AFGHANISTAN AND BALUCHISTAN 



213 



By the people of India, Afghans are called Pathans, in common with all the Pukh to- 

 speaking peoples, who use the word in a very wide sense; but the people themselves use it 

 in a very restricted sense. The former include under this general term even the Tajik and 

 the Hazarah, both Persian-speaking peoples. The latter apply it only to Pukhto-speaking races, 

 and even then with a distinction. Pathan, then, means Pukhtun. "The sections themselves 

 are divided into a multiplicity of minor branches, septs, and clans, offering still further obstacles 

 to a general amalgamation of the whole race. And the race itself is everywhere opposed to 

 other races speaking different languages, such as Tajiks, Hindkis, Usbegs, Siah-Posh Kafirs, 

 Hazaras, and Aimaks, which, although numerically inferior, possess greater national cohesion, 



Photo by Mr. Fred. B 



BRAHUIS OF AFGHANISTAN. 



and which in some cases have been able to maintain their independence. But for these 

 untoward circumstances the Afghan race, by its warlike spirit and remarkable physical 

 vitality, might seem destined to subdue the surrounding peoples. But their national resources 

 have hitherto for the most part been frittered away in internecine broils and struggles for the 

 local independence of individual chiefs and tribes" (Keane). 



Mr. Bellew, in his " Eaces of Afghanistan," says: "Looking at the Afridi as we find him 

 to-day, it is difficult to imagine him the descendant of the mild, industrious, peace-loving, 

 and contemplative Buddhist, abhorrent of the shedding of blood or destruction of life of even 

 the minutest or meanest of God's creatures; or even to imagine him descended from fire- 

 worshipping ancestors, whose tender care for life was almost equal to that of the Buddhist, 

 and whose sincere and punctilious devotion to the observance of the minute ceremonies and 

 ordinances of their religion was surpassed by none. The Afridi of to-day, though professedly 

 a Mohammedan, has really no religion at all. He is, to a great extent, ignorant of the 



