FEUDALISM IN PERSIA — DE MOEGAN. 595 



take possession of these lands there would be a general levy of arms, 

 custom having more force than the law. 



In Kurdistan questions relating to cultivated lands are regulated 

 by secular customs and seldom contested ; but in the case of pastures 

 the limits are uncertain, and often the herds in crossing a stream 

 have aroused bloody disputes between two neighboring tribes. 



In the valley a small river separates the territor}^ of the Mameches 

 from that of the Menghurs. Wlien I traveled there in 1890, I no- 

 ticed on the right and left the ruins of many villages situated about 

 200, 500, and 1,000 meters from this boundary river, while the inhab- 

 ited villages were nearly 2 kilometers distant. This disposition 

 attracted my notice, and asking persons about it I quickly learned 

 the reason why these villages had been abandoned. The interests of 

 two tribes, in war for some centuries, are the more secure the nearer 

 they are to the frontier, the villages playing the role of watch posts. 

 The Mameches and Menghurs had therefore built as close as possible 

 to the stream, but beyond the range of the arrows drawn on the oppo- 

 site side of the river. But firearms one fine day made their appear- 

 ance among the nomads and the projectiles killed enemies in the 

 houses. They were then obliged to widen the neutral zone and to 

 place the frontier posts farther away; then, the range of arms in- 

 creasing, they moved to a still greater distance. To-day the Kurds 

 consider that about 2 kilometers interval gives shelter from the 

 enemy's bullets. 



They told me many incidents about the war between the Mameches 

 and Meiighurs, and listening with pleasure to all these stories of the 

 past I thought that these people should not be so stupid as to kill one 

 another because of troubles reaching back for centuries, maybe thou- 

 sands of years, the origin of which they would necessarily be ignorant. 

 Now, one evening as I talked of the Mameches in the tent of the agha, 

 I saw a man enter with his white cotton trousers covered with blood. 

 He was a chief who had avenged the honor of his tribe; he had killed 

 a Meiighur shepherd without defense. It would not be difficult to 

 find other Mameches and other Menghurs in the part of Kurdistan 

 extending from the valley of Revanduz as far as Kermanshah and 

 Zohab. All the districts shelter some small tribes of this people, 

 more or less savage, more or less pillagers, and living outside the 

 world under the direction of their hereditary chiefs; but they all 

 look alike and differ only in the dialects in which they converse. 



The south of Kurdistan and Luristan are divided among a great 

 number of khans, who, without being absolutely free financially, 

 enjoy none the less all the privileges of feudalism. These are the 

 khans of Kialhurs, of Kerind, of Djafis, of Ghilan, of Avroman, 

 etc. But I shall not delay to speak of these, but will come at 



