100 Tlie Ethnology of India. 



through Persian and Affghan peoples. And on the Frontier, the term 

 Mogul is now applied to Persian-speakers, as distinguished from 

 Pushtoo-speaking Pathans. Most people will there tell you that 

 ' Mogul' means a Persian, but it is really a somewhat wider designa- 

 tion. In Cabul, the Mahommedan population is simply divided into 

 Pathans and Moguls (or non-Pathans), the latter being chiefly compos- 

 ed of Persian Kazzilbashes and the like. So then in the armies and 

 followings of the Emperors of Dehli, Foreigners were divided into 

 Pathans and Moguls ; but while the Pathan settlers are many, the 

 Moguls are, as I have said, very few. 



In small Mahommedan countries there are numerous people claim- 

 ing to be descendants of the prophet after the easy Mahommedan 

 form of descent. Indian Syuds are generally mere loose waifs of 

 low degree among the Urban population ; but here and there we have 

 considerable settlements of Syuds holding villages or jagheers, and 

 where these occur, they generally claim and maintain a good deal of 

 dignity and propriety, and are a superior and well educated, if some- 

 times somewhat bigoted, class. 



It is generally said that a ' Sheik' means only a Mahommedan who 

 is neither Pathan, Mogul, nor Syud. There are, however, a good 

 many respectable landholders, and some village communities avIio bear 

 the name of Sheiks ; for instance, the old proprietors of Lucknow, when 

 it was but a village, were Sheiks. It is impossible to trace the 

 origin of these people, much less that of the loose Urban Mahomme- 

 dan population. But I think it may be said that, generally speaking, 

 the Mahommedans retain among them considerable traces of north- 

 western origin. Dress and manners may have something to do with 

 it and there are of course many exceptions, but on an average they 

 are fairer and show fewer marks of aboriginal intermixture than the 

 Hindus. High-Arian features are not unfrequently to be seen among 

 them. Even among those who do not directly claim to belong to 

 Pathan and other tribes of the North- West, one often sees handsome 

 laces, features, and beards, such as would make good ' wise men of the 

 east,' or the very best of our oriental imaginings. It is impossible to 

 attribute to these features, in Northern, Central and Eastern India, a 

 Semitic origin (on the South Western borders it is another matter), and 

 I attribute them to the hilly countries of the North- Western Arian& 



