in the Lower Valley of the Indus and Cutchi. 397 



formed can be considered as of greater interest or even merit ; 

 and, as applied to that magnificent portion of British dominion, 

 to which all the attention that this great nation can shew, 

 will but be found barely inadequate to do justice. Inquiry 

 into its vast and ever varying population must be highly 

 valuable, if the result be only to bring us more intimately 

 acquainted with a people, who demand not only an interest 

 excited by curiosity, but to whom this nation individually 

 and collectively are under deep responsibilities ; for it may, in 

 all reverence, be fairly inferred, that so immeasurably import- 

 ant a charge as providing for the well-being of a large share 

 of the population of the globe, was not committed to us as a 

 nation by Providence, without demanding a due weight of 

 obligation. 



The origin of the Biluchis, as a distinctive class, is involved, 

 like most inquiries of this sort in the East, in obscurity ; 

 though it may be conjectured that they are of an Arabian 

 stock, and in all probability came to the neighbourhood of the 

 Indus, either shortly prior to or at the period of the first Ma- 

 homedan conquest eastward under the Khalifat of Walid. 

 Their own traditions vaguely ascribe their original locality to 

 Sham or Damascus, though they have no date or record, oral 

 or inscribed, to attest it. As, however, the seat of the Kha- 

 lifat was in those days at Damascus, and it was from thence 

 that the army which conquered the countries bordering the 

 lower Indus was dispatched, there is some reason for conclud- 

 ing that they were colonies from these conquerors who either 

 subdued and possessed themselves of the countries of the 

 aborigines, who were Hindus, driving them out or else caus- 

 ing them to be amalgamated in religion with themselves by 

 conversion, of which certain classes amongst them to this day 

 bear considerable evidence. 



Such are the Babis in higher Biluchistan, and the Jutts in 

 the lower country. It is also particularly noted by the Ma- 

 homedan historians of that period, that certain tribes (an ap- 

 pellation not applicable to Hindus, but which the Moslems 

 adopted,) embraced Islamism, and were obedient to the con- 

 queror, receiving immunities for so doing. A list of these 

 tribes is even given. But to the BiMchis. They are certainly 



