mission longs for the day when work in the vast interior will be established and carried on as it now is on the coasts. Will not these glimpses of the land and the people and the hearts that are hungry for the message appeal to some to give their lives for neglected Arabia ?*

Speed on, ye heralds, bringing

Life to the desert-slain Till in its mighty winging

God's Spirit comes to reign. From death to new-begetting He shall the power giveShall choose them for crown-setting And Ishmael shall live.

Seistan

Baluchistan has a population of 1,050,000, not including Makran, western Sinjrani, or Kharan. The last two districts lie near the boundary and are largely desert. With the exception of a few Hindu Bunyias, who live in the larger centers, all the inhabitants of Baluchistan are Mohammedans. These Hindus are well thought of by their neighbors, and in the old days of raids the Moslems made it a rule not to attack the women, children, or Hindus.

The two chief sects of Moslems in Baluchistan are Sunis and Shiahs, but the real natives of Baluchistan are all Sunis. The Shiahs are represented by Hazans (of Mongolian race), who in recent years have come into British territory to escape the oppression and cruelty to which they were subjected in Afghanistan.

Baluchistan is not united in government, for there are four different

areas under different control: British territory, administered territory, tribal areas, and Khelat territory. The first two divisions are really one, since they are governed by British agents and the laws are practically the same as in India. The government is, of course, neutral on religious questions, but occasionally individual agents seem to favor Islam for the people by supporting schools in which the Koran is taught. The government has occasionally given assistance to the medical work of the missionaries, and agents have sometimes shown much sympathy with the work.

The Khan of Khelat is an independent Mohammedan chief, who ranks high among the princes of India. In his own country he is nominally supreme, but is kept in control by a British political adviser.

In general, law and order reign. and violent crimes are not numerous.

The government, according to native law and custom, is tempered to some extent by the influence of Islam. Altho orders have been given that armed escorts should accompany every foreigner when itinerating, there is not much danger from fanaticism. Preaching in the ordinary sense is not, however, considered advisable.

The tribal areas are occupied by wild tribes of Baluchis, who are practically independent, but are kept from fighting and crimes by occasional visits of a political agent and by subsidies which are withheld in case of the least disturbance. The chief detriment to crime seems to be, how ever, the fear of the British Raj, of whose power they have had unpleasant experience when expeditions have been sent against them. These tribes are all fanatical Moslems, and the life of a convert to Christ would not be safe among them. Preaching is not allowed, so that at present the only means of reaching these people is through medical work. The government has arranged to furnish an escort to those visiting these tribes, and the people themselves have requested me never to leave camp without some guard.

Census Report on the Spread of Islam

The exact period at which the tribes of Baluchistan first came into contact with Mohammedanism must remain buried in obscurity. It is probable, however, that they did so early in the Mohammedan era. Seistan, which touches the western border of the province, was conquered as early as 31 A.II., and about 44 A.H. In 665 A.H. Muhallah, son of Abu Safra, brought the countries of Kabul and Zabul under submis

sion.

In 714 A.D. Mohammed, son of Kasim, set out from Shiraz to conquer Sind, and on his way passed Makram. In the tenth century a certain writer mentions that the governor of Khozdar (near the present village of Khelat) was Muirbin Ahmad and that the Khutba was read in the name of the Khalifa only. Early graves of Baluchistan are made in another direction than that toward Mecca, showing that probably the early inhabitants were Zoroastrians. The number of Moslems seems to be increasing, owing to the cessation of the tribal wars, looting, and raids during the last 15 to 20 years. There has been a gradual restoration of law and order under the British government. Immigration and peace have also allowed settlement in many districts at one period uninhabited. At the same time many Baluchis have gone to Sind and the Punjab, finding it impossible to live among the barren mountains and sandy deserts of Baluchistan without recourse to looting.

Altho the Brahui people are the most numerous, they do not all use the Brahui language. Many speak Persian, Baluchi, and Sindhi. Numerically Pushtu probably stands first, then Brahui, Baluchi, Sindhi, and Persian. Urdu is understood by nearly all chiefs and by many Hindu Bunyias, and is rapidly spreading in places where the people come in contact with the government. Persian is the favorite language of the upper classes, and almost every man. who makes any pretense to education usually includes Persian as one of his accomplishments. Very few of the Mullahs really understand Arabic.

The government report says that

the bulk of the population has received and is receiving no education whatever. Even those few who learn the Koran do not understand its meaning. A few sons of chiefs have received some instruction in Urdu and Persian, and a few have been trained to be Mullahs by being sent to Kandahar to finish their education. The government has established schools in several centers, and occasionally these are attended by Pathans, but the Hindus seem to predominate, the Bunyias evidently realizing the importance of education. Outside the imported population of Hindus and Sikhs living in the two or three government centers there are among Mohammedans only 117 literates per 1,000, and among the women only 23 per 1,000. In many cases even these do not understand what they are reading. In the last three years we have found only three or four Mullahs who were willing or able to answer arguments.

Social Conditions

All

Polygamy is not very common among the common people. The purchase of wives is in vogue, so that the poverty of the people prevents the possession of more than one wife except by the wealthier classes. the chiefs and many Mullahs with whom I have come into contact possess more than one wife, and several as many as five or six. The price of girls varies, being highest among Pathans, where, according to reports, there is the greatest paucity of women. The prices have risen of recent years, as men find they can now claim payment in court, whereas in old days in many cases the money was never fully paid up, or one relative

perhaps was balanced against another.

Concubinage exists, more especially among the Baluchi chiefs (where the treaty prohibits missionaries from teaching their women). I know of several chiefs who have thirty, forty, fifty or sixty women, but whether they all occupy the position of concubines it is difficult to say. Many seem to be domestic slaves and are often given by the chief to his followers or to male slaves. From medical experience and reports it seems that in many cases there is no marriage bond, or it is often broken. Women stolen from India or enticed away under false pretenses appear to be living lives of common prostitution in the large villages of Baluchi chiefs.

Many of these tribes in the past were great border robbers, and it is only during the last twenty years that their raiding has been stopped. They formerly imported slaves, and occasionally on looting expeditions they took women away with their other loot. The descendants of these slaves to-day form a numerous body in some of the larger villages, and many appear to be in a very miserable condition. The children often wear but a few rags and many of them go entirely naked. Different forms of venereal disease are also common, both among adults and children.

The women, both free and slave, are given all the degrading work and often bear the heavy burdens, while the men sit in idleness. Throughout the country, both in British territory, Khelat State, and Mani and Bugti countries, are to be found hundreds of Hazara women, who during the late Hazara revolt in Afghanistan,

were taken by the Amir from their homes, and sold by Pathans all over Baluchistan. In every large village in some districts these women are to be found and every chief possesses numbers of them. Their owners

caught. But to-day a man, in order to secure money, will often accuse his wife of adultery when her only fault may be that she does not please her husband. The death penalty, in British territory, has been abolished.

In Khelat State the great blot is the Court of the Khan, where vile orgies are enacted, which it is impossible to describe. It is said that some of the boys have died from the treatment received. The first chapter of Romans is a true picture of the conditions existing among Brahuis, Pathans, and Baluchis to-day. Scarcely a day passes but medical experience testifies to the truth of the worst reports and observations. Taking the first 450 cases treated recently on a tour among the Marri and Bugti Baluchis, 14 per cent. were due to the Sensuality of the people. Almost every chief and many of the Mullahs are suffering from the effects of impurity. So many Mullahs are treated for syphilis at our hospital and on itineration that it is often spoken of as "the Mullah's disease." These conditions in some of the villages are no doubt partly due to slavery, many of the slaves being really common prostitutes. The bazaars, which are the outcome of our occupation of the frontier, have also very much to answer for regarding the spread of venereal disease.

The government reports state that immorality among women is common and that in spite of the requirements of the Koran with regard to witnesses, death is, according to the tribal custom of Baluchis and Brahuis, the only punishment for an unfaithful woman and her lover when

on the other hand, immorality on the part of a wife is winked at by her husband, and that even when the matter has become a public scandal, the injured husband is generally willing to overlook it on payment of a few rupees and one or two girls. Among Baluchis the feeling in regard to adultery is said to be very severe. From personal experience, however, living among these tribes, in their villages, in their houses, and encampments, there seems to be nowhere more open prostitution than in the capitals of the Baluchi chiefs.

The seclusion of women is not practised except among the most important Sirdars and chiefs. Here and there, where the people have come more into contact with Indian customs, one finds the purdah system being established, but it is exceptional. The following extract on the position of women in Baluchistan is from the government census report:

Throughout the province, more especially among Afghans and Brahuis (from experience among all three people, I can testify that the Baluchis are in by far the worst condition), the position of woman is one of extreme degradation. She is not only a mere household drudge, but she is the slave of man in all his needs, and her life is one of continual and abject toil. No sooner is a girl fit for work than her parents send her to tend the cattle and she is compelled to take her part in all the ordinary household duties. Owing to the system of buying wives, in vogue among Afghans, a girl as soon as she reaches marriageable age is, for all practical purposes,

not

put up for auction and sold to the highest bidder. Her father discourses in the market on her beauty or ability as a housekeeper, and invites offers from those who desire a wife. Even the more wealthy and more respectable Afghans are above this system of thus lauding the female wares which they have for sale. Even the betrothal of unborn girls is frequent. It is also usual that compensation for blood be ordered to be paid in the shape of girls, some of whom are living, while others are yet unborn.

Woman in Baluchistan is regarded as little more than a chattel or machine. Is it surprising, then, to find that woman is considered only as a means for increasing man's comforts. or as an object for the gratification of his animal passions? A wife must not only carry water, prepare food, and attend to alt ordinary household duties, but she must take flocks out to graze, groom her husband's horse, and assist in cultivation of the land.

Among the tribes in Zhot a married woman must even provide means by her own labor, for clothing herself, her children, and her husband, from whom she receives no assistance, monetary or otherwise. Among Afghans and their neighbors polygamy is only limited by the purchasing power of man, and a wife is looked on as a better investment than cattle, for in a country where drought and scarcity are continually present, the risk of loss in animals is great, while the female offspring of a woman will fetch a high price.

Woman's tutelage does not end with widowhood. In the household of a deceased Afghan she is looked on as an asset in the division of his property. It is no uncommon thing to find a son willing to sell his own mother.*

*This is from Census Report and is from information obtained by the government. I can testify to its truth from experience.-A. D. D.

Material Progress

"Until 1875," says Sir Herbert Edwards, in the government report, "in the ebb and flow of might, right, possession, and spoliation, there was no security of life or property, and practically no communications existed. The only way in which whole tribes were saved from extermination was by the universal custom of never killing women or the boys who had not yet put on trousers."

In a recent tour through the Marri and Bugti country, I saw many more thousands of graves than I saw men. It was a standing witness to the constant state of war which, until quite recently, was waged both among themselves and among surrounding tribes. If to-morrow the British government should withdraw from this province, the tribes would doubtless return to the old condition of continual civil war. To-day, after twenty-five years of the gradual increase of law and order, there is here and there evident improvement in the condition of the people. The government has built a few dispensaries and schools, and there are some 545 miles of metalled roads. But the people have not yet realized the need of any effort on their part, and instead of utilizing land and water for systematic cultivation, they seem content to remain on the verge of starvation as long as they can grow a little wheat or millet with a small amount of labor. bor. Even wells for irrigation are neglected where water exists.

Brahuis and Baluchis are largely nomadic in their habits, and many Pathans annually move from mountain to plain, or vice versa, according to the season of the year, for purposes of trade.