'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME IV.' [‎131r] (266/652)

HORMUZ (Village.)—
The only inhabited place on the island of Hormuz and the sole remaining
vestige of the once celebrated city of “ Ormuz.” The village is situated on
the neck of the northern promontory between the Portuguese fort at its
extremity and the ruins of the ancient city upon the landward side. The
place consists of about 200 houses, and the population may rise, while the
salt and oxide mines are being actively worked, to 1,200 souls, but falls
in summer to less than half that number in consequence of an annual
emigration to the mainland, especially to Minab, which the hot weather
and prospects of employment in picking dates combine to produce.
Persians predominate, many of them being natives of Bashakard and
Rudbar ; but there are also Baluchis and Arabs who have long since
forgotten to what tribe their ancestors belonged. The proportions of the
mixture are also roughly measured by the fact that about frds of the popu
lation is Shi’ah as against |rd Sunni. The inhabitants of Hormuz village
are mostly sailors, fishermen and miners ; they ares, reported to own 8 large
Mashuwas, 6 Baqarahs and 1 Ghunchah, with an aggregate burthen of 620
tons and employing 172 hands. The ordinary anchorage at Hormuz is half
a mile to the east of the Portuguese fort, where the bottom is of mud, the
depth of water from 4 to 5 fathoms. A little barley is grown on the plain
near the village ; there are hardly any date-palms. A few reservoirs
exist for the storage of rain-water and there are some wells yielding water
which is slightly brackish. A Qadamgah of merely local importance stands
1 mile south of the village. The village is the seat of the Persian agent who
governs the island. The Portuguese fort is now in a dilapidated con*
dition owing to the removal of stones from the w T alls for building purposes,
but it still contains two magnificent reservoirs, empty but in good repair.
HOT BALOCH or LASHAR—
A tribe inhabiting the Lashar district south of Bampur, in Persian Balfl-
chistan, and also wandering all over the Bampur desert and neighbouring
tracts, even down to Chahbar and the coast. They seem to be generally
nomadic in their habits, and Floyer calls them the Bedouin of the country.
The men are fine, wiry fellows of great endurance. They all carry a spin
ning machine stuck in their girdles opposite the hack* forming a
contrast to th ir wild looks and fierce conversation. They own some
camels, w T hich must be able to eat all kinds of fodder, and very many
small donkeys, goats and sheep, These they drive with them wherever in
the sandy waste they may find scanty dried grass, and carry the patches of
.woollen or goats’ hair cloth which, supported on small sticks, are regarded
as tents, and are in fact miniature copies of the tents of Persian Iliats.
• Mir Hot, of Pip, was the principal chief of the Hots of Lashar in
1876. He is supposed to be devoted to Persian interests, and the Governor
of Bampur probably derives a certain amount of support from the Lash aria
in the shape of a contingent of irregulars, when taking the field against
other tribes,
* An instrument which serves either as a knife or a saw.