'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎36] (201/524)

36 REMARKS ON
THE TRIBES,
Behbehan. Zeitoon, formerly Zeidoon 3 is a central point Iiigber np
the stream, and distant 10 fnrsacs from Hindeean, where trade from
Hindeean and Dillum converges^ Goods go up by land, passing to
I)eh Moollah, then Arab, and then Zeitoon. These three marches are
level, but the fourth and last inarch of 5 or 6 fnrsacs, from Zeitoon
to Behbehan is stony and through the lower spurs of the mountain
range.
14. The view* looking inland from Behbehan is fine. The stream
a hundred yards wide, deep, between high steep soil banks; a noble
plain on either side. An old cedar tree or two and an old tomb break
the middle ground, backed by reddish, sulphurous-looking, castellated,
low ridge of hills, behind which a higher deep indigo range, and far
in the distance, overlooking all, the snowy peaks of the Khogiloo
tribes.
15. Crossing the Hindeean, and moving South-east, the grass
plain becomes barren, and covered with a saline efflorescence, then
pierced by salt w 7 ater creeks, round the heads of which are strewn the
ruins of Guebre, or as the natives call them Hindoo buildings. The
plain then contracts, rugged spurs of the hills coming finally down to
within 3 or 4 miles of the sea, until you reach the narrowest neck, at
the frontier village of Sheikh Abool Sheikh of the Chaabs, or Shah
Abool Shah of the Persians.* This village was the site ofaGuebre
Temple, or other holy place. It is now, like so many of its fellows,
an Imam Zadeh. The village possesses all the essentials of vileness,
filth, and ruffianly rascality, viz. the congregation of a set of ill-
conditioned semi-barbarians, on an ill-favoured spot, for the guardian
ship of a shrine, and exempted on condition of such office from all
taxation, supervision, and law.
16. I subjoin a statement of the principal Chaab tribes : but the
numbers of their fighting men are I think overstated.
t>^ IS remar kable, that those shrines which date from a period anterior to that of
the lophet, and which had previously been consecrated as Fire Temples, Lingam
Ruhbeis, or Poojah places, &c., have since been confirmed as shrines or places of
pi giimage by both fcoonees and Sheeahs. Whereas those shrines which are now
lesortet to by only one of the two principal sects of Islamism, date from a timo
su sequent to that of the Prophet’s birth. Again, where a shrine had been resorted
o } mndels, and subsequently seized by the Moslems, the country in which it was
si ua e remaining the frontier between the two religions, such shrine continued to be
icsoiieU to by the old infidels, and by the Mahomedan invaders and their converts.