506 ANNUAL R E G I S T E R, J8l6. 



tiger cat. Tke articles of less im- 

 portance, are a small quantity of 

 dried or pounded salmon, the bis- 

 cuits made of the chappelell roots, 

 and some of the nianufactures of 

 the neighbourliood. In return 

 they receive guns (which are prin- 

 cijialiy old British or American 

 muskets) powdei-, ball, and shot, 

 copper and brass kettles, brass 

 tea-kettles, and coffee-pots, blank- 

 ets, from two to three points, 

 coarse scailet and blue cloth, 

 plates and strips of sheet copper 

 and brass, large brass wire, knives, 

 tcibacco, fish-hooks, buttons, and 

 a considerable quantity of sailors' 

 hats, trowsers, coats and shirts. 

 But as we have hud occasion to 

 reniark more than once, the ob- 

 jects of foreign trade Avhich are 

 the most desired, ate the common 

 cheap, blue or Avhite beads, of 

 about fifty or seventy to tlie penny 

 weight, which are strung on 

 strands a fathom in length, and 

 sold by the yard or the length of 

 both aims : of these the blue 

 bead^, which are called tia com- 

 mashuck, or chief beads, hold the 

 first rank in their ideas of relative 

 value : the most inferior kind 

 are esteemed beyond the finest 

 wampum, and are temptations 

 wliich can always seduce them to 

 part with their most valuable 

 eifects. Indeed, if the example 

 of civilized life did not conijdetely 

 vindicate their choice, we might 

 wonder at their infatuated at- 

 tachment to a bauble in itself so 

 worthless. Yet these beads are, 

 perhaps, quite as reasonable 0I3- 

 jects of research as the precious 

 metals, since they are at once 

 beautiful ornaments for the y>er- 

 sGri, and the great circulating 



meilium of trade with all the na- 

 tions on the Columbia. 



THE BELOOCHES. 



(From Pottinger's Travels.) 



The Belooches, who form the 

 great bulk, or perhaps, very 

 .strifctly speaking, the whole of 

 the popidation throughout Beloo- 

 chistan, are a people whose origin 

 is so obscure, and whose history, 

 like that of all other barbarous 

 tribes, is ?o blended with roman- 

 tic fiction and tales of wonder, 

 that I have found it exceedingly 

 difiicult to reduce either the one 

 or the other to any credible foi'm. 

 Tiiey are divided into two gieat 

 classes, severally known by the 

 apj)ellatiorts of Belooche and Bra- 

 hooc, and these two are again 

 subdivided into such an infinite 

 number of tribes, who take their 

 names from the most trivial cir- 

 cumstances, that it is morally 

 impossible to account for them : 

 the chief imder whom they serve, 

 the district or country to which 

 they belong, or the tradition 

 whence they derive their descent, 

 are tlie most common designa- 

 tions tiiey assume. Between tiiese 

 two superior classes, the leading 

 distinctions that I observed were 

 in their languages and appearancej 

 and unquestionably they consti- 

 tute the greatest that can exist 

 between men of the same colour 

 and inliabiting the same nation. 

 The Belooche or Belooclieekee 

 (so the laiigu;ige of the Belooches 

 is called), partakes considerably 

 of the idiom of modern Persian, 

 and at least one half its words 



ars 



