seventh wife took, by her S ing-Baba was conceived .
0 1 her pregnancy Father was not inform ed .
Departed Father, his kinsfolk being assem bled together.For this reason to som e one it happened to ofl
'
er a sacrifice to a God .
Hereupon Sing-Baba began to be born.
Sm all wife was sleeping, the other six were there.
Said they, grain basket’
s m outh into her head letus introduce.
In our house child is born,So said, so done, into m outh her head introduced,And S ing
-Baba was born.
S ing-Baba having taken up, into buil'
aloe’
s stable threw,And a puppy instead placed,And said, a puppy is born.
A puppy having brought forth,Crows to frighten they set her,S ing-Baba, bufi
'
aloes said, that him let none hurt,N orblow strike, and into his m outh m ilk having poured him suckled .
The six wives said, let nago and see him , is be living or dead ?S ing-Baba was playing.
Thence indeed having taken him into cows’ stable threw.
The cows said S ing-Baba let no one hurtOr blow strike, into his m outh m ilk pouring him suckled,Therefore inform ation they sent to seek, is be living or dead ?Sing
-Baba was playing.
Thence having taken well into threw.
On the third day having gone to see, is be living or dead ?S ing
-Baba there indeed was playing.
Thence indeed having taken, tiger’
s path upon .
They threw him , tiger’
s fem ale and m ale were com ingSing-Baba
’
s cries they heard.Tigress com passion felt, m y child it is .
"
450 THE KOLS , ETC .
There indeed not inj ared, thence taking 1 know not where took .
S ing-Baba they questioned that thence youwent where 1
H e said of m y m other ask.
They m other-tigress askedYouwhere found ! She saidOn m y road these six wives threw away !I having taken brought, m y whelps weaning,Milk him suckled and here there with preyMy young fed . A ll-understood, tigress
’
Feet em braced, and her a God established.And these six wives to this Tigress gave.
That day S ing—Baba illustrious becam e
And Tigress indeed as a God established becam e.
O f Sandsum jee Baba this song is,O i Bhirry bam boo jungle Bhirri the song is.
In the original the first ten lines run thus
Saudsum jee-na sfika kuyftt, ro Bi bi n,Sark ask kitur, S ing-Baban hillé pfittfir,Yirrfin ask kitfir, awi té S ing
-Bfibfin autarietfir.
Auli r yétana Baban pfinwaké .
Taksitl’
m Baban, tunwa pari sum pté hifiléBariké bonke aie penk putta sika.
H ikké S ing-Baban putti-lé-ai latur.
Loro askna sowati, sari’
m m utta .
Awi tun, koti aunaté tulla dn’
irissi , assun inga chawa putti,”
Ud it, ahé kint annate tullatt’
m durritfin.
The Kol or K tilis of Guj erat.—These differ from the
Ghonds, & c . , in speaking a language, that (in the pre
sent state of opinion) is held to agree with the Hin dirather than the Tam ul ; in other words, they are tribeswho
, from being in closer con tact with the Gujerati, and
Mahratta Hindus, have either unlearned their own tongue,
or adopted so m any Hindi words as to disguise it. Miscellaneous notices concerning them have already been
given .
TheMairs.—These seem to be the Kols, Bhils, Khonds ,
or whatever else we choose to call them , of Marwar, as
TheMinas are those of Mewar ;
TheMaghz'
a being those of Am ber or Jeypur.
THE BH ILS . 45 1
That their occupancy is the hill country rather thanthe plains, and that it reaches the Ganges has alreadybeen stated . They are the hill m en of the A ravulli.
The Bhils.-These also have already been m entioned.
They extend far towards the north . In the desert to thenorth and north-west of Marwar, they approach the frontier of Sind .
In Marwar itself they are num erous. Between Sirohi
and U dipur they constitute the chief population , being the
occupants of a hilly district, in sm all com m un ities under
leaders with the title Rawut. The Rawut of Oguna, when
Tod was in his country, could m uster as m any as 5000
bows. H e was in all but nam e independent, paid no
tribute, obeyed no one. O ne of the Colonel ’s m en ,who
penetrated into these parts, found that the Lord of the
Mountain was dead, his m en abroad,his widow alone in
the but. H e told his story, and asked for a passport.
This was an arrow from the quiver of the late chief. It
carried the bearer safe through the whole coun try . The
sym bolic power of the arrow has already been noticed .
Mahm fid of G huzni was told what it m eant in Turkistan,when he held his dialogue with the Tshagatai chief.In Malwa the Bhilalahs are Bhils, with a certain
am ount of real or reputed Rajput blood . They com
bine the pride and pretensions of the Rajput, with thecunning and roguery of the Bhils, and appear to be,without exception , a debauched and ignorant race,often courageous from constant exposure to danger, butinvariably m arked by an equal want of honour and
sham e. Many rem arkable instances of their being of
this character cam e within m y knowledge. The Bhil
lalah and Sundi chiefs were the only robbers in Malwa,
whom under no circum stances travellers could trust .
There are oaths of a sacred but obscene kind am ongstG G 2
45 2 THE san s.
those that are Rajputs, or who boast their blood, which
are alm ost a disgrace to take, but which they assert the
basest was never known to break beforeMundrtip Singh ,
a Bhilalah, and som e of his associates, plunderers on the
Nerbudda, showed the
The great centre, however, of the Bhi ls is Kandeish,
itself the alluvium of a river, but encom passed withm oun tains. To the north lies the Satptira range, the
watershed to the Nerbudda and the Tapti. To the souththe Satm alla and Ajunta ranges give an easterly spur tothe Ghauts. This is what the Bhil coun try is in the wayof physical geography. Politically speaking, the spacebetween them is bounded by portions of the Guicowar
,
by portions of the H olkar, and by portions of the Nizamterritory. Three agencies, however, are British.
1 . The north-west
2 . north-east Bhil agency .
3. southern
The Bhil districts take in a portion of the area between
the Ghauts and the sea,—the Daung or Dang country, a
land o f forest and jungle . Hence, we m ust be prepared
to hear of the Dang Bhils. So we m ust of the Satpura
(or northern), and Ajunta (or southern) Bhils . TheMahabarata m entions the Bhils. The Mahom etan histories
of Gujerat and Malwa m ention them . The Kandeish
records say little about them . The inference is, that thelatter are late in date ; in other words, that all Kandeish
before it was Mahratta, was Bhil, rude and unlettered.Another fact in favour of this view is the circum stance of
m any Bhil tribes being Mahom etan. This m eans that
Mahom etanism was the first powerful influence thatacted on them . In Baglan, to the north and north-west,
Malcolm '
s Central India,vol. 11 . p. 1 56 .
4-54 THE BH ILS .
The Burda,
The D orepi, and
The Khat“, of the north-west, basket-m akers, cultivators, and gum -collectors. It is to the wax and gum
collectors in general that the term Khotil is applied .
Then com e, ruder still, allied in wildness, but separate in
occupancy ,The N ahal , on the Tury i frontier .The Bhils drink . They m arry as m any wives as suits .
They rob . They reverence their chiefs. They swear on
a strangely-foul m ixture of salt, cow-dung, and jowaré .
They have the credi t of keeping oaths thus sworn . They
play on an instrum ent which Scotchm en com pare to thebagpipe .
The Kalapurruj , Durio,Naiko, and Chowdri are Bhils,who
,from the western side of that jungly part of the
Ghauts which is known as the Dang Forest, have spread
them selves over som e of the lower levels, especially over
parts of Bugswara. They are sm all-m ade,bright-eyed,
dark-skinned ; shy and locom otive ; skilled in the use of
the bow ; professors of sorcery. Their chief respect they
show to trees and stones rem arkable for either size or
shape. The death of a child, a cow, or even a few fowls,will m ake a whole fam ily m igrate from the village in
which it took place to som e less ill-om ened spot.
The W dréli .—The warm have Marathi nam es and
speak the Marathi language. When asked What are the
nam es of your wives the answer was, W e never m en
tion the nam es of our wives.
” When further pressed, each
m an gave the nam e of his neighbour’s, no one that of his
own wife. Girls m arry at twelve or thirteen ,boys at sixteen
or seventeen . The dialogue, conducted by Dr. Wilson
and the Rev. J Mitchell on one side,and som e W éréli of
THE WARALI . 455
the parts about U m argaum in H avoli pergunna (a Portugueze dependency) on the other, from W hich the pre
ceding statem ents have been taken ,thus proceeds :
Do yougive any instructions to your children ? Yes, we say to them ,
Don’
t be idle, W ork in the fields, Cut sticks, Collect cow-dung, Sweep thehouse, Bring water, Tieup the cows.Do yougive them no m ore instructions than these ? W hat m ore do
they need ?Don
’
t youteach them to read or write ? N o Wfiralis can either read or
Do yougive them any instructions about God ? W hy should we speakabout God to them ?W hat God do youworship ? W e worship Waghifi (the lord of tigers).Has he any form ? H e is a shapeless stone, sm eared with red lead and
ghi (clarified butter).H ow do youworship him ? W e give him chickens and goats, break
cocoa-nuts on his head, and pour oil on him .
What does your God give to you? H e preserves us from tigers, gives asgood crops, and keeps disease from us .
But how can a stone do all this for you3 There is som ething besidesthe stone at the place where it is fix ed .
W hat is that thing ? W e don’
t know we do as our forefathers showed
W ho inflicts pain upon you? Waghis, when we don’
t worship him .
Does he ever enter your bodies ? Yes, he seizes na by the throat like aout, he sticks to our bodies.Do youfind pleasure in his visits ? Truly, we do.
Do youever scold W i ghifl To be sure we do. W e say, Youfellow,we have given youa chicken, a goat, and yet youstrikeus ? What m ore
do youwant ?Do younever beat W i ghia? N ever.
W hether do youbury or burn your dead ? W e burn them .
What interval occurs between the death and the burning ? W e allowno interval when the death occurs during the day. When it occurs duringthe night, we keep the body outs ide till the break of day.
W hy are youso hasty in the disposal of your dead ? Why should wekeep a eorpse besideus ?W here does the soul go after death ? How canwe answer that question ?W hen a m an dies in sin, whither does he go l H ow can we answer thatquestion 1Does he go to a good place, or a bad place ? W e cannot tell.
Does he go to heaven or to hell'
! H e goes to hell.
W hat kind of a place is hell ? It is a bad place ; there is sufi‘
ering in it.
W ho are in hell‘
l W e don'
t know what kind of a town it is.
46 6 THE wuum .
W here do good people go after death ? They go to Bhagavan.
Don'
t they go to Waghial N o, he lives in the jungles.
W here is Bhagavan‘
l We don't know where he is, and where he is not.
The W h ali believe that the country which they now
occupy has always been theirs . A line drawn from
Dam aun to Jowar cuts their country . S o does a line
drawn from Jowar to the Dhano creek. In m any places
they com e within a few m iles of the sea. This m eans
that the hills which give its southern feeders to the
Dam aun and its northern to the Surya rivers are W i rfili .
Som e belong to British, som e to P ortugueze, India ;som e to the independent State of Jowar. The tribualsystem prevails am ongst them , the tribes being num erous .
There are, am ongst others, the
Ravatia
Bantria
Bhangara
Bhavar
Sankar
P ileyane
Kondaria, & c.
N0 m an m arries a wife of his own division .
The Kathhuri or Katadi .—These take their nam e from
the hath or cat-echu, of which they have alm ost the exclusive
preparation . They are sm all and dark,with low fore
heads and curly hai r. They have a belief that they are
descended from the m onkeys and bears which A di
N arayun , in his tenth incarnation of Raina, took wi th
him for the destruction of Rawun , king of Lenka. H im
he conquered . Meanwhile, the prom ise was m ade to hisursine and sim ious allies that in the fourth age they
should becom e hum an beings. They object to m en tion
ing the nam e Ram a, except on their death-beds ;
46 8 THE urom .
Katodi of Kolaba. English.
akh
Take
shida Give
alav Turban
kirlfi D og
kfikdai Boy
gohur Girl
chfim boti Crow
nagfilia Man
Crane bugad Wom an
The m iserable huts of the Katodi stand outside the
villages. The brown-faced m onkey is one of the few
anim als whose flesh they hesitate to eat. They say that
it has a hum an soul .The Mhers, like the K atodi
,live on the outskirts of
villages, and are abhorred by the Hindus. They cut
wood and grass. They m easure land . They rem ovecaresses from the towns
,eating those of buffaloes and
bullocks.
THE TELINGA , ETC . DISTRICTS . 459
OHAPTER X LV .
The Telinga, Canarese, Tulava,Malayalam , and Tam ul districts .
WH EN theMahratta area, on one side, and the Uriya, on the
other,have been left behindus
,the con tinuous and hom o
geneous character of the rem aining population can no
longer be overlooked . There is no longer a question as to
whether the proportion of Sanskrit vocables in the languagesbe sufficient to either disguise their character or effect atransform ation . Whatever m ay he m ean t by Hinduafli
nities, the affinity itself is now out of sight. Neither are
there any populations like the Kols and Bhi ls, the Mairs
and Minas ; where the language and blood are believed to
differ, the form er belonging to the north, the latter tothe south . All south of the Mahratta and Uriya districtsis,in speech at least, either Tam ul or Tam uliform .
There are derivatives from the Sanskrit in abundance ; but these derivatives are not only foreign to the
original language in the way that the French of the Nor
m an conquest is foreign to the speech of England, but
are adm itted, on all hands, to be so . The creed, however,is Hindu.
The creed in the Tam ul districts is Hindu,even as it is
Hinduin Rajputana or Bengal .
But it is not wholly and exclusively Hindu in either
Bengal or Rajputana. Neither is it in the D ekkan .
There are m ountains and forests in both areas, and the
46 0 THE TELINGA, ETC . m srm crs.
m ountain and the forest have ever been the fastnesses in
which the older creeds, the older habits, the older physi
ognom ies, and the older dialects of a country, resistan t to
the encroachm en ts that change the ethnology of the level
plains, longest linger. The analogues of the Kol andKhond, the W érfili and Katodi, are num erous in southern
India. In southern India, however, their language belongs
to the sam e class as that of their m ore-civilized neigh
bours, and (ao doing) fails to create contrasts . To som e
extent, however, contrasts exist ; and, to som e extent,they will be noticed .
Again—in even the m ost Hinduparts of the districts
under notice there are custom s and beliefs which, if
found at all in the other parts of India, are, by no m eans,very prom inent and characteristic . In other words, there
is Hinduism in the south in abundance, but there is also
m uch that appears to be other than Hindu—o ther, and
apparently older.A s a general rule, the Tulava and Malayalam countri es
exhibit extrem e form s of the Telinga, Canarese, and Tam ul
peculiarities.
As a general rule, such peculiarities as appear in an
extrem e form in the Tulava and Malayalam di stri cts , and
in a m oderate one in Canara and Malabar, are to be
found, in som e shape or other (either fragm entary or
rudim entary) , in northern India. This m eans that the
differences are differences of kind rather than degree.
A t the sam e tim e, the Dehkan is Indian in the way
that Brittany is Parisian ,or Wales English . The politi
cal relations and the creed agree. The blood disagrees to
a great extent, the language to a greater extent still .
O f predial slavery there is m ore in Tam uliform India
than in Hindostan proper.
S o there is of the Jain, or sem i-Buddhist, creed .
46 2 THE TELINGA,ETC . DISTRICTS .
Circus,as to whether they or the Pallas m ove on such
or such a side at such and such processions. Then there
are som e half-dozen lower groups with m em bers of whichno Pariah will in term arry or eat. But each of thes e
groups is equally exclusive. What is the true in ter
pretation of this ? This has already been suggested .
The four great divisions are genera ; the m inor classes,whose nam e is legion , are species. I f the Pariahs are
anything, they are instances of a fifth genus . Outcasts or
abj ects they m ay be. They are not m en without cast.
Whatever they are, they are the m ost num erous, eo
nom ine, at least in southern India—in southern India
,
where the standard of the highest is but low in southernIndia, where the m agnates are Sudra.
The characteristic, however (if it be one) , which hascom m anded the m ost attention is that of polyandria.
In the presen t work it has already been noticed . It isTibetan and Tam ul , but it is North Am erican as well .It is m ore or less African . It is m ore or less a practice
of m any countries. I am unwilling to give it a general
character. I prefer to exhibit a few concrete instances.
Am ongst the Moyler of the Tulava country, a widow,
tired from celibacy, but restrained from re-m arriage,m ay
go to a tem ple and eat som e rice . She m ay then choosebetween living in the tem ple or out of it. If she decide
upon being an indweller, she takes a piece of cloth and a
daily allowance of rice. She then is bound to sweep the
tem ple, fan the idol with a yak’
s tail, and subm it herselfto the em braces of m en of her own cast only . The sons
of Brahm in wom en are called Moylar. They wear the
Brahm inical thread, and em ploy them selves about the
tem ple . The girls are given in m arriage to them .
The out door prosti tutes (for this is what they really
POLYANDRIA. 46 3
are) m ay cohabit with any one of pure descent. They pay,however, a sum not exceeding half a pagoda to the
tem ple.
Com pare this with the accounts given by Herodotus of
the practice in the Assyrian tem ples.
In theMalayalam country theNairs are Sudras—Sudras,but often soldiers. They fall into eleven classes, of which
three are superior to all the rest, and, m ore or less, on an
equality with each other . Thus, a Kirit m ay m arry the
daughter of either a Sudra or a Cham adu, whose pro
fession is akin to his own . The fourth class, however,are palanquin-bearers, and the tenth and eleven th are
potters or weavers. The m en take their wives before
they arrive at puberty . After consum m ation, husband
and wife live apart, the latter in the house of her m other
so long as she lives, and in that of her brother after
wards. Doing this, she is free to cohabit with any one
she chooses ; with any one or with any num ber of ones.
It is only necessary that her lovers be her equals or supe
riors in cast. The consequence is, that no Nair son knows
his own father, and vice versd , no N air father knows hisson . What becom es of the property of the husband ?It descends to the children of his sisters. The eldest
m ale m anages the landed property . The personal isdivided . A m an
’
s m other m anages his house when she
dies, his eldest sister. Brothers, as a m atter of course,
live under the sam e roof. Should one separate from the
rest, he takes a sister with him . This is the descensus perum bilieum
,—part and parcel of polyandria ; polyandria
being N air, but not Nair exclusively .
The purity of cast is continually im paired ; where is it
not ? But there are ways and m eans by which a partial
reparation is effected . In m any cases the original difference is of no notable am ount ; and when this is the
46 4 POLYANDRIA.
case, the offspring follows the condition of the lower of
its parents. If the m other be higher than the father,the father’s cast is the child’s also . I f the father be the
higher, the child goes to the side of m other.
But what if the difference be great ? In this case it is
of no im portance, provided that the father he the higher of
the two progenitors. But if it be the m other, suicide or
abortion is the result,—we m ay alm ost say the rem edy.
When the abandonm ent of cast is on the side of the
fem ale, so that a wom an of either high or m iddle rank
has conceived by a m an of the lower (and that such cases
actually happen, is the express statem en t of Mr. Cald
well), the child never sees the light. The m iserablem other either destroys herself, or procures
English. Tam ul. Malayalam .
Man al al
H ead talei tala
H air m ayir talam udi
kadu kadakan
vayl
pal
elum ba
m attei
46 6 THE Tum s, m'c.
range between them and the Mahratta frontier. The
N ilgherry Hills, however, are the parts which have beenbest investigated. They give na
The Tudas.—Infanticide polyandrists, who are few in
num ber, and less Hindu than their neighboursThe Kohatars. -Occupants of the lower ranges
, and
eaters of beef
The Curum bars, Curum ars, or CurbsThe Im lafi—(com pare the nam e W arah) , and
The Budugurs—all fragm entary, pagan , and sem i-pagan
populations. In the Tuda creed the black stone has a
prom inent place. The fuller form of the word is Tudava,apparently, word for word, Tulava.
TheMalearasar.—These are the analogues to theTudas,
& c . , in the hills of the Malayalam country.
éhwchumc qf lbanguaga
Robatat . Budugur. Curum bar. Irular
ale, m anna m anija m anisha m anisha
pem m age hennu hennu ponnu
m ande m ande m ande telc
kannu kannu kannu kannukive kive kive kadupalle hallu hallu palluvai bai bai vai
netra netra netaru latta
yelave yellu yellu yellam bn
kalu kalu kalu kalukei kei kei kei
nale dina dina nalu
potte bottu bottu podutiggalu tingla
holla niru pallan iru niru danikicheba kicheba tu
tee
y onduemndu
nnuru
naku
m s TUDAS , ETC . 4-6 7
Kohatar. Curum bar.
anje eiduare aru
yeye yellu yellu yettayetts yettu yettu yetta
N inc anpath vorupade vom battu vom battu vom badu
Ten path patte hattu hattu pattu.
O f these, the Budugur and Curum bar are som ewhat
m ore Hindi than the rest ; the Tuda being the m ost pe
culiar.
n u”
46 8 THE sm einm ss .
CHAPTER XLVI.
Ceylon—TheMaldives and Laceadivea—Migratory and other populationsof Continental India.
IN one im portant point Ceylon differs from ContinentalIndia. It is, to a great extent, Buddhist. In Continen
tal India there was only an approach to Buddhism . In
Ceylon it actually exists , ea nom ine, and with its own
proper literature ; a literature of which the Pali, rather
than the Sanskrit,is the vehicle.
That there were traces of what was called D iabololatry,or Devil-worship , in Southern India has already been
stated . When Siva en tered the country (so runs the
doctrine), he found him self unable to extinguish the
ancient worship of the aborigines, without, to a certain
ex tent, allying him self with it. S o he m ade him self his
own son, nam ed Vira Bhadra, whose wife Bhadra Cali is
the patroness and m other of the present Shanars, whose
business it is to cultivate the palm yra tree, and whose
cast is one of the very lowest . They belong to the Con
tinent. Their cultus, however, illustrates that of the S in
ghalese.
When an offering to a devil has to be m ade, a devil
dancer is sought out from either the head m en of the vil
lages, or from som e am ateur devotees who are often fem ales.
There is no regular priesthood . The officiating individual
dresses him self as som e particular devil,with cap and
470 THE S INGHALESE .
0 then great devil Maha-Sohon, take away these sicknesses by accepting the offerings m ade frequently to thee.
—The qualities of this devil arethese he stretches his long chin, and Opens wide his m outh like a
cavern : he been a spear in his right hand, and grasps a great and strongelephant with his left hand. H e is watching and expecting to drink theblood of the elephant in the place where the two and three roads m eet
together.
Infinenced by supernatural power, he entered the body of the princescalled Godim bera. H e caused her to be sick with severe trem bling sicknem . Com e thoupoorand powerleudevil Maha-Sohon to fight with m e,
and leave the princess, if thouhast sufi cient strength.
Ouhearing these sayings, he left her, and m ade him self like a bluecloud, and violently covered his whole body with flam es of fire. Furiouslystaring with his eyes, he said, “ Art thoucom e, blockhead, to fight withm e who was born in the world of m en ? I will take youby the legs, anddash youupon the great rock Maha-m eru, and quickly bring youto no
thing.
”
Thouwast born on Sunday, the htat day of the m onth, and didst receiveperm ission from the King of Death, and didst brandish a sword like a
plantain-leaf. Thoucom est down at half-past seven, to accept the offerings m ade to thee.If the devil Maha-Sodon cause the chin-cough, leanness of the body,
thirst, m adness, and m ad babblings, he will com e down at half-past seven,and accept the offerings m ade to him .
These are the m arks of the devil Maba-Sohon : three m arks on the
head, one m ark on the eye-brow and on the tem ple ; three m arks on the
belly, a shining m oon on the thigh, a lighted torch on the head, an oii'
erh
ing and a flower on the breast. The chief god of the burying-place willsay,May youlive long !Make the figure of the planets called the em blem of the great buryingplace, as follows : a spear grasped by the right hand, an elephant’s figurein the left hand, and in the act of drinking the blood of the elephant bybruising its proboscis.Tip the point of the spear in the hand with blood, pointed towards the
elephant's face in the left hand. These efligies and offerings take and
ofi‘
er in the burying-plaee, -discerning well the sickness by m eans of thedevil-dancer.Make a figure of the wolf with a large breast, full of hairs on the body,
and with long teeth separated from each other. The efligy of theMahaSohon was m ade form erly ao.
These are the sicknesses which the great devil causes by living am ong
thetom bs : ehin-cough, itching of the body, disorders in the bowels ; windycom plaints, dropsy, leanness of the body, weakness and eonsum ptionaH e walks on high upon the lofty stones. H e walks on the groundwhere three ways m eet. Therefore go not in the roads by night : if you
do so, youm ust not expect to escape with your life.
THE SINGHALESE. 47 1
Make two figures of a goose, one on each side. Make a lion and a dog
to stand at the left leg, bearing four drinking—cups on four paws—andm ake a m oon
’
s im age, and put it in the burying-place.
Com b the hair, and tie up a large bunch with a black string . Put
round the neck a cobra-capella, and dress him in the garm ents by m akingnine folds round the waist. H e stands on a rock eating m en
’
s flesh.
The persons that were possessed with devils are put in the buryingplace.
Put a corpse at the feet, taking out the intestines through the m outh.
The principal thing for this country, and for the S ingalese, is the worshipof the planets.
’
That the m ore im practicable districts of so large an
island as Ceylon should con tain the analogues of the Bhils,Kols, Khonds, and their congeners, is what we expect it
priori . W e also expect that the analogues of the Pariahsand the so-called outcasts will be forthcom ing. There isBuddhism in Ceylon it is true, and it is also true that the
Buddhist creed is opposed to m any distinctions uponwhich Brahm inism insists. A t the sam e tim e there is
enough of the latter to develope the ordinary phenom ena
of Hinduism,and these ex ist to a considerable extent .
The population which, on the strength of its pagan or
sem i-pagan wildness, has com m anded the m ost attention,
bears the nam e Veddah, a nam e which is, m ore or lessgeneral, and which is apparently of Hindu origin . It
certainly applies to a very rude class of Singhalese.
Whether, however, they represent the aborigines of theisland, or whether they are the equivalen ts to the Pariahs,is uncertain . I know of no m onograph that gives us the
details of their creed . I learn , however, from D r. Rost,who has kindly favoured m e with m ore than one valuablefact relating to the population under notice
,that their
language varies but little from the com m on Singhalese .
N ow , the com m on Singhalese is far m ore Sanskrit thanei ther the Tam ul or the Malayalam ; far m ore Sanskrit
From Callaway’
s Translation of the K old n N allm m um a
472 m e sm om m sr.
than any m em ber of the class these languages
belong .
English. Singhelel e.
purabaya
Wom an
H ead oluwa
akkhi
ehakshuh
hattho
Blood lohitam
tArukawa eitert
Water udakam udakam
474 THE MALDIVE ISLANDERS .
English. Maldivean.
The chief alim ent is from the cocoa-nut-tree ; the
cocoa-nut-tree and fish.
In all parts of India there are num erous populations
of settlers, or colonists, rather than true natives. There
are, for instance, Tam ul labourers in Ceylon , Telinga
fam ilies in the Tam ul and Canarese countries, Canarese
in the Mahratta districts, and vice versd. What occurs,m ore or less, in m ost parts of the world occurs to an
inordinate extent in Hindostan. The details, however,of these settlem ents lie beyond the pale of our present
inquiry.
Then there are the locom otive, or m igratory classes
analogues of the travelling tinkers and pedlars of Eu
rope, analogues to the gipsies of Europe. In Britain
the gipsies are wanderers without fix ed habitations ;whilst, at the sam e tim e
,they are m ore abundant in som e
parts of the island than others. They have no very defi
nite occupation ; yet they are oftener tinkers and tinm en
than aught else equally legal . They interm arry with the
English but little. A ll this is cast, although we m ay not
exactly call it so. Then, again ,they have a peculiar lan
guage, although it is so im perfectly known to the m ajorityof the British gipsies as to have becom e well-nigh extinct.O f the chief of the tribes in question a good account
THE m cauonr m ums. 475
is given byMr. Balfour. This list, however, which is asfollows, m ay be enlarged.
l . The Bunj aras, or Bunj an-is.—Lum bari is another
nam e for the population . S o is Gohur . According to
Balfour the latter is the nam e by which they designate
them selves. This is probable ; since it m eans, in their
language, m an. They are bullock-owners ; and as the
bullock is the chief beast of burden, they are grain
m erchants. Their com m unities are called Tanda, theirchiefs Naik. They afl
'
ecta Rajput descent, and fall into
the four following divisions.a. Bahtar, on the head-waters of the Wurde on the
Gondwana frontier ; the field of their operations extending to Mysore south, and the Concan west.6 . The Burtiah
, to the east of the preceding, from Chi
cacole to Nellore.
c. The Chouhan,in Mysore.
d. The P owar, in Orissa, and on the east of Gondwana.
Akin to the Bunjaras ar2 . The Multum '
s of the parts about Aurungabad , whoem igrated from Multan in 1739 . They are Mahom etans.
3. The Beopari are also carriers and traders of the
Deccan
4. The H im -shikari,or H irn-pardi, who call them selves
Bhonri , are hunters. They fall into the following tribes,two of which bear Rajput nam es
Rhator, or Mewar 3. Sawundia
2 . Chouhan 4. K orbiar
5 . Kodiara.
The chiefs of their com m unities are called H ewlia ;
their festivals H oli . They steal as well as hun t.
5 . The Tarremuhi.—This is what a class of wandering
tinkers call them selves ; being also called, by others, Ghis
sari, Lohar, and Bail-kum bar.
476 THE m casroar TBIBES .
6 . The Korawa.—In Bejapur, Hyderabad, and O s
nara, the Bajantri or G aonka Korawa are m usicians,basket-m akers, and, real or supposed, thieves, who tattoo
them selves.
7 . The Bhatu train them selves for the perform ance of
feats of strength,which they wander from village to vil
lage to exhibit.
8 . TheMuddihpur earn a“ living by catching fish wi th
nets, and their wom en earn a little by knitting, and by
tattooing the dark blue m arks on the foreheads o f the
brahm ins and lingaets ; but their chief occupation is the
exhibition of the transparencies used in representing the
battles of the Panch Pandya,five brothers
,whose exploits
are, we believe, detailed in the Ram ayana. The figures
are painted on deer-skin with very brilliant colours, and
the story being one the Hindunever tires in listening to,in every village after night-fall youm ay see the represen
tatien of the battles, and hear the K eeli Katr describingthe heroes’ deeds.
Their fem ales are very virtuous ; and one wom an
has been known to give birth to twelve children . Reading and writing is unknown am ongst them . Their dressand food are the sam e as the Hindus am ong whom they
dwell .
They live in square huts form ed of grass sewed to
gether, the whole being, perhaps, a rupee in value. These
they them selves m ake, and carry with them at their
periodical m igrations, which custom renders obligatoryevery three m onths—a longer stay would
,they say, sub
ject them to som e dire calam i ty ; and as the third m oonpasses by, the spot that yesterday was a m erry encam ping
ground,is to-day a desolate and unoccupied waste .
TheMuddikpur seem to have no idea of a Suprem e
being. They pay their devotions to the transparent
478 THE MIGRATORY TRIBES .
nerpu
The wandering life of these, and other sim ilar tribes, is
not, by itself, sufficient to justify na in separating them
from the other Hindus. But i t does not stand alone.
The fragm ents of an earlier paganism , and the fragm ents
of an earlier language, are phwnom ena which m ust be
taken in conjunction with it. These suggest the likeli
hood of the G oburi, the Bhatti, and their like, being in
the sam e category with the Khonds and Bhils, &c .,i . e.
representatives of the earlier and m ore exclusively
Tam ul populations. If the gipsy language of England
had, instead of its Indian elem ents, an equal num berof words from the original British
,it would present the
sam e phe nom ena,and lead to the sam e inference as that
which is drawn from the Bhatti, Bowri , Tarrem uki, andG ohuri vocabularies, viz . the doctrine that fragm ents
of the original population are to be sought for am ongstthe wanderers over the face of the country, as well as
am ong the occupants of its m ountain strongholds.
FOREIGN ELEMENTS . 479
The following a list of words apparently,
slang term s
English.
Foreign setllers.—The classes just enum erated were
Indian . The following, though occupan t of the soil of
India, are foreign to it. Som e of them have already beenm en tioned . A long list, however, of alien elem ents will
be given ,in order that the very heterogeneous character
of the ethnology of India m ay stand forth in its full dueprom inence.
l . P ersian.—Parsis in Gujerat,Mekrani soldiers, &c.
2 . Biluch.—In Sind and Bahawulpur.
3. P atan (i . e. Afghan) .—In Rohilcund and parts of
theMahratta country.
4. Arab.—The Moplahs of the Mahratta and Tulava
districts, savage, bigoted, and dangerous Mahom etans.
5 . Jewish.—The Beni Israel of K olapur. The Jews
of Cochin .
6 . Syrian and P ersian .—There is, probably, both Syrian
480 FOREIGN ELEMENTS .
and Persian blood am ongst the so-called S t. Thom as
Christians of Cochin .
7. Arm enian.—In Calcutta, Decca, &c.
8 , 9 . Turk and Mongol.—This is the blood of m any of
the royal fam ilies ; also of m any settlem ents original ly
10. Afi-iean.—The Sidi
, & c.
1 1 . European.—Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French,
English .
O f these, the Persians, Biluches, P atans, Turks,Mon
gols, Africans, a nd Portuguese, have m ost m ixed themselves, by m arriage, with the natives ; the Jews and
Arm enians the least.
482 THE MALAYS
than other m em bers of the sam e stock . Again , the skull
of theMalay is said to grow narrow towards the vertex
so that, with its prom inent cheekbones and sm all chin ,
the Malay face resem bles a lozenge or an ace of diam onds .
That this is true of som e Malays I by no m eans deny .
It is true, I believe, of m any . A t the sam e tim e,the
induction that such notices suggest is far from beingsufficiently established . It rests on too sm all a num ber
of observations.
The sam e criticism applies to the notices of the tem per
and disposition of the Malay tribes. S om e are sullen ,
or at least, abundant in sullen individuals. Others, how
ever,are cheerful ; fond of m usic, fond of song. There
is nothing in the m oral and m ental constitution of the
Malay to justify any broad line of separation between
them and their frontagers.
The real characteristic of theMalays is connected with
the area which they occupy, and (so connected) is, in the
first instance at least, rather a poin t of physical geography
than proper ethnology . The Malays are the m ost insular
population in the world . All Sum atra is Malay . S o is
all Borneo . With a slight change of type the Philippinesare the sam e. The only Malays occupan t of any portionof the continent are those of the narrow tongue of lan d
which runs south of Siam till it ends in the island of
S incapore. This is the Malayan Peninsula—no island,but, as its nam e denotes, a near approach to one ; and, asits nam e denotes, aMalay occupancy . Such proxim ity tothe sea cannot fail to exert an influence on the habits andaptitudes of the occupants of the countries to which itappertains. It m akes them m ariners perforce, or, doing
less than this, encourages m aritim e enterprize,m aritim e
activity, m aritim e civilization . W e m ust expect to findtrading com m un ities in such localities. W e m ust not be
or THE MALAYAN PENIN SULA . 483
surprised to find pirates. Malays, too, in outlying and
distant areas m ust not surprise us. Malays, too, we m ay
find in the m iddle of London ; just as we hnd Indiansfrom Calcutta,Madras, and Bom bay ; Malays who haveform ed part of som e English ship ’
s crew . More num e
rous still, both in Liverpool and London, are the
Philippine islanders—short and thick-set m en ,w ith the
dress and garb of an English or Span ish sailor. Walking
behind one of these, we m ay fancy that it is a countrym an of our own whom we are following . It is only when
we see his face that we find the difference.
Much has been written about the excitability of the
Malay character,and the influence of stim ulan ts upon it,
m uch about the state of m adness into which a Malay
m ay work him self when under the influence of an
apparently uncontrollable passion he abandons him self to
a violent anim al paroxysm and runs am uck (am ok is the
nativeword) at all he m eets like the old Berserks of the
Scandinavian sagas. That Malays do this is true, and i tis, perhaps, true that they do it oftener than the indi
viduals of other stocks. Yet the Chinese and m anyother populations do the sam e . The Chinese, too ,and othernations are quite as capable as the Malays of gam blinglike m adm en, and staking their whole personal possessions, their freedom , and even their life, on the strength
and courage of a cock or quail.
It is the tribes, however, of the Malayan Peninsularather than the great Malay group in general, which are
now under notice - the tribes of the only portion of the
old continent which have yet to com m and atten tion .
They fall into two divisions, ( l ) the pagan or sem i
pagan , and (2) the Mahom etan ,the phenom ena which
have presented them selves in India being re-presented
here. For Hindu,” read Mahom etan ,
”and for
I 1 2
484 THE ssm ne.
Khond or Kol, read Orang Benua, and, mutatis
mutandis, the now fam iliar contrast between the occupan t
of the sea side or fertile plain, on one side, and the
m ountain or forest, on the other, will reappear. In the
m ore im practicable districts of the Malayan Peninsulatraces of an original paganism are abundant. Engraftedupon this will be found traces of Indian influence
,in
the shape of Brahm inic and Buddhist creeds ; som etim es
as purely Brahm inic or Buddhist as in India itself, but
oftener in either a fragm entary or r udim entary form ,
fragm entary where it has been overlaid by a subsequen t
conversion to Mahom etanism , rudim entary where it hasnot been strong enough to eradicate the aboriginal super
stitions. The third series of influences is from Arabia,
for the Malays, in the m ore lim ited sense of the word, are
Mahom etans.
With these prelim inarieswe m ay enter upon the detailsof the Mahom etan and Pagan populations of the Malayan Peninsula ; taking care to distinguish between them .
The form er will be called Malays, the latter Orang Benua.
Orang m eans m an, whilst benua m eans soil, land, or
country, so that orang benua m eans m en of the soil. The
words belong to the proper Malay language, and are ap
plied by the Malays to the natives of the land around.
In the present work they will be used even m ore widelythan they are used in the Peninsula. They will be ap
plied as a generic denom ination to all the older tribes of
the Peninsula, and to their analogues, or equivalents in
the islands. They will beused, in short,m uch as the word
aborigines is used in ordinary ethnography. Particular
nam es, however, will be given to particular divisions of
them . O f these the first and m ost northern con tain
The S em ang tribes.—Sem ang is aMalay word ; a word
applied by the Mahom etans of Keddah, Perak, Tringanu,
48 6 THE oam e BENUA .
the com pany stand outside and sing. This invokes a spirit,
who takes possession of the couple ; indicating the fact
by som e m ysterious noise . When this has been heard,the possessed pair com e out, and say their say ; every
word of which is believed to be inspired.
Kedah .
tum kalbadonkay
m ed
m uk
ban
The Sakai are the Orang Benua of Pahang, or rather
Sakai is the Pahang word for an aboriginal .
Between Pahang and Johore lies a term incognita, covered
with jungle and occupied by a population of dam m er and
rattan gatherers, whose habits have yet to be described, but
which are probably those of the
07'n Benua of the southern third of the peninsula, i .a.
Johare.—The great repository for the ethnology of the
populations under notice, as well of m any others, is the
Journal of the Indian Archipelago, the chief authori ty
being the Editor, Mr. Logan . From his paper upon
what he calls the Mintira tribes of Johore, the whole of
THE onus BENUA . 48 7
the following account is taken . WhetherMintira be thebest and m ost conven ient denom ination is doubtful . Som e
o f the tribes to which the description applies, are called
Jakun, or Jokong, a nam e which has, for som e tim e, been ,
m ore or less, current. It will be used in the present work
when wan ted . The nam e,however, is of less im portance
than the description . This is that of the pagan or sem i
pagan Orang Benua of Johore.
The general form of governm en t is patriarchal . Each
tribe, village, or settlem ent is under the direction of an
elder or Bétin . Under the Batin com e two subordinates
term ed Jennéng and Jurokra. The Pawang is the equi
valent to the priest,or physician . When a Batin dies, the
nearest relation presents his eldest son to be elected as his
successor. I f the tribe refuse him ,the second son is put
up and if he be refused, a third. S o on till the fam ily isexhausted
, and a fresh one tried . Mutatis m utandis, thisapplies to the Jennang and Jurokré. also except that the
Batin (and not the tribe at large) appoin ts them .
The social and political relations between the OrangBenua and the Malays are easily understood. W e
know beforehhnd what they will be . The Malay willdespise the Orang Benua, the Benua hate the Malay .
Nevertheless there will be som e slight degree of inter
m arriage after the ordinary jus connubii of different populations . Malay m en will take to them selves Benua wivesfar oftener than Benua m en will take wives from the
Malays . This m eans that there will be m arriages of dis
paragem ent,in which it is m ore usual for the m an to
elevate the wom an than for the wom an to elevate the
m an . Children thus produced can scarcely be called halfbloods, so little is the difference between the two original
stocks.
W e know, too, what to expect com m ercially. The
48 8 THE om ue BENUA .
Malays will buy and sell with the Benuas ; but they will
buy cheap and sell dear. They will be the only popula
tion that com es in im m ediate contact with them ,and,
they will take care and pains to keep others away.
The dress is no dress but sim ply the chawat, a narrow
strip of cloth passing between the legs, and fastened round
the waist. Som etim es this is of cloth, but the ruder and
m ore aboriginal m aterial is a piece of beaten bark . The
m ore general the use of the chawat, and the m ore prim i
tive its fabric, the ruder the tribe. The wom en are the
first to abandon it substituting for it the sarong orMalay
petticoat. For this reason the words chawat and sarong
have alm ost a technical m eaning. They will often te-ap
pear ; som etim es in speaking of countries where other
term s are current.
The m ore elaborate ornam en ts are plain brass rings and
bracelets . The ears are pierced ; the size of the bore
being, like the use of the chawat,a rough m easure of the
rudeness of the tribe. Som etim es there is a sim ple per
foration ; as large, perhaps, as a quill, but not m uch larger
than the weight and size of the ring requires. Som etim es,a wooden plug, a rolled leaf, or a piece of
‘
cloth replacesit. Som etim es the hole is artificially and indefin itely en
larged by the insertion of wooden pins or rollers gradually
increasing in size.The teeth are filed.
The first of the stim ulan ts is, perhaps, tobacco . The
cigar into which it is rolled is called roho. The wom en
sm oke it as well as the m en ,and when they take it out of
their m outh transfer it to their ear.
The characteristic of the dwelling-house is, that i t israised on posts or piles ; som etim es driven in the ground,som etim es consisting of trees cut down . A rude ladderleads to an Open doorway . The walls are of bark
, the
490 THE oarm e BsN iJA .
the Indian Archipelago and Am erica, that I em unwill
ing to hazard any negative statem ent .
The forest supplies snakes, which are not uncom m on
articles of food, m onkeys, which are com m oner still,deer
,and wild hogs. These they catch in pitfalls, or
hunt with dogs . The latter, the com panion of m an in
so m any countries, is found in every fam ily. S om etim es
there are several . S o is theMalay cat. S o is the dom es
tic fowl .For catching pigeons and other wild birds, they have
several kinds of bird-lim e.
After the body has been buried, a fire is lit over thegrave, and kept up for three or seven nights to prevent
the hantu, or spirit of the deceased, from crying under
ground. Another practice consists in placing a bam boo
stake close to the nose of the corpse, so as to act as a sort
of funnel for the gases engendered by the decom positionof the body to escape . It is chiefly confined
,however
,to
children i t being held, that should their in tegum entsbe allowed to burst the living m other would sym pathizeW ith them .
The m ost characteristic weapon is the sum pitan . With
the tribesunder notice it is about seven feet long, and m ade
of bam boo. It is about three-fifths of an inch in diam eter.This
,however
,is not thick enough for its length so it is
enclosed in a larger one. Hence, the true instrum en t isa sum pitan within a sum pitan ; the bore being m ade bythe hands of nature. The Dyak weapon is very skilfully
contrived. It consists of a sim ple piece, artificially perforated . This difference between the natural and the artificial bore, will re-appear in South Am erica. Som e tribeswill bore their own sum pitans : others cut them ready
bored. The arrows are about ten inches in lengthtipped with the poisonous juice of the ipoh .
THE ORANG BENUA . 49 1
The m ythology of what we m ay call the con tinental
Malays will not com m and m uch of our atten tion at
present. In m ore than one of the islands it will show
itself in a fuller, and m ore instructive form . It is sufficien t to say, that its basis is that of the paganism of the
rude tribes of Ava, Siam , and Asam , the paganism of an
untutored population of the inter-tropical districts of
south-eastern Asia. More or less of i t has been seen
already ; the sam ples being m iscellaneous and fragm entary.
The ethnologist regrets that they are thus exhibited.H is data, however, are fragm entary and m iscellaneous .
H e can only lay before the reader such facts as happen to
have been recorded. It m ay be, however, that these are
enough to convey a general idea—and a general idea of
Asiatic paganism , whether northern or southern, whethereastern or western, in the form that it took before eitherParsiism or Buddhism , Brahm inism or Mahom etanism ,
effected their respective m odifications is all that in the
present state of our knowledge is possible. And, in re
spect to the paganism under notice, it is a patent fact, aswill be seen when we com e to Borneo
,that both Brahm i
nism andMahom etanism have m odified it.
In respect to physical form , one of our best authorities,the French m issionary, M Favre, was inform ed, inanswer to his questions about the Jakuns of Johore, that
they were darker than those of Pahang ; in other words,that the latter were whiter and fairer than the form er.They were as white as Europeans. They were num erous.
They were also valuable as articles of com m erce sellingwell at the town of Pahang, and selling well at S iam .
They were sm all, however, in size ; though com ely . The
Malays form ed parties to hunt them , and beat the forest
for them just like Eumpeans at a deer-hunt. A re thesesim ply fairer fam ilies than the allied populations, or are
492 THE onm e BENUA .
they, m ore or less, albino ? Probably the form er other
persons who have seen this species of Jakuns, tell m e that
they are not so white as Eum peans, but that they ap
proach m ore to the colour of the Chinese, which is m ost
probable .
"
In the im m ediate neighbourhood of the town of Ma
lacca, the aboriginal population is but scanty, the whole
num ber being, perhaps, under 400. M. Favre, whovisited those of Reim , Ayer Baro, Gassing, Kom m ender,Bukit Singhi, the river Muar, P ankalang kota, P oghalay,Sagu, Lem on, Segam on , and the river Pago, found
am ongst them traces of an interm ixture of Portuguese,probably on the fathers ’ side . S o at least he interpreted
the following signs . After having been persuaded to
visit the town of Malacca, they asked to be shown the
upper part of the door of the fortress, on which they
found the sculptured figures of a king and queen of Por
tugal . These they said were their ancestors. Many
others, sim ilarly questioned, said that they were the descendants of the Orang puti or white m an ; a statem ent
that certain resem blances to the lower class of MalaccaPortuguese confirm ed ; as did the highly probable report
that m ore than once crim inals or m alc'ontents had fled
from the city into the interior—betaking them selves to
the bush, after the fashion of outlaws of every age and
country. A dd to this that m ore than one Portugueseterm is said to be found in their vocabularies.
S o m uch for the general statem en t as to their likenessto the Portuguese . When we com e to the details wefind it repeated. They are specially stated to be as tall
as the com m on run of Europeans, and to be dark-skinned.
O n the other hand their hair is m ore frizzled, a point re
m inding us of the Sem ang.
Putting all this together I com m it m yself to the doc
49 4 MALAYS .
But why , if the population are really akin, should
there be any doubt as to the kindred ? Surely the
Malays of Sum atra, if they were actually the descendants
of certain pagans of the continen t, would, despite the
difference of creed, have recognized their ancestors.
By no m eans . Changes m ay have been effected in
either of the two occupancies. Changes m ay' have been
effected in both. L et na look to what has happened
in our own island in respec t to our own relations with our
congeners of Germ any .
In the eighth century the Angles of Great Britain ,
them selves originally Pagan Germ ans, took an interest in
the spiritual welfare of the so-called Old Saxons, a tribe
of Westphalia, im m ediately related to their own con
tinental ancestors ; these Old Saxons having retained their
prim itive Paganism . The m ission partly succeeded, and
partly failed.
Now, if in addi tion to this partial success of the Angle
m ission, there had been a partial Angle colonization as
well , and if, side by side W ith this, fragm ents of the old
unm odified Paganism had survived am ongst the fens andforests up to the presen t tim e, we should have had, in the
relations of England and Germ any, precisely what I
im agine to have been the case with the Malayan peninsula
and the island of Sum atra. Like Germ any, the peninsula would have supplied the ori ginal stock to the island ;but, in the island, that stock would have undergone cer
tain m odifications. W ith these m odifications it wouldao to say
—have been reflected upon the continent—re
colonizing the old m other-country. But would the
Christians from England have recognized in the pagans of
Germ any their cousins ? In the tim e of K ing Pepin
possibly. In the tim e of Charlem agne—probably. In
the tim e of the electors o f Hanover—certainly not,—not
THE BIDUANDA KALLANG . 495
at least, without that am ount of literary knowledgewhich we as Englishm en possess, but which the Malaysof Sum atra at the tim e of their separation, and the
Jakuns, at the presen t tim e,are without.
Two divisions of the Orang Benua have a special interest.1 . TheBiduanda Kallang of the parts about S incapore.
Their present locality is the banks of the m ost southern
of the rivers of the peninsula, the Pulai. Thither they
were rem oved when the British took possession of the
island of S incapore ; of which they were previously the
joint occupants—joint occupants , because they shared it
with the tribe which will be next m entioned . They were
boatm en rather than agriculturists. But they were only
freshwater sailors ; since, though they lived on the water,they avoided the open sea. They form erly consisted of
one hundred fam ilies ; but have been reduced by sm all
pox to eight.Their priest or physician is called hom e , and he invokes
the hantu, or deities, the am'
to of the Philippine Islanders,the iii of the Tahitians ; and, probably , the wandong and
vintana of Australia andMadagascar respectively.
They bury their dead after wrapping the corpse in a
m at ; and placing on the grave one cup of w om an’
s m ilk,one of water, and one of rice ; when they entreat the
deceased to seek nothing m ore from them .
Persons of even the rem otest degree of relationship are
forbidden to interm arry .
The account of their physical appearance is taken
from too few individuals to justify any generalization .
Two,however, of them had the forehead broader than
the cheekbones, so that the head was pear-shaped. In a
third,it was lozenge-shaped. The head was sm all
,and
the face flat. The lower jaw projected ; but not the
496 m s om se SLETAR.
upper—ao that when viewed in profi le, the features
seem to be placed on a straight line, from which the pro
m inent parts rise very slightly.
2 . The Orang S letar.- The original j oint-occupants of
S incapore with the Biduanda Kallang, were the Orang
S letar, or m en of the river S letar difi'
ering but little from
the form er. O f the two fam ilies they are the shyer, and
the m ore squalid ; num bering about two hundred indi
viduals and forty boats . Their dialect is Malay,spoken
with a guttural pronunciation, and with a clipping of the
words.
A t the birth of a child they have no cerem onies ; at
m arriage a present of tobacco and rice to the bride's
m other confirm s the m atch : at death the deceased iswrapped in his garm ents and interred.
Skin diseases and deform ities are com m on ; nevertheless, m any o f their wom en are given in m arriage to both
Malays and Chinese ; but I know of no account of them ix ed progeny.
A low retreating forehead throws the face of the Orang
S letar forwards, though the jaw is rather perpendicularthan projecting.
498 Rsrsosrsor.
action and re-action is the world we have just surveyed,and, m ost assuredly, we can ,
with all propriety and con
venience, pause and look back .
Our first retrospect was partial . It took-in Asia alone.
Yet it was convenient. It gave a m easure of the relative
im portance of, at least, four great classes, the Tunglis, the
Mongol, the Ugrian, and (above all in m agnitude and in
fluence) the Turk . But even this it gave incom pletely.
The Turks (to go no farther) had only a fraction of their
history exposed . Did we not see, when India and Persia
were under view, that, in both countri es, Turk conquests
had been effected ? To have m entioned these, however,in the first instance, would have been to an ticipate .
Then there are the Sarm atians—conquerors like the
Turks. And the Germ ans—conquerors like the Sarm a
tians. And the Rom ans—conquerors too ; conquerorsand civilizers—great as a m aterial, great as a m oral power.
A nd the Greeks—conquerors to a great, civilizers to a
greater,exten t. A nd the Arabs, and the Jews—the Se
m ite populations in general .O f these I shall take m y view from a point in the region
of theory. Let us look at certain physical conditions, and
ask how far they m ay determ ine the com portm ent of the
populations to which they apply.
That the cold and darkness of the extrem e north are as
unfavourable to the developm ent of bodily strength as theenervating heat of the tropics is adverse to the strenuousand continuous exhibition of either physical or m oral
energy, is true as a m atter of fact ; no truer, however,as a fact, than the plain and patent inference from i t in
favour of the tem perate zone being that which best pro
m otes activity and enterprise. That it should do this is
what we expect dpriori . That it has actually done this is
what we hnd from observation . A population lying m id
ZONES or conqussr. 499
way between the Arctic circle and the tropic, provided that
it felt the instinct of aggression and conquest (and what
populations fail to feel it would strike as with a double
edged sword. To the north it would sm ite the poor and
weak, the undersized and the ill-provided ; to the south,the enervate and the opulent—loving peace notwisely buttoo well . The populations who thus create fear on both
sides are, one and all, the occupants of an area which
is as truly, in the way of history and ethnology, a zone
of encroaching conquerors, as the tem perate is a zone of a
m edium clim ate.
It is scarcely too technical to call it a zone of conquest.
That the lines by which it is bounded shall exactly coin
cide with those that give the parallels of latitude is im
probable. It is rather to be expected that they will run
irregularly—like the isotherm als. They do ao . Fromthe m outh of the Elbe to the m outh of the A m ur the
ethnological areas are as follows -1 . Germ an, 2 . Sarm a
tian, 3. Ugrian, 4 Turk, 5 . Mongol, con
cerning each of which the following general statem entsm ay be m ade.
Their occupants have efl'
ected encroachm ents upon theareas of their frontagers, both north and south whereas
,
from neither the south nor the north has any one of the
fron tier populations perm anently dispossessed the m en of
the m iddle zone .
In detail1 . The lir
'
nit of Germ any to the north is the Arctic
Ocean ; on the very edge of which are to be found the
Swedes and Norwegians of S candinavia. O n the south ,the displacem ent of the older occupants has been less.
France, however, is a Germ an nam e : the Duchy of
Beneventum was a Lom bard occupancy : Catalonia is
the land of the Goths : Murcia is the March. So nearly
500 ZONES or CONQUEST .
has the whole of western Europe been overrun from
Germ any. What, however, are the Keltic, the Spanish,the Italian, or Greek occupancies in Germ any
2 . Sarm atia, like Germ any, is lim ited only by the ocean .
Archangel is Russian , just as Ham m erfest is Norwegian .
Ragusa is Slavonic. The Slavonic elem ents in Greece
have long com m anded attention .
3. The Ugrian class is, at the present tim e, in such a
fragm en tary condition, that it appears to give an ex cep
tion . Several Fin populations, however, have been de
cidedly intrusive and encroaching. Most especially have
they extended them selves northwards . That the F in
lander has encroached upon the Lap is evident from what
is going on before our eyes at the present m om ent. That
the Voguls and Ostiaks are from the south has already
been suggested. That the Magyars of Hungary are from
the north is a m atter of history.
Now, however, the Ugrians are a broken stock . W ho,
however, are the m en who have dispersed them ? To
what groups and latitudes do they belong ? Very nearly
to those of the Ugrians them selves. The Turks have en
croached from the east : the Sarm atians from the west.Between the two, the once wide U gria, like iron betweenham m er and anvil, has been denationaliz ed. It belonged
to a class o f strong occupancies. O f that class, however,it was the weakest . It was the land of neither the horsenor the cam el . With an inconsiderable sea-board, it hadvast and alm ost im penetrable forests.
That, even in those parts of Russia where the speech is
Slavonic, the blood is, to a great extent, Ugrian ,has
already been stated. Besides this—even now—the Finof Finland is spoken within the Arctic Circle, theMagyarof Hungary, on the Danube.4. There are
,at presen t, Turks on the Mediterranean,
502 CIVILIZATION .
Central Europe) were always form idable . As long, how
ever, as they were pure Barbarians, the effect of their
inroads were evanescent. They were the perm anent con
querors of great and consolidated em pires only when they
becam e tinctured with civilization .
Now the physical condi tions of civilization are by no
m eans those of the physical condi tions of rude strength .
Clim ate has som ething to do with them ; soil som ething ;sea! board m ore. In the m ind, however, of the present
writer, the prim e im pulse is given by the m utual contac t
of dissim ilar populations with dissim ilar wan ts . If so,
civilization is the product of neither blood nor nationality .
It is rather a resul t of the con tact of m ore nationalities than
one. The natural history, however, of civilization is one
thing ; anthm pology and ethnology another ; and allied, as
the three subjectsundoubted]y are, they still differ. With
out, then , going in to the physical part of the subject,I content m yself with drawing attention to the historical
im portance of those great fam il ies whose occupancy is
the parts where Europe, Asia, and Africa join ; where a
narrow neck of land separates the Indian Ocean from the
great inland sea of Europe, and where the Nile from thesouth, and the Dnieper from the north, bring Sarm atia
and E thi opia within the sam e great com m ercial basin of
the Mediterranean ; in the eastern end of which I believe
that civilization arose—the civilization of the world at
large —native to the parts in question—native to no other
part of the world beside .
Out of the m any fictitious dualism s with which the ao
called philosophy of history abounds, I believe this of the
centre of civilization and the zone of m aterial force to
be real. I f ao, it tells us what to upset. A little
consideration shows that it is easier for the hardier
populations of the north to adopt the civilization of
CIVILIZATION . 503
their southem frontagers than for the natives of the
south to invest them selves wi th the robuster energies of the
north—north and south here m eaning Germ any, Sarm atia,and Turkistan on one side, and E gypt, Syria, Greece,and Italy on the other. Hence, when the ao-called Bar
barians adopted the arts of Greece and Rom e, the situs
of the great powers was changed.
Turks and S arm atians.—A s long as the civilization of
the southern frontier of the m iddle zone was nascent
or incom plete, the Turks and Sarm atians, whose ethno
logical history has yet to be duly investigated, were the
great encroachers. To each, I believe that m any of the
pre-historic influences are to be referred—to the Turks
m uch of the nationality of Asia Minor, Persia, Syria,Arabia, Northern Africa, and (not im possibly) Italyto the Sarm atians m uch of what passes for Italian,Greek, Germ an, Scandinavian ,
Median, and Indian.
The details, however, of the evidence upon which these
surm ises rest are far too lengthy to find place. The
author has exhibited them , m ore or less fully ,‘ elsewhere.
H e would rather increase than dim inish the areas of his
previous speculations.
Since the civilization of the southern frontier (in the
consideration of which Mahom etan Arabia m ust not be
overlooked) has been diflii sed, Germ any, Slavonia, and the
Rom an ized portions of Iberia and K eltiké, have given
forth the predom inant influences. All of which have
superadded to the ruder elem ents of their original
strength, the forces deducible from the art, the literature,the policy, the science of both Greece and Italy,—of
Italy as acted on by Greece, of Greece as acted on by
Phenicia and E gypt—acted upon , itself an agent.
0 Especially in N ative Races of theRussian Em pire, and the Germ anic
504 CIVILIZATION .
Gm nans .—The ethnology of the Sarm atians involves
that of the Germ ans, the original m agni tude of their
respective areas being a point upon which current opinion
is open to grave exceptions. A s a m atter of history it
was the Elbe which, in the tim e of Charlem agne, divided
Germ any from Slavonia ; to the east of which river no
Germ an occupancy existed . I hold that in the tim e of
Tacitus the relations of the two areas were the sam e ;
believing that the contrary opinion, in favour of all the
nations whose nam es appear in the Germ ania of Tacitus
being actually Germ ans, is utterly untenable . I f so ,
the southern side of the Baltic was Sarm atian . If so,
a Sarm atian conquest of Scandinavia, anterior to that
effected by the G erm ans, is probable. How far there is
actual evidence in favour of one is another question . In
the m ind of the present writer there is a great deal .That the Vandals were Slavonians rather than Germ ans,
and that the actual Germ ans of the history of the Lower
Em pire were only Goths, so far as they intruded themselves upon the country of the Getae are, in the m ind of
the presen t writer, both im portant facts, and facts thatm agnify the early im portance of the Sarm atians, and
dim inish that of the G erm ans .
Indeed, the extension of the Germ an influence has
been effected alm ost wholly within the historical period,subsequent to the extension of the Rom an Em pire north
wards ; and, generally speaking, from points where Rom an
civilization had, m ore or less, established itself.Kelte.
—The test of language m akes the Keltic one
of the subordinate di visions of m ankind ; the populations which speak the Breton and the Welsh, theManks or the Gaelic, being, one and all, in a fragm entarycondi tion, and the individuals of which they consist
being counted by the thousand rather than the m illion .
506 cm m zn‘
lon.
would run over m any pages. What has been already
written is written solely with the object of com bining
the acknowledged influence of the great m aterial powers,
like those of Germ any, Sarm atia, and Turkistan, as well
as those of Greece, Rom e, Syria, and E gypt with a
theory, or hypothesis, which places them in the con
dition of the elem ents of a generalization .
W ood ie]! and K m der, Fram ers. Angel C ourt. bkm ner S treet. London .
OTHER W ORKS ON ETHNOLOGY,
BY DR . R . G . LATHAM .
NATURAL HISTORY of the VARIET IES of MAN .
8ve, Illustrated, £1 18 .
MAN and his MIGRATIONS . Foolscap 8vo, 5a.
ETHNOLO GY of EURO PE . Foolscap 8vo, 63.
ETHNOLO GY of the BRIT ISH ISLAND S .
8vo, 50.
ETHNOLO GY of the BRIT IS H COLONIES and DE
PENDEN CIFS . Foolscap 8ve, 53.
JOHN VAN VOORS 'I‘, 1 , Pam nosrsn Row.
The NATIVE RACES of the RUS S IAN EMP IRE .
H . BAILLIERB, Ream STREET .
W O R K S O N P H I L O L O GY.
BY D R . R . G . LATHAM.
I
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