■■ 





136 jLn Account of Upper Kdsh-Mr. [NTo. 2 



Suwat, in a late number of the Journal The other two districts are 

 comparatively, little known. 



Parj kobah. 



Panj-korah, a compound word, signifying " five houses or clans " 

 from the Persian " pmvj" " five," and the Pus'hto, " Icor" " a house 

 clan, tribe, etc.," is so called from the five clans of the Mali-zi sub- 

 division of the great Afghan tribe of Yrisuf-zi, which originally peopled 

 it, after the conquest of those parts, north of the Kabul river, by the 

 Afghans about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Those clans 

 were, Pa'indah Khel, Doshah Khel, Sarandi Khel, Sultan Khel, and 

 Pa'i Khel. At present there is a slight difference, from the feet of 

 other clans having sprung up, during the course of so many years. 



Panj-korah is the most important, and most considerable of these 

 minor independent Afghan states, lying almost immediately under the 

 southern slopes of Hindu Kush. It runs in a north-east and south, 

 west direction ; is of oblong form, being about ninety-five miles in 

 length, from north to south ; and forty^eight from east to west. It is 

 bounded, north by the two Kash-kars ; south by Tal-ash, and the 

 Pes'hawar district ; north-east by Bilauristan, Gilgitt, and other little 

 known principalities towards the upper sources of the Indus ; south- 

 east by the Suwat valley ; west by Kafiristan ; and south-west by 

 Baj-awrr, a district belonging to the Tar-kolani tribe of Afghans. It 

 is surrounded on all sides, and is crossed in various directions, by lofty 

 hills, inclosing as many valleys through which the principal rivers 

 flow, fed by numerous smaller mountain streams. The hills are clothed 

 with dense forests of fir, pine, oak, wild olive, and other trees indige- 

 nous to these alpine regions. 



The principal rivers, that intersect Panj-korah like the ramifications 

 of a leaf, are, the Lahori — also called the Bir river (rising on the 

 southern face of the Las-pur mountains separating it from Kash-kar, 

 and giving name to the pass leading into the latter country, the road 

 winding along its banks) which flows nearly due south, passing the 

 town of Bir, the residence of the ruler, for about twenty miles. It is 

 then joined by the Tal from the north-east, which takes its rise in 

 the hills bounding Yasin to the west. This stream has the longest 

 course, and its Pus'hto name, signifying " always," " ever," " per- 

 petually," etc., may refer to the fact of its never becoming dry, as 

 some of the smaller rivers are liable to become in the winter months 



BHB 



