prayers has arrived, but the intima- and these rupees again for cotton tion also means that their gardens cloth, lead, and gunpowder, strikes are about to be opened to the public. him as rather beneath his dignity, In one or two, portions of the Koran and makes him think uneasily of his may be read; but the most usual fierce forefathers. By way of being amusements are gossip, story-telling, independent, he is savage and surly. bhang and arrack drinking, opium His broad hairy chest, and long and tobacco smoking, beating on the sinewy arms, are those of a man dol or kettle-drum, praying, howling, whose boast is, that in close combat singing, and dancing. There the he can strangle his foes, or tear out Eastern mind may be seen to perfec- their windpipes. Even the boldest tion, with its union of romance and of us would shudder at the idea of meanness, of mystery and grossness. being overpowered by that demon, Of course, as the night advances, mat- and of looking up hopelessly for ters do not improve. The holy men mercy into the wild-beast eyes which become more excited, less particular glare ferociously under his shaggy in regard to forbidden things, and brows, and villanously low forehead. howl more. The dol sounds more Even the Pathans, however, are furiously; the dancers (among whom, by this time, are women) dance until they fall down from fatigue or intoxication; and the stories become quite frightful when they are not incomprehensible.

rather savage men, though they dare not put their peculiar notions into practice when, as merchants, they are travelling or sojourning in a strange country. During our residence at Kurrachee, some fifteen or In the cold season large numbers twenty of them were sepoys in the of Affghans and Belooches come 8th Regiment of Native Infantry, the down to Kurrachee with horses for rule having been abrogated which, at sale, and encamp on the meidan or one time, forbade their admission inplain, close to the Fairshed. Each to the Anglo-Indian army. The concaffilah, or small caravan, has its sequence was that a number of sinhorses picketed in a circle, within gular outrages were perpetrated, which they sleep round a fire, and which for some time quite baffled seldom with any other covering than the police. Sindees and Cutchees a large burnous, or sheepskin coat. were found lying dead-killed, apThe Affghans, or Pathans, as they parently, by stones thrown with call themselves, are often large fair great force and dexterity. Officers' men, with strong bodies and fleshy bungalows were entered at night, limbs. Some of them have even and robbed while the inmates wert light-coloured hair and eyes. They are all very bold and independent, without being insolent; treating Europeans as equals, but taking care not to break any of our regulations. They are also very conversible, and have many stories to tell about the dangers they escaped on the way down with their horses, from the Belooches, whom they both fear and abominate, calling them Adam-khoor, or men-eaters, an appellation which, in its literal meaning, is quite undeserved. These last mentioned are evidently quite out of their element on British territory, and do not show to advantage as commercial men. Like Catiline, the Belooch is alieni appetens, sui profusus; he likes to take violently, and he likes to give patronisingly, but this matter of exchanging horses and dogs for Company's rupees,

sleeping. The police puggies or trackers (in a desert country like Sind, footsteps are easily tracked, and some men specially devote themselves to the occupation) could find nothing more suspicious than what appeared to be marks of camels' feet. The boldness and unprecedented character of the outrages threw speculation quite at fault. Considerable alarm was excited in houses outside, or on the outskirts of the camp; and revolvers immediately rose to a premium. A quarrel among themselves, which led to the treachery of one, disclosed that these depredations were committed, and that very systematically, by the Affghans of the 8th Native Infantry, who managed to steal out at night, in small parties, from the lines of their regiment, and who baffled the puggies by binding up

their own feet in rags, a stone being
placed under the instep, so as to leave
no distinct impression of a foot upon
the sand. It being thought expedient
to capture some of these ruffians in
the act, a trap was laid for them, the
desperate resistance they were to offer
not having been anticipated. The
captain of police and his lieutenant,
both English officers, concealed them-
selves, with a few friends and native
police, in a bungalow which had been
fixed upon for robbery. Two Pa-
thans entered the garden about two
o'clock in the morning: and a stone,
skilfully thrown by one of them, killed
the dog at once. At first they mis-
took the police for their comrades;
but, on discovering their mistake, they
fought so furiously with stones and
with their long knives, that it was not
until they were, literally speaking,
cut down that they could be secured.
Captain M., who at Meeanee had
killed several Belooches in hand-
to-hand conflict, had some of his
teeth knocked down his throat
by a stone which one of the robbers
hurled.

merchants
The horsedealers and
encamped at the Fairshed perpe-
trated no such crimes; and though
they must have been sorely tempted
to rob each other, they wisely ab-
stained. Perhaps it was difficult for
them to do so; for each party had
its watchful guardians, in the shape
of those large, shaggy, dun-coloured,
savage bear-dogs, which are to be
found among all the mountains which
sweep from Cape Monze up to the
sources of the Indus, and round to
Thibet. The appearance of these
animals is usually something between
that of a Newfoundland and a dog of
the St. Bernard breed; but in some
of them a cross with the wolf or the
hyena is quite apparent. One dog,
which we picked up at Bela in Be-
loochistan, was marked exactly like a
hyena; it had no bark, only a howl,
carried its head like a wild beast, and
was very intractable and treacherous.
Several experiments with dogs pur-
chased from Affghans were not very
encouraging, for they refused to ac-
commodate themselves to anything
like civilised life. Only one could we
attach to our own person, and there
he stopped, resolutely refusing to

acknowledge such things as friends
and acquaintances, and holding ob-
stinately by the theory that his mas-
ter's hand was against every man.
When loose, he lay in wait for all
visitors, and cunningly attacked them
behind just as they were entering
the bungalow; when chained, he
barked and howled until he broke
loose, or worried himself into tem-
porary suffocation. To the nowker
log, or domestics, he was an object
of the utmost dread and veneration.
In vain they attempted to propiti-
ate his favour by giving him choice
morsels; he took the meat, but growl-
ed at them all the time to show
they
incorruptibility. When
his
entered our sitting-room, he would
steal behind, and playfully give
their calves a gentle squeeze, just to
remind them what they were about.
Nothing could reconcile him to the
mehtur, or sweeper, who, under pro-
occasionally;
tection, washed him
that unhappy individual applied for
an advance of wages, and finally left
our service, on the ground of his life
When we dined
being in danger.
from home, that dog's face was cer-
tain to look in at the door, in order
to see if we were safe; but an uncon-
querable aversion to society pre-
vented him from entering farther.
We cannot altogether ascribe to him
the character which Byron gave to
his dog-"strength without inso-
lence, courage without ferocity, and
the large
all the virtues of man without his
vices:" but not even
hound who lies at our side, looking
up with intelligent soft brown eyes,
as if he knew what we are writing
about, can altogether compensate for
the loss of that rough savage Kootch
that

"Poor dog, in life the firmest friend, The first to welcome, foremost to defend; Whose honest heart was still his master's own, Who labour'd, fought, breath'd, lived for him alone."

Besides the Asiatics we have alluded to, there is excellent opportunity in Sind for studying the Brahuis, who abound also in Beloochistan. They are supposed to belong to the aborigines of Asia, to the Vindhya race, which is to be found in the Deccan, and of which Burton supposes there

evil demons circling over the earth; the black wall of the great sand-storm coming up before the wind and hiding the sun; the red sandstone peaks, where

"Faint and sickly winds for ever how! around;"

are traces even in Arabia. Considerable doubt may easily be thrown on this view; but suffice it here to note, that the traveller may meet numbers of Brahuis without venturing into or beyond the dangerous defiles of the Hala. The budgerows bring over Arabs from Mascat to Kurrachee, and Persians from the Gulf. Artisans from the flaming wilderness of rock, where Kutch and Guzerat are to be found no signs of life refresh the eye; the in considerable numbers; as also sun-blacked Belooch haunching his merchants and contractors from the ill-conditioned but trusty mare in a Punjaub. It is even recorded that a clond of dust, as he half threatens Frenchman once made his appearance with his braggart sword; the pains in the cantonment, but found no one of the scorching ride; the annoyance who could speak with him except Mr. of the noisy arrangements; the danFrere, the able and accomplished gers of the night encampment;commissioner in, or governor of, might not such things be remembered the province; and in our day a veri- with pleasure long after they had table Tübingen Ph. D. was there, ceased to trouble, while many singuwith whom we might presumptuously lar pictures would remain, from that dispute on questions of philology, but with whom we could always become one again over longing recollection of the Eberhardkarls-Univers

ität.

Living at Kurrachee, a sort of Central Asiatic fever is apt to seize upon the mind. Every evening we gazed on the line of savage, habitationless, precipitous mountains standing so distinct against the clear calm sky, until the desire to pass beyond them became a passion which compelled "the power to roam." Each morning the strong sunlight fell into every rugged pass and jagged cleft; and even through the wavy heats of the day, between the circling sandstorms, there were seen, dimly looming, those great frontiers of the forbidden land. Singular feelings were aroused by the thought that it was possible to set off any day from our door, and walk or ride on to Tartary, or almost to the Pole, with scarcely any interruption from the dwellings of men. When the caffilahs began to start on their return journey northwards or westwards, it seemed easy to accompany, for a short distance, the gaunt camels, which moved slowly, and with almost spectral motion, across the sands, that gleamed like a golden sea under the great sunlight, like a silvery plain under the full moon. Even the indefinite danger of the attempt gave it enchantment. The vast circling pillars, which the wild Eastern imagination regards as

of the green mountain-valley, or the short Brahui goat-herd drawing water from the deep-sunk well, or the comely Belooch woman handing to her lord the frugal draught his flocks afford, to the white domes of musjid and minar, where

"Mid far sands The palmtree-cinctured city stands ?"

But even the most reckless is apt to hesitate about starting into a country from which, he is informed, travellers have very little chance of ever returning. No doubt a caffilah of Affghans may promise to protect him, but who is to vouch for the Affghans, and how is he to return when he leaves them? No certain information could be obtained in regard to the safety, or even possibility, of travelling in Beloochistan, for though its frontier was within twenty miles' distance, that country was eschewed and ignored. The only satisfactory account of it was to be found in the travels of Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Henry) Pottinger, who in 1809, when the country was utterly unknown to Europeans, disguised himself as an Eastern horsedealer, and, partly in company with Captain Christie, partly alone, penetrated from Sonmeanee on the coast to Khelat, and from thence passed into Persia by way of Noosky and Bunpoor, travelling for some time in only his shirt and drawers, enduring other almost incredible hardships,

At a

Harris, the noted African traveller, failed even in an attempt to reach Hinglaj on the cost of Mekran, and had to make a very hasty retreat on a swift horse. Our interference with Khelat was supposed to have irritated the Belooches against us, while their unavenged success in massacring our soldiers there might reasonably be supposed to have made them presumptuous. One Englishman, we were informed, had recently contrived to travel a long way on the coast of Mekran, and another had passed through the Bolan; but both had died in consequence after their return to Sind, and nothing whatever seemed to be known of the state of the rest of the country.

and making many narrow escapes. camel-men and servants, but the later period, Sir William former of these were not easily obtained, and the latter, already in employ, objected strongly to crossing the frontier, after they consulted the bazaar upon the subject. These difficulties were at last got over, but the want of any one on whom we could rely in an emergency, was but ill compensated for by the number of attendants. A small hill-tent, grain for a horse, as well as provisions, &c., required to be carried, and so it was found necessary to take one riding and four baggage camels, these being attended by three camel-men, two of them Sindees, and the other a Sind-Belooch. A horse-keeper, a cook, and a personal servant, together with a negro peon, made up a very respectable small caffilah; but in all probability these attendants, excepting the negro and horsekeeper, would have been worse than useless in any fighting other than with the tongue. The disastrous Somali expedition has shown well how little dependence can be placed on Eastern servants when a sudden attack has to be withstood. The smaller the number, the more likely are they to stand by their master when required, and the more unlikely to give notions of his wealth which may arouse cupidity. It is always best to have them as much as possible from different castes, for then their mutual dislike and jealousy act as a check on the evil practices in which they may be inclined to indulge. It was rather difficult to get these servants started on the journey, for at the last moment the most of them hung back and wished to escape. Also just after crossing the border they caused considerable trouble, but once well into Beloochistan, the "law of thumb" (no other law being recognised there) could be applied to them in a very decided way. Their terror was not much to be wondered at, for though the border was so close to the British cantonment, only a week be fore we started, a tribe of Belooches carried off four hundred head of cattle belonging to British subjects, which cattle were grazing on debatable ground, and the bazaar at Kurrachee was full of very exaggerated accounts of the occurrence.

These facts, which constituted our whole knowledge on the practicability of the attempt, were not very encouraging; but it was our fate to accomplish it, and with ease. Inshallah!" we said, "We shall try; probably they will take us for mad, and receive us with veneration." Perhaps the southern Belooches are not so fierce as those of the north; perhaps, from the contiguity to British territory, the British traveller is covered by the broad shield of his country's reputation; perhaps percussion-cap firearms are more formidable than matchlocks; perhaps these savages are not very savage after all; or perhaps this contributor may be destined to an exit not usual in uncivilised countries;-some or all of these causes may have contributed to his safety during a few weeks' excursion through Las, and small portions of Jhalewan and Mekran.

The notion of travelling with a party of Affghans was given up, because, being ignorant of the Pooshtoo language, we could not hope to keep up pleasant friendly relations, or easily detect any treachery which they might meditate.

It was impossible to find any companion who could be persuaded that it was his destiny to "do" Beloochistan; and the more so, because no officer could obtain leave for any such outrageous purpose. Of course it was necessary to have

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