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were Persian; Syria having been the remoter source. Indeed the geographical contiguity of Persia to Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, and Arabia, is the main point in the analysis of the elements of Persian civilization. No stock we have hitherto met with has, at one and the same time, been so closely in contact with the populations of the Euphrates, the Nile, and the Mediterranean on the one side, and those of India on the other,

So exposed has Persia been to foreign influences, that it is only in one remote district that the population is other than Parsee or Mahometan, modified and mixed. This is Kafiristan, or the Land of the Kafirs (infidels); an impracticable mountaincountry on the watershed between the Oxus and the north-western system of the Indus. No European, and but one or two Mahometans, have visited the country. The following account, from Elphinstone's "Caubul," is the only one there is of this important population-important because, comparatively, unmodified in the midst of a stock eminent for the heterogeneous nature of the numerous influences that have acted on it.

Mullah Nujeb, the traveller, whose account Mr. Elpinstone has given us, found the valleys of the Kafiristan mountains well-peopled, each being occupied by a separate tribe, family, or settlement. The proper term is doubtful, since, although the Kafirs are said to be divided into tribes, it is added that these are geographical rather than genealogical. If so, they are scarcely to be called tribes at all. Each valley, however, has its own proper population, and it is the occupancy of these respective valleys that gives rise to the different names of the different divisions. Mullah Nujeb's list supplies the following names; and herein we may notice the frequency of the termination je, its similarity to the Pustu zye, and the consequent compound character of the words wherein it occurs Caum-o-ji, Kest-o-ji, Múndegul, Cam-to-ji, Purune, Tewni, Púnúz, Ushkong, Umshi, Sunnú, Kulume Rúse Turkuma, Nisha, Chumga, Waui, Khúllum, Dimish, Iráit, &c. Everything here is particular and specific; neither is there any general name for the Kafir population at all.

The name just applicd is Mahometan. A Kafir is an infidel, and Kafiristan is the infidel's country; so that the term is simply that of a religious sect designated from its negative characteristics. And it is inconvenient, since the populations of the neighbourhood are akin to that of the Kafirs, but are not other than Mahometan. Another name-or rather a pair of names, as little native, however, as the one just noticed-is suggested by their dress. One division of them is called the Tor Kafir, or Black; the other the Spin Kafir, or White Infidel. Siaposh, too, which means Black-vested, is a synonym to Tor Kafir. It must be repeated that it is their dress and not their complexion that has suggested these names. Some wear a vest of black goatskin, others a dress of white cotton: all, however, are light-complexioned. Their roads, which are only fit for men on foot, are continually crossed by ravines and torrents, over which swinging bridges are thrown. Their villages rise along the slopes of the hills in terraces; so that the roof of one house forms the street to the one above itsuch, at least, is the Mullah's description; and these villages are numerous. The Caumoji had ten such; and Caumdaish, the largest of them, contained five hundred houses.

At Caumdaish, Mullah Nujeb obtained some insight into their religion. There was the belief in a single god, whose name was Imra, a name re-appearing in the Hindu Pantheon. But there were idols besides,-idols which represented departed heroes,— heroes who, if properly propitiated, would intercede with Imra on behalf of their

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worshippers. Sometimes male, sometimes female-sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot-of wood or stone, as the case might be these objects of adoration were common about Caumdaish. In the public apartment, too, of that village was a high wooden pillar, on which sat a figure with a spear in one hand and a staff in the other. It represented the father of one of the magnates of the village, who had earned the privilege of setting it up by a series of feasts given to the whole community. Hospitality, in general, is one of the cardinal Kafir virtues, by the due exercise of which an admission to Burri le Bula, the Kafir Elysium, is most effectually insured. The opposite to Burri le Bula is Burri Duggur Bula (Hades, Tartarus).

These individual apotheoses prepare us for an almost infinite variety in the Kafir Pantheon. When honours are local, the hero-worship will vary with the valley or village; and such is really the case. In Caumdaish the chief deities are as follow:

1. Bugish, the god of the waters. 2. Mauni, who expelled Yúsh, the Evil Principle, from the world. Compare the Indian term Menu. 3. Murrur. 4. Urrum. 5. Pursú. 6. Gésh. 7-13. Seven brothers, named Paradik (compare Paradise), who had golden bodies, and were created from a golden trce. 14-20. Puron; seven golden brothers of the same kind. 21. Kumye, the wife of Adam. This is, perhaps, the Mullah's view rather than that of the Caumdaish people themselves. 22. Dissauni, the wife of Gésh. 23. Dúhí. 24. Surijú. 25. Nishtí.

One of the sacrifices at Caumdaish was witnessed by Mullah Nujeb. It was to Imra, and was celebrated at a particular place near the village where there was a stone post. Before this a fire was kindled, and, through the fire, flour, butter, and water were thrown on to the stone. Then an animal was sacrificed, and its blood, like the flour and butter, thrown through the fire. The flesh was partly eaten-partly burnt. One of the prayers was for the extermination of the Mussulmans. The worship of idols is performed nearly in the same way. Sometimes, however, instead of the open air, they are performed in houses called Imra Umma. Fire, though essential to all of these sacrifices, is not itself an object of veneration; neither is any eternal fire kept up. Its chief fuel is the branch of some particular, though unknown, tree. The priests, though hereditary, have no great influence; neither have another class of religionists, who have the credit of procuring the inspiration of some superior being by holding their heads over the smoke of a sacrifice. Fish is the only aliment from which they abstain; beef, and all the other kinds of animal food, being eaten indifferently. There seems to be certain fixed days for festivals, on one of which they throw ashes at each other. There is always sacrifice on these occasions, and always feasting. At one of them the boys light torches of a sort of pine, and carry them before one of the idols, where they throw them down, and allow them to burn. At another, the women hide themselves without the village, and let the men search for them. When found, the women defend themselves with switches, but are finally carried off.

When a child is born, it is carried with the mother to a house, built for the purpose, beyond the precincts of the village, where, for twenty-four days, they remain—the woman, for so long, being considered impure. When this is over, both mother and child are bathed, and they return to the village, accompanied by dancers and musicians. At naming, the child is held to the breast, whilst the names of its ancestors are repeated; and the one which is being pronounced, when the child begins to suck, is the one that the child takes.

Between twenty and thirty the men marry, and between fifteen and seventeen, the women. The bridegroom sends some clothes and ornaments to the bride-also some of

ORCANIC NATURE. -No. XI.

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the materials for the marriage feast. The feast is continued through the night, and the next day the bride, dressed in the finery that the bridegroom had sent her, is taken away by him. The father adds some article of dress to the equipage of the bride, and gives the husband a cow, or perhaps a slave. The girl is then led out, with a basket on her back, containing fruits and walnuts, prepared with honey, and (when it can be afforded) a silver cup. The whole village attends her, dancing and singing. The price for the bride is paid to the father a few days afterwards. Sometimes it amounts to as many as twenty cows. The priest has no share in all this. Polygamy is allowed— adultery but moderately punished; and the women move about free and unveiled. They do all the domestic, and some of the agricultural, work.

When a Kafir dies, he is dressed in his best clothes, and extended on a bed, with his arms beside him. The body and bed are then carried about by his kinsmen, whilst the attendants at the funeral dance, sing, and perform a sham fight around it. The women, meanwhile, lament. From time to time, too, the body is set down, and then the weeping that takes place is over. At length it is shut up in a coffin, and deposited above ground. A feast follows all funerals, and once a-year there is a festival in honour of the deceased, when some food is laid out for his manes.

A visitor of condolence, when he enters the house of his afflicted acquaintance, throws his cap on the ground, draws his dagger, seizes the mourner by the hand, pulls him up, and forces him to join in a dance round the room. The rich wear their best clothes, and some put on black fillets, ornamented with shells-one for each Mussulman killed by the wearer. The few leagues which are struck with the Mussulmans are attended with the ceremony of killing a goat, dressing its heart, biting off one half, and giving the other to the Mussulman.

They dance vehemently to a quick and wild music of the tabor, the pipe, or the the voice; and this is the chief amusement. They sometimes form a circle of men and women alternately, who move round the musicians for some time with joined hands, and then they all spring forward, and dance together.

Their wooden houses generally contain a cellar for the cheese, clarified butter, wine and vinegar, with a low-backed bench fixed to the wall. More remarkable, however, are their seats. These are stools, shaped something like drums, but drawn in, in the middle; and the tables are like them, only larger. The stools are of wicker, but the beds are wood. A Kafir, when sitting on the ground, stretches his legs like a European. This, combined with the use of chairs or stools, is one of the points which strikes their neighbours as eminently characteristic. So does their use of wine. Of this they have three kinds, of which both men and women drink freely.

Saving the savage character of their warfare, the Kafirs are described as a sociable, kind-hearted people-pre-eminent for hospitality. The people of a village come out to meet a stranger, ease him of his baggage, carry it for him, and receive him with warm welcomes. Every man of note expects to be visited by him, and is prepared, accordingly, to press upon him food and drink.

The constitution of a Kafir community is uncertain. Such regular magistrates as exist have but little power. On public matters the wealthier consult together. The lex talionis is the more prominent part in their law. Titles of their own they have none—that of Khan, applied to the rich men, being of a Pushtu origin. Cattle and slaves are the chief elements of their wealth.

Two of those black goat-skins, from which the Siaposh take their name, make the vest, and two more the petticoat of the Kafir-the hair being on the outside. Bare

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armed and shaven-headed, the Kafir has but a long tuft on the crown of his head, and two curls over the ears. There is some difference, however, in respect to head-gear, if he have killed a Mussulman. The hair is plucked from all parts of the face but the chin. This is well-bearded.

The women dress much like the men; the chief differences appertaining to the headgear and a red fillet round the head, which is the Kafir equivalent to the Scotch snood. Both sexes wear ear-rings, neck-rings, and wrist-rings of silver, pewter, or brass. These are left off during mourning. The men first wear them on arriving at manhood, and their first assumption is a matter of festivity and ceremony.

All this chiefly applies to the common people. The wealthier wear a shirt beneath the vest in winter, and in summer a shirt in place of the vest. With the women, the shirt is always the chief garment. Instead, too, of a goat-skin, the rich wear cotton, or black hair-cloth; and sometimes a sort of white blanket of Kashkari manufacture, which is put on like a Highland plaid. Cotton trowsers form another item in the more elaborate styles, worked with flowers in red and black worsted, slit at the bottom, and fringed. Worsted stockings, or perhaps woollen fillets, are sometimes worn: as are half-boots of white goatskin by the warriors.

It has been stated that the killing of a Mussulman confers distinction. Until a young Kafir has done this, he misses many privileges. When, however, he has done so, he wears, at the solemn dances at the festival of the Numminant, a sort of turban, with a feather stuck into it for every Mussulman that has died by his hand. The number of bells round his waist is similarly regulated; and so is the right of flourishing his axe above his head in the dance. A red woollen cap, or cockade, is another mark. This is worn habitually. Those who have killed many, erect a high pole before their doors, in which are holes. In these are put a pin for every Mussulman killed, and a ring for every one wounded.

All this insures the unfortunate prisoner of the Kafir death rather than slavery. Hence the Kafir slaves-and they are numerous-are of Kafir blood. Their booty is derived from their numerous intertribual wars, and from a considerable amount of private robbery as well. The strong steal from the weak, even within the same community; sometimes to keep the slave for his own use, sometimes to sell him. An individual who loses his relations soon loses his freedom also. On the other hand, domestic slavery is no inordinate burden; and, without being on the full level of the family of the owner, the slave who is retained in the tribe to which he belongs is not ill-used.

A bow, about four feet and a half long, with a leathern string; arrows made of reed, barbed, and sometimes poisoned; a dagger of a peculiar shape, and worn on the right side; a knife, a flint, and a sort of bark used as tinder, constitute the harness of a Kafir. Fire-arms and swords are but just beginning to be used. Surprisals and ambuscades are commoner than open warfare: and of this more takes place by night than by day.

The Kafir of Kafiristan is the mountaineer of the stock, in his most extreme form. His contrast is to be found in the Persian of such towns as Shiraz, Teheran, or Ispahan; also amongst the Tajiks of Bokhara, who are of Persian blood and language, though the dominant population is Turk. Intermediate to these extremes are the Afghans (or Patans, whose language is called the Pushtu); the Kurds; and the Biluchi of Biluchistan, with whom the mountaineer character changes to that of the occupants of a sandy desert. In Mekran, and along the shore of the Indian ocean, this desert character of the country increases, until the physical conditions become those of Arabia or northern Africa.

Kafiristan lies on the water-system of the Indus; the Biluchi population extends into Sind; Affghanistan lies along the Indian frontier. This suggests that the next group will be

GROUP V. THE INDIAN STOCK.-Organization Referable to Two Types: In one the skin is dark, the face broad, the features coarse; in the other, the features are regular, the head dolikho-kephalic, the skin brunette rather than black. -Language: Modified by foreign admixture; most so in the northern parts of India.-Area: India, Ceylon, the Maldive islands, parts of the Monosyllabic frontier, the mountains of the southern part of Beluchistan, i. c. the country of the Brahúi.

Every one admits that there are few countries where the effects of some second element of admixture are more visible than they are in India. Few, however, agree as to the exact nature and proportions of this element. It is also admitted that it shows itself nowhere more conspicuously than in the language. In the south, and in the more impracticable mountain ranges, there is no doubt as to its character. In the south, and in the more impracticable mountain ranges, so far as even the Rajmahali hills on the Ganges, the forms of speech all belong to a class called Tamul, or Tamulian, though spoken with notable differences of dialect, and even language. At the same time there is a vast number of words, even in the purest of them, from another tongue, called the Sanskrit. Nevertheless, the Sanskrit admixture is not sufficient to obscure the original Tamulian character of the tongue; i. e. it never does so in the southern half of the peninsula at all, and it fails to do so in many of the more impracticable localities towards the north. Even in Persia, amongst the Brahúi of Beluchistan, this Tamul class of language is to be found.

But in the north this is not the case. In northern localities, and on level surfaces, like those afforded by the valley of the Ganges, the Sanskrit words are so numerous, and the Tamulian so comparatively few, that the class to which the language belongs becomes doubtful,-the only points which are universally admitted being the fundamental difference between the Sanskrit and Tamul, when we succeed in separating them, and the Indian origin of the Tamul. Whether the Sanskrit be equally Indian, and what it be if other than Indian, are points of doubt.

Under all and any point of view, however, India is the country of two ethnological influences, the analysis of them being a point of minute and recondite criticism-of two ethnological influences; perhaps of more than two. It is the country of castes, of the Brahminic and Bhuddhist religions; of a teeming, ingenious, and industrious, but rarely independent, population. It is the country of an ancient literature, and an ancient architecture. It is a country which, whatever may have been the origin of its own civilization, helped to civilize the majority of the countries of the monosyllabic languages-Ava, Tibet, Siam, and (more than is generally believed) China.

To the Brahminic and Buddhist religions, India stands in the same relation as Arabia does to Mahometanism.

Just as the Kafiristan mountains preserve fragments of the Persian stock in its unmodified form, so do the numerous hill-ranges of India preserve samples of the indigenous Pagan populations, as opposed to those of the Brahminic, Buddhist, and Mahometan creeds. Of these hill-tribes some are almost wholly free from the effects of foreign influence, some considerably modified, some as referable to one class as another. The most usual names by which they are designated, are:-Bhils and Khonds;