474 Brief History of Kalat. [No. 1 38. 



family, which is reputed to have been of Rajpoot extraction, and 

 Sewa's title was therefore no doubt the military one of Singh, and 

 not the mercantile one of Mai. 



The Afghans know the place merely as Kalat-i-Baloch; and in 



_ . . „ , , the royal letters patent and mandates of the 



Kalat-i- Baloch. r 



Duranee kings, the small place of Neecharah is en- 

 Kalat-wa-Neecharah. tered ^ .^ ag i( Ka lat-wa-Neecharah," in com. 



pliment to the tribe of Neecharahs, who include themselves in the 

 Alakozyes, and boast that their village of Neecharah contains the tomb 

 of their progenitor Alako. 



On the accession, or after the time of Meer Nasseer Khan, Mehrab 



Kalat-i-Nasseer. Khan's grandfather, the fort became known as 

 Kalat-i-Nasseer, which appellation it at present retains. 



The place of the greatest antiquity in Balochisthan is the island op- 



„ . . posite port Pasanee, called erroneously Sungadeep, 



but correctly Ashtalla, and also correctly Carmine 



by Nearchus, if we regard the word as a corruption of Carline, or 



Kalyayan, (from Kalee, the goddess of fate, and Ayan, abode.) 



It is at present known as Satadweep or the island of Sata, (Astula, 

 or Kalee,) According to existing tradition it was 

 once inhabited, but the inhabitants were expel- 

 led by the presiding goddess, in her wrath at an incest that was com- 

 mitted there. Pilgrims say, they are now only allowed to remain on 

 the island one night. 



Another place of Hindoo antiquity is Hingulaj, (from Hingula, a 

 name for the goddess Kalee, and j, an affix importing 

 position.) There are two places which pilgrims 

 visit; one in a defile of the Hingulaj mountain, through which the 

 river Agher runs, where there is a pool of water and a natural cave, 

 containing a natural pillar, between which and the sides of the cave 

 sinners find a difficulty to pass, while saints experience none; and 

 outside this cave there is a natural platform in the rock, where goats 

 are sacrificed to the presiding goddess Hingula. 



Another is an ebullient (not hot) well, in which offerings are 

 thrown, which, when emitted by a successive ebullition, form ingre- 

 dients of thick cakes, baked on the spot by the pilgrims, who keep 

 fragments as relics. The pilgrims wear as a distinguishing mark of 



