510 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



mans, and inveterate in their ha- 

 tred and enmity against the Shee- 

 as, under which persuasion, I am 

 convinced, it would be more dan- 

 gerous to appear in Beloochistan, 

 than even as a Christian. 



The hospitiilitj of a Belooche is 

 proverbial, and I found it equally 

 conspicuous in every part of the 

 country which I visited. Among 

 them pilfering is considered a 

 most despicable act ; and when 

 they once offer, or promise to 

 afford protection to a person who 

 may require or solicit it, they will 

 die before they fail in their trust. 

 They obey their chiefs with alac- 

 rity and willingness, but this obe- 

 dience seemed to me rather to 

 result from a confidence placed 

 on the propriety of what they are 

 ordered to perform, and a wish to 

 uphold the respectability of their 

 tribes, which depends much on 

 that of the Surdars or chiefs, 

 than from any feelings of defer- 

 ence and respect that they enter- 

 tain towards the latter j for I ob- 

 served, that in many instances, 

 even xmder their inuuediate eye, 

 they acted as if thry held them- 

 selves scarcely amenable to their 

 authority. In their domestic ha- 

 bits, the Belooches are almost all 

 pastoral ; they usually reside in 

 " Ghedans," or tents, made of 

 black felt, or coarse blanket, 

 stretched over a frame of wicker- 

 work, formed from the branches 

 of the Guz (Tamarisk) bush : an 

 assemblage of these Ghedans con- 

 stitute a Toomun, or village, and 

 the inhabitants mi it a Kheil, or 

 society, of which, from the nature 

 of their formation, it is clear 

 there may be an unlimited num- 

 ber in one tribe ; and I know half 

 a doaen of instances where they 



exceed twenty or thirty : they are 

 commonly discriminated by a tj- 

 tulai- prefix, such as Umeer^e^ 

 Daodie, Surdaree, &c. to the 

 word Kheil, as the Umeeree 

 Kheil, the noble society, Daodee 

 Kheil, David's society, &c. &c. 

 This complicated subdivision of 

 the tribes into Kheils, is likely to 

 confuse a casual observer, and 

 more especially from their chang- 

 ing, as they often do, their dis- 

 tinguishing titles with their places 

 of residence. For example, when 

 I was at Nooshky, on the borders 

 of the desert, there was a Kheil 

 of Mingull Brahooes, (a people 

 whose country is to the south- 

 ward of Kelat,) encamped about 

 two miles off; and, on my asking 

 one of them his tribe, lie replied, 

 Mingull, and his Kheil, Noosh- 

 kyee, or the society of Nooshky. 

 It is right to add, that some of 

 the Belooches, particularly the 

 Nharoo6 clans, prefer mud houses 

 to tents, and even live in forts ; 

 nor is it uncommon, in the west- 

 ern parts of Beloochistan, to find 

 one half the Kheil residing in 

 Ghedans, and the other in huts ; 

 I believe that the 'preference which 

 is shewn to the latter, is on ac- 

 count of the cold. 



Their reception of gueets is 

 simple, yet impressive. When a 

 visitor arrives at a Toomun, a 

 carpet is spread in front of the 

 door of the Mihman Khanu, or 

 house for guests, of which there 

 is one in every town or village in 

 Beloochistan ; the Sirdar, or head 

 of the Kheil, immediatelyappears, 

 and lie and the stranger having 

 embraced, and mutually kissed 

 hands, the followers of the latter 

 successively approach, and the 

 Sirdar gives the>n his hand, which 



they 



