14 
The District of Dera Ismail Khan , Trans-Indus. [No. 1, 
Mas’lids, wlio live entirely in tlie hills, commanding two of the 
principal mountain passes into Khurasan, the Tank Jam and the 
Gumal. In appearance they are inferior to many other Pathan 
tribes ; but they are remarkably hardy, and though barbarously 
cruel in their predatory wars, are generally truthful, and in captivi¬ 
ty are remarkably well behaved. They are the great enemies of 
the Pawindahs, or travelling merchants, whose caravans are com¬ 
pelled to fight their way through, when entering and when leaving 
India. The Mas’iids are themselves sub-divided into two great 
branches, the ’Alizais, and the Bulilolzais, each of these splitting 
into innumerable families, some comparatively peaceful and well 
disposed, others notorious brigands. Among the latter, the Shin- 
gis, one of the Buhlolzai sections, are the most lawless, and their 
depredations are at present the chief political difficulty at this point 
of the frontier. The Mas’ud country is rich in timber and iron. ' 
It produces a fine breed of horses, and has orchards of apple trees, 
evidently possessing in many parts a soil of some fertility, though 
the cultivation is poor and scant. The chief town, Kanigoram was 
captured by us in the Mas’ud expedition of 1860. It is situated 
on elevated ground not far from the Pfr Ghul, (11,533 feet), the 
great mountain of the Waziri range. Although it is the capital of 
the Waziri country, its own population consists chiefly of ’Ulama 
or Sayyids. The reverence of Pathans for saints and faqirs is well 
known. The exaggerated extent to which this reverence is carried 
by Waziris, has given rise to the humorous story that they murder 
holy men, in order to erect shrines to their memory. A Panjab 
official, Muhammad Hayat Khan, has written a history of the Af¬ 
ghans in Urdu, under the title ‘ Hayat Afghani.’ This work, page 
350 et seq ., contains a detailed account of the Waziris and other 
tribes on this portion of the frontier. It gives the traditional ge¬ 
nealogy and the numerous sub-divisions of each tribe, and in the 
case of the Waziris details the different localities of each section. 
The Waziris, like other Pathans, observe certain tribal laws, many 
of which are explained by the author just named. The lex talionis 
modified by a scale of money compensations, the 1 avenging of 
blood,’ and the system of government by ‘niarkas’ and ‘ jirgahs’ 
are institutions common to all the Afghan tribes. 
