INDIA, OR IIINDOSTAN. 



935 



are husbandmen, and till large tracts of land, selling grain, cheese, ghee, coarse blankets, felt, 

 and carpets, the produce of their industry. The tasks of the family are divided among the 

 members, much in the European manner. The men tend the flocks, and till the ground ; 

 the women rnilk the herds, make butter, cheese, felt, and coarse cloths. The language of the 

 Brahooes is different from that of the Beloochis, and seems to resemble some of the Indian dia- 

 lects. The western part of Mekran is infested by banditti, called Loories, of a much baser 

 character than the usual predatory hordes of Asia. They have renounced every religious be- 

 lief, and, maintaining that men are born to eat, and sleep, and die, and be forgotten, they aban- 

 don themselves without scruple to every species of profligacy and depravity. 



The government of Kclat is despotic, but limited by a feudal system. The serdars, or 

 chiefs of the tribes are bound to furnish their quota of troops, and to attend the court. They 

 are partly hereditary and partly chosen by the tribes themselves, and their authority is limited. 



CHAPTER CXL VIII. INDIA, OR HINDOSTAN. 



Vieto near Delhi. 



1. Boundaries. This great region is bounded on the N. by the Chinese empire ; on the E. 

 by the Birman empire and the Bay of Bengal ; S. by the Indian Ocean ; and W. by the Ara- 

 bian Sea, Cabul, and Beloochistan. It extends from 8^ to 34° N. lat., and from 67° to 92° 

 E. long., being 1,500 miles in its greatest bieadth, and 1,800 miles in length from north to 

 south. Its area, which exceeds 1,400,000 square miles, is more than one thn-d that of all Eu- 

 rope, and it contains 140,000,000 inhabitants. 



2. Mountains. The Uimala Momdains., which extend along its whole northern boundary, 

 contain the loftiest summits in the world. They rise in successive stages from the champaign 

 country, forming several parallel ridges, until the principal and loftiest range shoots its co- 

 lossal summits up into regions of perpetual snow. This principal chain separates the val- 

 leys of Serinagore, Nepaul, and Bootan, from Tibet, and attains an elevation of 26,000 

 and 28,000 feet. The Chamoulari., on the frontiers of Bootan, is the highest known 

 mountam in the world, being 28,200 feet in height ; the Dhaualagiri, on the frontiers of Ne 

 paul is but little inferior in elevation. A lower and parallel chain runs along the ■southern mnr 



