]48 



An Account of Upper K&sh-kdr. 



[No. 2, 



brother Sased-ullah, who still continues at the head of some four thou- 

 sand families. In the month of Muharrcm, in the year 1839, during 

 our occupation of Afghanistan, some cause of dispute having arisen 

 between them, they assembled their followers, and G-hazan Khan 

 advanced against his brother ; but the forces separated after a slidrfc 

 skirmish, in which from twenty to thirty of their people were killed 

 and wounded. 



The Panj-korah chieftain was on friendly terms with the late 

 Government of Lahore, during the time of Maharaja Ranjit and 

 Maharaja Sher Singh ; and they were in the frequent habit of sending 

 presents to each other. In 1839, when it was the policy of the late 

 Ranjit Singh to conciliate the Panj-korah chief, he sent him amongst 

 other valuable presents, a fine elephant ; in return for which Ghazan 

 Khan sent the Maharaja several fine Kohistani horses, and some other 

 rarities, through Sultan Muhammad Khan, Barakzi, who then held 

 Pes'biwar of the Seikh ruler. During the time that the Neapolitan 

 Avitabile was Governor of Pes'hawar for the Lahore Government, 

 the chief of Panj-korah used to send him Chitral slave-girls for 

 his seraglio, besides male slaves, from the hill countries in his 

 neighbourhood. 



The regular paid troops of Ghazan Khan do not exceed two hun- 

 dred men ; but the Ulusi or militia, or feudal retainers, amount to 

 above ten thousand matchlock men ; and they can be assembled on 

 very short warning. 



The chief subordinates of Ghazan Khan, or his ministers as they 

 are termed, are, his son Eahmat-ullah Khan, Suyed Mir iEalam, Kazi 

 iEabd-ur-Rahman, of the Pa-indah Khel, and iEabd-ul-Kadir, who 

 was formerly a slave, but has now become the JSTazir of income and 

 expenditure. 



It now remains to say a few words respecting the Baceyats or 

 Fakirs, who are much more numerous than the Yusufzis themselves. 

 The greater part of them are the descendants of the aboriginal inha- 

 bitants whom the Afghans found there when they conquered those 

 parts at the end of the and beginning of the fifteenth century. They 

 are also called Suwatis, and Degans ; and are, with the Shalmanis and 

 other tribes, such as Hindkis, Awans, Paranchahs and others, the 

 original people of these parts. It is strange that those who say so 

 much about Herodotus, and the nerves, who they contend are the 



