'Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde; accompanied by a geographical and historical account of those countries, with a map.' [‎79] (121/476)

DEHWARS.
79
I have in a preceding place* inserted a few desultory observations
on the Babees, whom I conceive to form a third class of the perma
nent inhabitants of Kelat, but as they are not natives of Beloochistan,
and moreover are a tribe of no note whatever among their countrymen,
little further need be said of them; they are an industrious pastoral
set of people, the majority of whom dwell in the dominions of the
king of Kabool, and in the Douranee country f, where they pasture
their flocks and reside in tents; some of them are also, as has already
been shewn, great merchants, and to follow their commercial avoca
tions they quit their native wilds, and settle in cities or towns: of
this last description are those at Kelat, and I have reason to believe
there are many similarly situated in the northern parts of the pro-
vnce of Guzeratte.
The Dehwars, or Dehkans, which words are synonymous, and
signify villagers, are the fourth and last class of those whom I have
described as constituting the population of the city of Kelat; they are,
like the others, not confined to it alone, and are to be recognized in
different districts of the country, under various names, which are
ordinarily those of the places they inhabit: thus those of Mustoong,
Teree, and Pringuwadh (villages north of Kelat), are not styled
Dehwars, but Mustoongees, Teereechees, and Pringuwadhthees. Of
their origin I have been unable to discover any certain traces; their
colloquial language is common, pure Persian, from which fact many
assert that they are the descendants of those people, who remained
behind on Nadir Shah quitting Beloochistan in 1747 ; but on the
other hand, this is in a great measure confuted by our finding that
* Vide Narrative 11th February.
f The Douranee are the first class of Uffghans. Ahmed Shah Abdalli was a Douranee,
and the succession to the throne remains undisputed in his family; they are subdivided
into Oolooses or tribes, and the territory they inhabit is very extensive: Kandahar is the
capital of the Douranee country, beside which there are other cities of inferior note. For
a detailed history of this nation as well as the whole of the Uffghans, I refer my readers to
the work just published by the Honourable M. Elphinstone, late Envoy to the Court of
Kabool from the supreme government of India, and now resident at Poonah, a gentleman
whose ability and erudition eminently qualified him for the task he has so well accom
plished, and to whom I am equally indebted for his friendship and communications.