12 WYNNE: TRANS-INDUS SALT REGION, KOHAT DISTRICT. 



overrun in the zemlstan or cold season by nomadic Waziri Ydgi (inde- 

 pendent tribes), whose flocks and rude black tents are shifted about as 

 their own convenience or the exhaustion of the grazing may prompt. 



These people are said to pay the Chief for their temporary occupa- 

 tion, to which they frequently return. They are a wild, largely made, 

 athletic, but unkempt -looking race, contemptuously spoken of by the 

 Pathans of the country as Janowars (brutes), clad in rough goats' hair 

 garments, and encumbered by but few possessions, besides their herds, 

 their families, and their arms. They seem harmless enough, but even the 

 shepherd on some rugged knoll, piping his algoza in orthodox fashion 

 to his flock while it feeds, wears a formidable knife, or has his 

 matchlock by his side, and it is not considered advisable to go among 

 them unarmed, or pass the night in their vicinity. Notwithstanding 

 this, and that they seem to keep separate from the people of the country, — 

 with whom Sir Khwajah said they were frequently embroiled owing to 

 cases of cattle-lifting — they were always ready to furnish water from the 

 large earthen slung-bottles which they carry about, or to provide to- 

 bacco and chilam for the Sepahi Guard.* 



Ranges. — Within the area above indicated, the ground is occupied 

 by four principal long and narrow chains of hills or continuous ranges, 

 some of them having a length of over fifty miles, but varying consider- 

 ably in width. These ranges with summit elevations of two, three, and 

 four thousand feet above the level of the sea have an approximate east 

 and west bearing, but diverge here and there as much as 25° both to the 

 north of east and of west ; the divergence of one range being followed 



* On some occasions when belated they offered the hospitality of their encampments 

 pressing me to spend the night in their tents, but this was declined, as the Nawab, Sir 

 Khwajah, seemed anxious that I should return from the hills they occupied by daylight. 



The fact of these Waziris roaming thus over the salt-bearing hills would have to be 

 taken into consideration in any question regarding the watching and preservation of the 

 mineral. The Salt Department officers assert that they do not now steal the salt, which, 

 may be a consequence of its low value. For their own wants and those of their animals 

 the very water which they drink, or which they have not to go far to find, may contain 

 sufficient to suit their tastes. If the salt was dearer the case would probably be different. 



( H6 ) 



