33S Notes on Kaftristan. [No. 4. 



A. Burnes, to consider the people of India as well as the people of 

 England, to be u a race of savages." The former " mild race" have 

 certainly — no small portion of them — lately shown symptoms of 

 being nothing better than savages and cannibals. 



With the exception of a few slaves, the Kafir tribes send but 

 little out of their country, the only exports being a little wine, 

 vinegar, wax, and honey. They import all sorts of small goods, 

 such as needles ; horn-combs ; scissors ; small knives, of Kabul or 

 Peshawer manufacture, and very roughly made ; balls of cotton ; 

 thread ; coarse cotton cloth, called in India kadi ; Lohani chintz — 

 so called because brought into Afghanistan in the first place by the 

 Lohani tribe of Afghans, who are the great carriers of these regions ; 

 indigo for dying purposes, and also used by the women for making 

 false moles on the face ; gunpowder ; lead and salt. 



The Kafirs levy a tax termed halang from the Muhammadans and 

 Nimchahs, who dwell in the vicinity of their frontier, and who are 

 unable to prevent their inroads, at the rate of one skein or ball of 

 thread or cotton, and a Tabriz sir of salt, equal to about eight 

 pounds English, for each inhabited house. Any one who chooses 

 to invest an hundred rupees in the description of goods I have 

 adverted to, will at the village border of Noyah be able to obtain 

 two male or female slaves. 



The Kafirs, by their own account, are divided into eighteen 

 tribes,* viz. ; Kati-hi ; Si'ah-posh — this word being, however, a Per- 

 sian derivative, signifying black-clad, cannot be received as the real 

 or original name of the tribe — Pasha-gar; Pan-dii; Watnah ; Man- 

 diil ; Sama-jil ; Tapah-kal; Chanak ; Duh-tak ; Sa-lao ; Katar ; Kam- 

 par ; Ka-muz ; As-kin ; Ash-pin ; Wadi-hu ; and Wae-kal. 



They are termed Kafirs or Infidels by their Muhammadan neigh- 

 bours ; and also by the general designation of Si'ah-posh, or black 



* Masson, in his Travels : Vol. I. pp. 214, makes the following ex cathedra 

 declaration concerning the Kafirs, which I venture to contradict. " As regards 

 the division of the Seaposh into tribes, none knows, or pretends to know, any 

 thing about them ;" yet in the same page, he goe3 on to say that ; " on the 

 Khonar (Kunir not Khonar) frontier, the nearest of their villages are Kattar, 

 Gamber, and Deh Uz ;" the first of which is the name and chief village of one 

 of the eighteen tribes above mentioned. 



