268 



On the Language of the Si-dh^osh Kafirs. 



[No. -3, 



hardly think they were real Kafirs ; and should consider that, in all 

 probability, they were nimchahs ^.s*i^ or " half-breeds," as those 

 people are designated who have sprung from the mixture of Afghans 

 with the aborigines of the parts to the north of the Kabul river • 

 viz. the Kafirs, Lamghams, Shalmanis, Deggauns, Giijars, Suwatis, 

 <fcc, and with each other ; for the Afghans, as we know from their 

 histories, as well as from the accounts of Persian and Hindustani 

 writers, have been in the habit of applying the Arabic term " Kafir," 

 or " Infidel" very indiscriminately, particularly to the aboriginal people 

 of Afghanistan bordering upon the Kabul river and its tributaries, 

 and the people of the Alpine Panjab nearest the Indus. Hence, with 

 them, the term Kafir might as well refer to the Lamghanfs, or Shal- 

 manis, before conversion to their own faith, as to the people whom 

 we know by the name of Si-ah-pos'A Kafirs. Lieut. Wood, when on his 

 journey to the source of the Oxus, passed close to their frontier, and 

 he, moreover, saw and conversed with Si-ah-pos7i Kafirs (for they are 

 friendly with the people of Badakhshan), and he describes them as 

 being very different to the " swarthy coloured people of the upper pro- 

 vinces of India, with dark hair and dark eyes," such as Dr. Trumpp 

 speaks of. # What makes me think that these three men could not 

 have been real $i-ah-pos'A Kafirs, is the fact of their having come to 

 Pes'hawar otherwise than as slaves. Both males and females' — the 

 latter in particular, on account of their fair complexions and beauty — * 

 are to be found in the dwellings of the Afghans of the better class, in 

 the Samdh of the Yiisufzis, but they are always slaves ; and some 

 will be found in the Pes'hawar district also ; but they are very dif- 

 ferent to those the Missionary describes. The Si-ah-pos'A Kafirs, are 

 too hostile to, and hate the Afghans and other Muhammadans of 

 those parts too much (except perhaps the people of Badakhshan, as 

 already mentioned), to meet them, or to enter their boundaries, save 

 as enemies, or when, as slaves, they are compelled to do so. If these 

 men were not actually ISTimchahs or Kohistanis, of which, I have little 

 doubt, they may possibly have been Baris — a certain class or tribe 

 among the Si-ah-pos'/j, who are held in the light of Pariahs. An ac- 

 count of these will be found at page 36 of my " Notes on Kafiristan'* 

 already referred to ; but if the Kohistani words I have given be exa- 



* Dr. Bellew also met Kafirs when in Afghanistan in 1857. See his excel* 

 lent work, 



