Persia, and extending northward from the sea to Affghanistan. This region is in the greater part still unexplored, and will probably long remain a wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts and tribes of as savage men. It is in general rugged and elevated, and is almost completely bordered by mountain ranges, except on the south, where the tract along the sea-shore is low and level. On the north it is protected by the Wushutee chain from the sandy desert. It has no great rivers, but numerous water-courses run from north to south, expanding into wide and deep channels as they reach the plain on the coast. The beds of these torrents become dry in the hot period, and are immediately filled with the rank and rapid jungle of the region, and their neverfailing inhabitants-wild beasts. A portion of the wet season exhibits all the fury of the south-west monsoon; and in a portion of the dry season, described as the "date-ripening," the sun is so scorching that the inhabitants are confined to their huts. The date, indeed, which flourishes in the fiercest heat, forms an important article of food; while along the coast the peopledescendants of the Ichthyophagi of Alexander's historians -live like their ancestors upon fish.

Such is Beloochistan in its physical aspect, and its moral is not more inviting. The nominal king of the country is the Khan of Khelat; but the first-mentioned province, Lussa, has a hereditary prince of its own, the vassal of the Khan; and the last, Mekran, for the reason, we presume, that it is not worth a contest, has succeeded in throwing off the yoke of legitimate authority altogether, and is divided, or rather torn asunder, by numerous petty chiefs. The government of the Khan is absolute, or in other words, for there is perhaps no really despotic authority in the world,-it is regulated by transmitted

custom, and is kept in the beaten track by fear. He has the power of life and death as regards all his subjects, but he cannot tax directly the Beloochees or the Brahoes, who are the ruling tribes. His revenue is insignificant, little more than 30,000l. a year, and is derived from his resources as a landed proprietor, from dues on trade, and from arbitrary exactions on the industrious portion of the people (or those able to answer them), chiefly the Parsees, and Jat cultivators.

We have already described the struggle of the late Khan with the British,which ended in his death; and the paltry number of troops he was able to raise in so imminent a peril, shows that real power and theoretical despotism are very different things in such eastern governments. The Beloochees are heavily armed with matchlock, spear, sword, dagger, and shield, and they were never averse to closing with the British troops; but no advantage, as we have seen, can compensate for the want of discipline. "The brave Beloochees," says Sir Charles Napier, in one of his despatches, "first discharging their matchlocks and pistols, dashed on the bank with desperate resolution, but down went their bold and skilful swordsmen under the superior power of the musket and bayonet."

The inhabitants are usually divided into Beloochees and Brahoes; but the former are in reality composed of numerous tribes, each distinct from the others. The Brahoes may be described as the Tartars of Beloochistan, wandering about the country, as the seasons vary, from pasture to pasture, and in winter squatting under tents of felt or goats' hair. Civilization, such as it is, appears to diminish as the distance increases from Hindostan; and in its extreme west, the people are freebooters by profession, and scour the country at the rate, it is said, of seventy or eighty miles a day. The love of highway

robbery, indeed, appears to be a national taste, for even amidst the comparative civilization of Sinde, it is said the Beloochee chiefs disguise themselves, and go forth to plunder for amusement. Besides the native tribes, there are Hindoos almost everywhere to be met with, who manage the monetary concerns of the people, but, influenced by the savageism around them, retain few of the characteristics of Brahminism. The whole population is supposed to be considerably under half a million.

Hospitality, courage, excess in sensual pleasures, polygamy at will, the purchase of women like articles of mere luxury—all things, good and bad, that distinguish man in the lower stages of civilization, are to be found among the Beloochees. They pass most of their time in smoking tobacco or hemp, and chewing opium; and besides warlike exercises, their principal amusement is gambling. The men wear a cotton tunic, either blue or white, something shorter than those of the English peasants, with loose trousers drawn in at the ankles, and a scarf or shawl wound round the waist. In winter the upper class have an additional tunic of quilted cotton, the lower, a capote of felt or coarse cloth. Their cap round, with a projecting crown, and beneath it their hair falls in dark masses upon their shoulders, unmixed at any age with grey, as both sexes use a dye of henna and indigo. The women have wider trousers, and their tunic is open nearly to the waist, exposing the bosom; but when they go abroad, they are enveloped in the shroud-like drapery of the Affghan women. They are, as among all barbarous nations, the drudges of the men, but still they have a certain weight in the counsels of their masters, and may be said, upon the whole, to be treated with more distinction than in most Mahomedan countries. .

is

Mekran, in the time of Marco Polo, must have been in a very different condition. The people, he tells us, were idolators, and raised abundance of rice, carrying on a great trade both by sea and land. He calls the country Kesmacoran, interpreted Kedge-Mekran, from the name of the capital town. Kedge, which gives its name to the surrounding district, is near the Persian frontier, and stands on the Mooleanee river, reported by Pottinger to be an abundant and never-failing stream. In recent times it carried on a considerable trade with Candahar, Khelat, Shikarpore, and the coast; but owing to the distractions of the country, in which its chief threw off his allegiance to the Khan of Khelat, the place has decayed, and its merchants removed.

The Beloochees are fond of bardic songs, and it is the profession of one of the tribes to scream forth the genealogies of their entertainers to the discordant music of the tomtom, the cymbals, and a rude guitar. Colonel Pottinger inclines to the opinion that they are of Jewish origin, and traces several customs, particularly those concerning marriage, adultery, and divorce, to the institutes of Moses. The personal appearance of the people would seem to favour this hypothesis; but they themselves repudiate it as a reproach, and assume to be of Arab ancestry. They are Mahomedans of the Sooni sect, and the Shia doctrine is rejected with detestation even by the descendants of the Persians. The attempt of Nadir Shah to introduce uniformity in religion throughout the whole Mussulman world is characteristic. Among the proofs he affected to examine were the sacred books both of the Jews and Christians; but when the Shia high priest protested against such an exercise of temporal power as he contemplated, Nadir had him strangled on the spot, and all difficulty for a time was at an end.

Having thus thrown down the gauntlet to the established church of Persia, he confiscated its revenue, to the extent of three millions sterling, for the purpose of reconciling the rest of his subjects to his interference, by paying the army its arrears and reducing the taxes of the people. But all was unavailing. The two great sects are as hostile as ever, and in Beloochistan more especially, a Christian would meet with far more toleration than a Shia.

Industry may be supposed to be in a very low state in a country like Beloochistan. They spin the hair of goats and camels into ropes, and weave it into coarse fabrics; and the wool of their sheep they manufacture into garments, colouring them with madder and other native dyes. Some matchlocks and other arms are made at Khelat. Horses, as we have mentioned, are exported to India; and as vessels are unable to reach the beach, the animals are made to swim out to them at spring tides. They exchange also some butter, hides, wool, drugs, dried fruits, &c., for rice, spices, dye-stuffs, a small quantity of British and Indian manufactures, and slaves from Muscat.

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Beloochistan is supposed to have been one of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of that potentate who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia," and who divorced his queen because she refused to humour a drunken whim by transgressing the rules of modesty prescribed to eastern women. Alexander traversed it on his way back to Persepolis, and Arrian describes the tract with great correctness; its desolation and aridity— the necessity of digging in the beds of torrents for water -the food of the inhabitants, dates and fish-the violence of the monsoon in Mekran-and the impossibility of subsisting a large army on such a route, which led to