14 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



coralline, with store-rooms for the Banyan's goods below, 



and provided with a crenelle d terrace for watchmen. 

 In the "garrison-towns" the soldiers and their 



families form the principal part of the population. 



These men, who call themselves Baloch, are, with few 

 exceptions, originally from Mekran, and from the 

 lowlands about Guadel. Many of them have been born 

 and bred in Arabia. In former days their fathers 

 migrated from their starving homes to Maskat, in the 

 Arab dows which visited their ports, to buy horses, and 

 to collect little cargoes of wheat and salt. In Arabia 

 they were fakirs, sailors, porters, and day-labourers, 

 barbers, date-gleaners, asinegos, beggars, and thieves. 

 Sultan Bin Hamid, the father of the late Sayyid Said, 

 first conceived the bright idea of putting matchlocks 

 into their hands, and of dubbing them Askar, or soldiers, 

 as a slight upon his less docile compatriots. The son 

 of Sultan followed his sire's plan, and succeeded in di- 

 viding and ruling by means of the antipathy prevailing 

 between the more disciplinable mercenary and the 

 unruly Arab subject. The Baloch are, however, rather 

 hated than feared. They hang, say the Semites, their 

 benefits behind their backs, whilst they wear their griev- 

 ances in full view, woman-like, upon their breasts. Loud 

 in debate, and turbulent in demeanour, they are called 

 by the Arabs a " light folk," and are compared to birds 

 fluttering and chirruping round a snake. Abject slaves 

 to the Great Gaster, they collect in swarms round a 

 slaughtered goat, and they will feast their eyes for 

 hours on the sight of a rice-bag. When in cantonment 

 on the island or the coast, they receive as pay from 2*50 

 to 5 dollars per mensem ; when in the field or on out- 

 post duty, a a batta" of 10 dollars; — a sensible system, 

 which never allows them to become, like the Indian 



