400 Captain Postans on the Biluchi Tribes inhabiting Sindh 



from three great heads, Binds, Mughsees, and Nihroes, not 

 calculating their subdivisions, enumerated by Sir Henry Pot- 

 tinger. Of the numbers of these it would be difficult to ar- 

 rive at anything like an approximation, but of those located 

 immediately on or near the banks of the Indus, it was cal- 

 culated that 40,000 fighting men could be collected, and late 

 events have proved that this was a pretty fair estimate of 

 their strength, though this, it must be remembered, refers 

 only to those dwelling in the cultivated plains, and not in- 

 cluding those of the desert or the mountaineers. The prin- 

 cipal tribes located in Sindh are the Murris (in reality a hill 

 tribe, but having colonies in the plains), Khosas, Muzaris, 

 Mughsis, Umranis, Lakis, Chandlers, Julbanis, Jatois, Salpurs 

 (the late reigning chiefs were of this family), Kainas (the pre- 

 ceding dynasty who appear to have been rather of a sacred 

 stock than Biluchi), Binds, Burdis, Kurmatis, Jokias, and 

 Numrias (two tribes inhabiting the range of hills immediately 

 to the westward of Karuchi, and belonging in reality to the 

 province of Lus, under the dominion of the Jam of Bella), 

 though their services as escorts to the trader and traveller are 

 constantly called for through Lower Sindh, and others. Of 

 these the Binds, Burdis, Muzaris, UmraniSy and Jatois, are 

 found to have their head-quarters in the partially desert 

 tracts lying between the Indus and the Bolan Pass, and in or 

 near the same locality are also found the Murris, Brogtis, 

 DumkiSy Jekranis, and Jekrarus, The Chandias^ again, are in 

 the Chandokah district, of which Larkhana is the capital, and 

 which is notorious as being the most fertile in all Sindh ; a 

 very powerful and numerous tribe, whose influence, when 

 thrown into the balance, has often helped to settle matters 

 affecting the stability of the rulers. There is another very 

 important tribe, the Lagharis, the chief of whom, Ahmed 

 Khan, was a distinguished nobleman and statesman at the 

 Court of Hyderabad, holding an office equivalent to that of 

 vizier or prime minister, but this tribe is said by some to be 

 of Jutt extraction, and not real Biluch. The Khosas were 

 formerly a powerful tribe, but attaching their fortunes to the 

 falling house of Kalora, they were visited, accordingly, by 

 the successful Talptirs. On the confines of the desert known 



