264 An account of Upper and Lower Suwat. [No. 3, 
the mouth of the river, it is termed Lower Suwat; and from Man- 
ydr northwards to Pi’a is Upper Suwat. Lower Suwat is hot, and 
produces little in the shape of fruit, but grows plenty of rice; has 
numerous villages ; and is densely populated. Upper Suwat again 
is cold, and the climate temperate ; but it has few rice-fields ; pro¬ 
duces much fruit; but has fewer villages, and is less densely popu¬ 
lated than the other part of the valley. I heard of n© part termed 
middle Suwat, which you say is mentioned in Elphinstone’s book? 
and those of others ; the only divisions beyond the two I have 
named are not recognized, unless we take the boundaries of tribes 
and Mels as such; but the people of a country know best about 
such matters ; and I have stated accordingly. No Suwati would 
know what middle Suwat means. 
In Lower Suwat rice is extensively cultivated, whilst in Upper 
Suwat, wheat, barley, and lajri are the chief grains. As regards 
temperature and excellence of climate, picturesque beauty, fruits, and 
game, Upper Suwat, from Munglawar to Chur-rraey, which I saw 
myself, is by far the best. The Kohistan beyond is much the same 
The whole of the upper portion of the valley is intersected, at right 
angles, by the most picturesque little vales, of about half a mile or 
less in extent, the very residence in which would be sufficient to 
make a man happy. Each has its own clear stream running through, 
towards the main river ; and their banks, on either side, are shaded 
with fine trees, many of which bear the finest fruit, and beneath 
which, every here and there, there are fragments of rock where one 
may sit down. The hills on both sides, up to the very summits, are 
clothed with forests of pine, whose tops yield a most fragrant smell. 
Dust is never seen. 
The Suwatis, of Lower Suwat sow all the available land near the 
river with rice ; and that nearer to the hills with jodri (Jiolcus sor- 
gum ), cotton, tobacco, mash (pliaseolus max), urrd (pliaseolus 
mungo), and palez, consisting of melons and the like. The higher 
ground, still nearer the hills, they have appropriated to their villages 
and burying-grounds ; and numbers of villages, for this reason, have 
been built close to the hills. However, where the river, in its wind¬ 
ings, encroaches more on one side than the other, that is to say, 
when the river approaches the hills on the light, or lamvdah side of 
the valley, the left, or wuchah side is more open and expansive ; and 
