'Report on Sistan and the Country Between It and Mashad' [‎16v] (37/118)

V
14
discontented Sistanis. He died last year, leaving his son to inherit the
village in Khorasan. His brother Gulzar Khan is now kadkhuda of Bahra m-
abad.
The remnants of this once powerful clan are to be found in the villages
of Bahramabad, Jalalabad, Kechwan, and Tilfak, and are said to number
about 200'families.
Regarding the dihcan or serfs of these clans mentioned by Dr. Bellew,
I was unable to find any trace of such a relationship between them and the
remainder of the inhabitants.
The nomad Baluch are distinct from the dwellers in villages. Their
principal tribes are the Gurgich, Sarai, Saruni, Jamalzai, Shauzi, and!
Brahui.
The total population of Sistan I estimate at about 50,000, including
6,000 nomads. Although this is a higher figure than Colonel GoldsmkTs in
1872 ; —namely, 35,000 pins 10,000 nomads,—Sistan does not give me the
idea of a country that is improving.
Many villages are in a tumble-down condition, with half the houses
deserted, and nowhere does one see new villages being built. Ruins meet
the eye on all sides, caused by an excess or scarcity of water, either flooded
out or abandoned.
Generally speaking, the inhabitants of Sistan are a miserable race, very
dark-skinned, of wretched physique, small in stature, and inferior both physi
cally and mentally to the Persian.
The Kain people regard them with great contempt. They look more
like natives of lower India than Persia, and live in the greatest squalor.
Their food consists of bread and turnips, and fruit when in season.
They are wretchedly clad, and in many places do not get enough to eat.
Though I saw no starving beggars round my camp, Dafadar A Non-Commissioned Officer in the Indian Cavalry. Slier AH
more than once reported to me that men who had done some trifling service
asked for payment in bread instead of money.
This was'specially the case east of the Kuh-i-Khwaja, where the ground
is rather high and the canal water had not risen high enough to irrigate
their fields properly for two seasons.
The Baluchis are of all sorts and conditions. Those I noticed in the
northern part of the basin, living among the reeds or in clearings in the
tamarisk jungle, are, if anything, of inferior physique to the Sistanis; while
others south-west of Sihkuha are fine able-bodied men of the stamp that used
to raid the greater part of Kain, and are intensely proud of their Baluch
origin. In this direction the Gurgich and Brahuis are the most numerous.
The nature of their feelings towards the Sistan ruler was well expressed
by one whom I sounded on the subject.
His answer given in an injured tone was Fifteen sheep, one kran
about a quarter of the tax which obtains in other parts of Persia, but quite
sufficient to rankle in the mind of a Baluch, whose wants in the shape of a
settled government are represented by a minus quantity.
The country contains some sort of divisions such as Pushtd-Ab (behind
System of government. the (be , ^ water) ^
IVlal-i-onanreki, etc. But they are not now
administrative units in any way, and are somewhat vague geographically.