

1839.] Lieut. Irwin 's Memoir of Afghanistan. 891 



habitations of the people are in the vallies and plains, and they frequent 

 the hills and upper plains in the summer — this is the practice 

 of Kushmeer, Pukhlee, Bhooner and Punjkora. Sometimes they 

 reside in the high country — it is thus part of the Kafirs leave their high 

 hills in the winter to pasture their goats among the low ones, and 

 the declivities. The Afreedies too in general stay in the upper part of 

 their country. During the summer the shepherd shelters himself 

 under trees or rude sheds of grass ; in the winter he removes to low 

 hills, where he finds natural or artificial caves in the rocks to receive 

 him and his flocks by night. Some of the Dooranees near the Helbund 

 construct habitations for themselves from the branches of trees and 

 mud. The Dooranees, in general, Ghiljies, and Beelochees live under 

 black tents ; the Ymaks, Huzaras, and nations of Toorkistan use 

 khirgas made of felt and wood, or kuppas made of felt and reeds. 



124. Some details might be given of the species of plants found in 

 these countries, but they would be little interesting, A considerable 

 number of spontaneous products form articles of food. The chief are 

 the lotus, the ruwash, some of the fungins, a kind of wild vetches, a plant 

 bearing some resemblance to the turnip, the roots of the tulip, the 

 leaves of the plant in India called paluk,* and the seeds of some of 

 the gramina ; other plants are used in medicine, and perhaps we have 

 here something to learn of the natives. Perfumes are extracted from 

 others, for instance from the grass which in India is called Gundhel or 

 Mircheeagundh, t and which according to some yielded the spikenard 

 of the ancients. The well known doolj grass of India seems to ex- 

 tend over all these countries, some parts of which moreover have supe- 

 rior species. Two of these called Rishka§ and Shuften|| are also 

 artificially raised. The Surkunda appears to extend to the utmost 

 verge of our inquiries to the north-west, and it is not so much from 

 the want of proper grasses as from other circumstances, that in the 

 countries of the west a thatched house is scarcely to be found ; 

 a flat roof with a balcony, or a vaulted one without it, are substitu- 

 ted. This last expedient is resorted to wherever wood is dear. Of 

 noxious vegetables, there is none worthy of mention except it be 

 the Bhoart. This abounds in the country of Beekaneer and the 

 neighbouring ones, as far as our military station of Lodhiana, the 

 sandy parts of the great Indian desert, and in some quarters of the 

 country between the Hydaspes and Indus. Its seed which is some- 



* A species of beet. f Andropogon, nardus vahl. 



X Panicura dactylon. Linn. § Sueerne. || A kind of trefoil. 



