314 H. G. Raverty —The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No. 
old branch of the Ghar for the Narali; hut the latter is a natural branch 
or offset from the Ab-i-Sind, and not a canal, as some have imagined, 
hut it may have been artificially improved in recent times. 
Mahortah, near Lar-kauah, on the Ghar channel, is the site of an 
ancient fortified town, on a great mound, and, in former times, must 
have been a place of some importance. 
The Narali, which is navigable, runs in a very tortuous channel, 
hence its name of Narali or Snake, like the so-called Eastern Narali, 
elsewhere described, but the channel of the one under description winds 
very much more than its eastern namesake. It pursues a course almost 
parallel with the Ab-i-Sind, or Indus, and on the northern side falls 
into, and forms, the Manohhar lake. Its continuation, known as the 
Aral, issues from the eastern side of the lake, and unites with the main 
channel of the Ab-i-Sind below the town of Sihwan, the ancient Siw- 
istan, which gave name to the province of which it was the capital. 
This Narali channel is probably the continuation of that in which 
the diverted branch of the Hakra, or Mihran, first flowed, when diverted 
from the east of Aror. 
Farther south again, and within the limits of the old Sarlcar of 
Siw-istan, or Wicholo, or Middle Sind (which has been mistaken for 
Siwi and its district, more than two hundred and ten miles, as the crow 
flies, farther north), 818 the Ab-i-Sind, or Indus, was kept within bounds, 
513 This is the name, which strange to relate, nearly every English writer 
manages to mistake for Siwi of the Parni Afghans, becanse some stupid or careless 
map-maker or engraver, in former years, before correct surveys w r ere made, hap¬ 
pened to write the name of this well-known province of Wicholo or middle Sind, 
and its chief town, a little too far north. 
Professor Lassen, too, in his “ Indische Alterthnmsknnde,” taking his infor¬ 
mation, apparently, from English writers, makes the usual error of mistaking Siw- 
istan, the modern Sihwan, for the hilly tract of country forming the southern 
boundary of the Afghan state, where the Koh-i Siyah, or Suliman range, or Tor 
Ghar,or Kala Roll, or Kala Pahap, becomes mixed up with the outlying waves of 
the Koh-i-Surkh, or Sor Ghar, or Rata Roll, or Rata Pahap (as they are called in 
various languages used in this neighbourhood where so many different peoples 
adjoin each other), around Siwi of the Parni Afghans, while, at the same time, he 
calls it correctly, “ Sindomana-—Sihwan.” This ought to have opened his eyes to 
the fact, that Siw-istan or Sindomana, or Sihwan, is not Siwi, and never was Siwi. 
Cunningham, on the other hand, in his “ Ancient Geography of India,” says 
(page 264): “I agree with all previous writers in identifying Sindomana with 
S eh wan; partly from its similarity of name [I fear “ similarity,” after this fashion 
goes too great a way in these “ identifications”]. * * * At page 266 he says : 
*• Its present name is said to be a contraction of Sewistan. # # # ifc seems 
strange that a notable place like Sehwan should not be noticed by Ptolemy under 
any reoognizable name. * * # I, therefore, rejeofc tlio reading of Sewistan [the 
