194 Records of the Indian Museum. [VorL. XVIII, 
outcastes. Both tribes pay an annual rent to the Persian govern- 
ment for the right to exercise their respective callings on the 
shores or in the waters of the lake; the Herdsmen for the pastur- 
age of their cattle, the Hunters for the privilege of fishing and 
fowling. 
One of the most striking features of the Hamun-i-Helmend is 
the vast reed-beds by which it is surrounded. These vary in 
extent with the season, but a considerable part of Seistan is known 
as the Naizar or reed-country. ‘The reed-beds provide a livelihood 
to both the Herdsmen and the Hunters. The reeds are of three 
kinds. The most abundant is a form of Phragmites communis, the 
common large reed of the fens of England. The dwellings of both 
tribes are constructed of this plant. Next in abundance is the 
sedge Scirpus littorvalis, on which the herdsmen feed their cattle, 
and finally we have a bulrush (Typha augustata), out of which 
both tribes construct the only craft known on the lake. 
No true boats are used in Seistan, but their place is taken by 
curious ‘‘shaped”’ rafts that may almost be called skiffs and may 
be compared with the Papyrus skiffs! of ancient Egypt and the 
rafts used in Babylonian times in the delta of the Tigris and 
Euphrates. These rafts are made entirely of the leaves o' the 
bulrush tied together in bundles. For purposes of transport com- 
paratively stout and cluinsy structures® of the same kind are 
employed, but these can only be used in the flood-season and we 
did not see them. I shall, therefore, describe only those used in 
fishing and fowling on the Hamun. 
These are slender and even elongate structures each made of 
three bundles of fresh bulrush leaves and about six times as long 
as brcad. Omitting the rail or bulwark along the top, they are 
about twelve times as long as deep. ‘The bulrush leaves are 
bent upwards at both ends and the bundles are so arranged that 
the craft tapers slightly behind. A rail is added on each side 
above in the form of a thinner bundle of leaves. The rafts are 
about ten feet long and one anda half feet broad. They are 
constructed in the following manner (pl. xvii, fig. 2) :— 
The leaves are cut off close to the roots so as to be as long as 
possible. All those that are in any way damaged are rejected 
and the narrow tips are cut and thrown away. Perfect leaves 
thus treated are then laid out on the shore parallel to one another 
and arranged in bundles in such a way that there are a few more 
at one end of the bundle than at the other and that the broader 
bases of the leaves are all at the same end. Ropes are meanwhile 
manufactured from other leaves of the same plant, two men or 
boys doing this by twisting the leaves together in opposite direc- 
tions by hand. When the thick bundles and ropes are ready each 
1 For an illustration see King’s History of Babylon, p. 201, fig. 44 (1915), 
and for Egyptin references Erman's Life im Ancient Egypt (trans. Tsiard), 
Pp. 470 (1894). ‘ 
_ 2 For illustrations see McMahon, Geor. fourn., XXVIII (1906), and: Tate, 
Setstan. : 
