MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



509 



of rest. It might, therefore, be 

 supposed to require a certainty of 

 great gain, as an inducement to 

 the Belooc'ies to risk their lives 

 in such despei'ate undertakings ; 

 but so entiiely is this reversed, 

 that the Chupaos are often un- 

 successful, from the natives of 

 the devoted districts having pre- 

 viou-; information, and taking 

 means to repel them ; and again, 

 some that succeed in a partial 

 manner, barely repay them for 

 the camels that die during or after 

 it from over-work. At times, 

 however, the robbers reap the re- 

 ward of their intrepidity, and 

 Mihrab Khan Rukhshauee told 

 me that he himself once shared, 

 from a Chupao into the Persian 

 province of Laristan, slaves and 

 other spoil to the amount of six 

 thousand rupees, a large sum in 

 the estimation of a savage. 



The Rinds and Mughsees are 

 less predal in theii- habits and 

 mode of life than the Nharooes ; 

 but whether that proceeds from 

 an innate detestation of such out- 

 rages, or a dread of the Khan of 

 Kelat, I am unable to pronounce 

 with certainty. 1 should, how- 

 ever, be inclined to suspect the 

 latter cause as operating more 

 forcibly than the former ; for we 

 find that the Muzarees, Direeshks, 

 and other Rind tribes, v/ho live 

 in the hills, and are in a great 

 measure out of the immediate 

 precincts of the Khan's authority, 

 infest the roads and commit the 

 most atrocious robbei ies and mur- 

 ders on travellers, a practice 

 more to be reprobated than even 

 that pursued by the Nharooes ; in 

 extenuation of whom I may ob- 

 serve, that as they never enter 

 into any cngagcmei\ts, they al- 



ways deem themselves in a state 

 of warfare with the surrounding 

 nations, and the Chupaos I have 

 desciibed, form their system of 

 carrying on hostilities The Rinds 

 and iNIiighsees resemble ttie Nha- 

 rooes in size and stature ; and 

 like them, have good featuies 

 and expressive countenances, but 

 are not capable of bt-aring an 

 equal portion nf hardsiiips and 

 labour. The climate of the coun- 

 try, in which they chiefly now 

 reside, seems to have enervated 

 and deprived them of that energy 

 of mind and body which doubt- 

 less once appertained to them in 

 their native mountains of Muk- 

 ran, and which is still to be tra- 

 ced in the tribes already men- 

 tioned as inhabiting the hills. They 

 are darker in colour than the 

 Nharooes, a circumstance also to 

 be attributed to the heat of the 

 climate of Kutch Gundavee. The 

 men of these two classes, or any 

 of the tribes emanating from 

 them, whom I met with, either 

 during my journey or since my 

 return to India, did not strike me 

 as differing from each other in 

 manners or appearance, and a 

 stranger might readily have sup- 

 posed they were all of the same 

 class, which is not the case with 

 the Nharooe and its different ra- 

 mifications ; but as 1 shall have 

 an opportunity, in the course of 

 my nai rative, of exempUfying the 

 distinctions 1 perceived amongst 

 them, I now proceed to finish the 

 sketch of the Belooche character, 

 by desciibing those points in 

 which they all appeared to me to 

 correspond. 



With regard to religion, they 

 are, with a very few exceptions 

 to the westward, Soonee Moosul- 



mans. 



