MAHOMEDANS OF SINDH. 41 



gards caste than other parts of the pro- 

 yince. Indeed, I was assured that in the town 

 of Khyrpoor, and otlier of the large towns, 

 the Hindoos are equal in number to the Ma- 

 homedans ; I say this, however, somewhat 

 doubtingly, though a Mahomedan assured me 

 that it was fact. The language commonly 

 spoken is Sindhee, but Hindoostanee is suf- 

 ficiently current for all purposes of commu- 

 nication. The Mahomedan portion of the po- 

 pulation of all Sindh may be divided into 

 two classes : the Sindhees, who are descendants 

 of the original Hindoo population, converted 

 to Islamism by their conquerors dm-ing the 

 time of the Beni Umayyeh Khalifs, — and the 

 descendants of the Syeds, Afghans, Beloo- 

 chees, Hubshees, and Sidies, African slaves, 

 and others. Formerly great numbers of 

 Zanzibarees, Hubshees, &c., found their way 

 into Sindh fi.*om Muscat and otlier parts of 

 Arabia. Their descendants are remarkable 

 for their thievish, drunken, and lighting pro- 

 pensities. These slaves were treated as in- 

 mates of the family, and lived so comfort- 

 ably that emancipation was to them rather 

 an evil than a benefit. In some cases they 



