22 Captain Postans on the Bilicht Tribes inhabiting Sindh, 
scription of half silk and cotton manufacture, for which Tattah 
was once so famous, and which was coveted at the most bril- 
liant courts of India. Over this is buckled a strap of broad 
deer-skin leather, with numerous appendages of all the pouches 
and paraphernalia required for the matchlock, highly orna- 
mented with metal studs (gold and silver with the chiefs), and 
bright embroidery. The sword is an indispensable article of 
costume, and never abandoned. ‘These people are passion- 
ately fond of arms, and are lavish in their expenditure to 
procure them. The Amirs sent emissaries, even as far as 
Constantinople, to obtain sword blades and matchlock barrels, 
though very beautiful ones were manufactured in the country. 
The shield, composed generally of rhinoceros horn, is large 
and flat, and usually suspended between the shoulders. The 
people dye their garments generally with indigo, and thus are 
enabled to wear them until they literally drop off, though the 
Cutchi tribes do not even take this precaution, and wear their 
flowing robes until they become literally black with grease 
and dirt. In person the Bildchis may be considered as a fine 
race of men, and are decidedly handsome. ‘Those living in 
the hotter climate of the plains have somewhat deteriorated 
from the unusually large size and muscular strength for 
Asiatics peculiar to the mountaineers, but they are still a 
portly people. Amongst all classes corpulence is considered a 
great mark of beauty, and is encouraged to a ridiculous ex- 
tent. Nasir Khan, the late head of the Hyderabad family, 
though only in the very prime of life, and a strikingly hand- 
some fair complexioned man, was so unwieldy with obesity, 
that it was with difficulty he could walk across his hall of 
audience, and on rising, or attempting to rise, from his seat, 
was obliged to be assisted by his courtiers. The author has 
observed some extraordinary and frequent instances of longe- 
vity amongst the Biltchis located in Upper Sindh and Cutchi, 
far beyond what is usually seen in India, which with the large 
size and stature of this people united, warrant the conclusion, 
that the dry soils and climate, notwithstanding a degree of 
heat which is at times unequalled, is rather congenial than 
otherwise to the human constitution, certainly more so than 
the swampy banks of the river ; yet the deadly simams of the 
