1864.] 



On the Language of the Si-dh-jyos h Kafirs. 



267 



On the Language of the Si-dh-jpos'h Kafirs, with a short list of words ; 

 to which are added specimens of the Kohisthii, and other dialects 

 spoken on the northern border of Afghanistan, Sfc. — By Captain 

 H. Gr„ Eatertt, 3rd Regiment, Bombay JST. I. 



In the beginning of the year 1859, some time after my paper en* 

 titled " Notes ow Kaeikistan" had been submitted to the Society, 

 but previous to its appearance in the Journal,* the Rev. Dr. E* 

 Trumpp, of the Church Missionary Society, residing, at that time, 

 within the cantonment of Pes'hawar, was allowed to examine, through 

 the Commissioner of that district, three men, said to have been of the 

 Kafir race— that is to say, what we call the Si'ah-pos'A Kafirs — who 

 had been brought to the district from Panj-korah or its neighbouring 

 hilly tracts, for the purpose of being enlisted into the British service. 



These three men remained at Pes'hawar for " a few days," during 

 " three or four hours" of which Dr. Trumpp examined them, through 

 a man named Muhammad Rasdl, a Kohistani of " Panjkore" as the 

 Doctor terms it, but correctly, Panj-korah.f This man, who was not 

 an Afghan, since the Doctor calls him a " Kuhistani," " spoke Pushto 

 and a little Persian," and acted as interpreter between the Missionary 

 and the so-called Kafirs ; and from this short and round-about con- 

 ference, a short grammar of the language has been made, and a list of 

 seventy-seven Kafir words appended. 



It is not my object to criticise the former at present, but to give a 

 list of Kafir words, which I collected some years since, and which I 

 intended to have given with my " Notes on Kafiristan." To these 

 words, for the sake of facilitating comparison, I have also added some 

 Kohistani words, which I collected about the same time, together with 

 a few in the Pashai, Barakai, Kas&-kari or Chitrali, and Beldchki lan- 

 guages. I would have given the Pus'hto equivalents of these had 

 space permitted, but they may be easily found in my Dictionary of 

 the language, together with the other words, of which there are often 

 more than one, bearing the same signification. 



From what is stated respecting the appearance of these three men, 

 that " they were in all respects like the natives of the upper provinces' 

 of India, of a swarthy colour, with dark hair and dark eyes," I should 

 • * No. 4 of 1859. 



t See my paper on Panj-korah in the last number of the Journal. 



