The third is founded on the Jewish names of the Afghauns; but those they probably have derived from the Arabs, like all other Mahommedan nations. Their most ancient names have no resemblance to those of the Jews. The last argument is founded on a supposed resemblance between the Pushtoo and Chaldaic languages; of which the reader will hereafter be enabled to judge. Many points of resemblance between the manners of the Afghauns and those of the Jews might be adduced, but such a similarity is usual between nations in the same stage of society; and if it were admitted as a proof of identity, the Tartars and the Arabs, the Germans and the Russians, might be proved to be the same. It is also maintained by more than one European writer, that the Afghauns are a Caucasian tribe, and particularly that they are descended from the Armenians. In the extent sometimes allowed to the name of Caucasus, the Afghauns still inhabit that celebrated mountain; but if it be meant that they ever lived to the west of the Caspian Sea, the assertion appears to be unsupported by proof. Their Armenian descent is utterly unknown to themselves, though constantly in the mouths of the Armenians; and the story told by the latter people, of the Afghauns having become Mussulmans to avoid the long fasts prescribed by their own church, is too inconsistent with history to deserve a moment's consideration. I may add, that I have compared a short Armenian vocabulary with the Pushtoo, and could perceive no resemblance between the languages; and that I once read a good deal of a Pushtoo vocabulary to a well informed Armenian, who, though he strenuously asserted the descent of the Afghauns from his countrymen, yet owned that he could not discover a word common to their language and his own. I have not had the same advantage with the languages of other Caucasian tribes, but I compared about two hundred and fifty Georgian words with the corresponding ones in Pushtoo, and nothing could be more different; and I know no ground for connecting the Afghauns with the western Caucasus, except the assertion of a German traveller, whose name I forget, that he saw Afghauns there during the last century, which proves too much. CHAP. II. DIVISIONS AND GOVERNMENT OF THE AFGHAUN NATION. WHATEVER doubts may be entertained of the pedigree, and even of the existence of Kyse Abdooresheed, it is to him that all the Afghaun genealogies refer, and on those genealogies the whole of the divisions and interior government of the tribes depend. As each tribe has a government of its own, and constitutes a complete commonwealth within itself, it may be well to examine the rise and present situation of those commonwealths, before we proceed to consider them as composing one state, or one confederacy, under a common sovereign. From the four sons of Kyse, Serrabun, Ghoorghoosht, Betnee, and Kurleh, sprung the four great divisions of the Afghauns, which still bear their names. The Afghaun tribes are the families of the descendants of these four, and each bears the name of its immediate progenitor. Taking the descent of the Afghauns from one ancestor for granted, it is probable that, as long as the number of families was small, they were all under the direction of their common progenitor: that as they grew more numerous, the four great divisions separated, and were each under the head of its eldest branch, but that when the nation spread over an extensive country, and the tribes of the same division began to be remote from each other, their connection loosened, and each tribe at last remained under its own hereditary chief, entirely independent of the common head of the race. The four original divisions are now disused, and are only mentioned in the genealogies of the tribes. The tribes continue, in a great measure unmixed, (each having its territory compact). They still retain the patriarchal government I have alluded to, and the operation of the principle which I suppose to have separated them, is still very observable. Each tribe has branched into several divisions, and in the more numerous and the more scattered tribes, those branches have separated, and are each governed by its own independent chief; they, however, retain the common name, and an idea of community of blood and interests. The name of Oolooss is applied either to a whole tribe, or to one of these independent branches. The word seems to mean a clanish commonwealth. An Oolooss is divided into several branches, each under its own chief, who is subordinate to the chief of the Oolooss. These branches are again divided, and this operation is repeated (more or less often according to the size of the Oolooss), till the last subdivision contains but a few families. Each subdivision has its chief man, subordinate to the chief of the division in which it is comprehended. Each of these branches has its own immediate ancestor *. The Chief of an Oolooss, is called Khaun. He is always chosen from the oldest family of the Oolooss. In most cases, the selection rests with the King, who can remove a Khaun at pleasure, appointing one of his relations in his stead. In some Ooloosses, the Khaun is elected by the people. In both cases, some attention is paid to primogeniture; but more to age, experience, and character. This unsettled succession occasions many disputes. When the Khaun dies, two or more of his sons or nephews endeavour to make parties in the tribe; to conciliate the King, by promises of contributions or attachment; and, to bribe his ministers. The unsuccessful party continues his exertions after the successor is chosen. Sometimes, but rarely, part of the Oolooss secedes with him. More frequently, he continues his intrigues at Court, or stirs up open war in the Ooloos, in which * This will be made more obvious by a tree, representing the descent of a division of the Ghiljies, with their government as it actually exists. It is however to be observed, that although the head of the oldest family is still chief of the Ghiljies, and, though the he is sometimes supported by a hostile tribe. During civil wars in the nation, the unsuccessful candidate for the command of an Oolooss, joins the pretender to the throne, and is brought into power on the success of his party. smallest and most recent divisions have all their chiefs, yet the members of some of the intermediate branches have separated from each other, and have now no common head, as in the divisions of Booraun and Izzub. · Each of these again branches out into subdivisions under separate heads, subordinate to their immediate chief. The head of a subordinate division is always elected by the people from the oldest family in it; except in the lowest subdivision, where the superiority is often natural, as when an old man is head of the ten or twelve families, formed by his sons, nephews, and grand-children. The internal government of the Oolooss is carried on by the Khauns, and by assemblies of the heads of divisions. These assemblies are called Jeergas. The Khaun presides in the principal Jeerga, which is formed by the chiefs of the great branches of Oolooss. Each of these holds his The Government will be best illustrated by an example; and I shall take that of the Esaukhail division of the Solimaun Khail, (see * in the tree). Every family in the Esaukhail is, of course, governed by its immediate head. Every ten or twelve families are governed by their common ancestor if he be alive, or by his representative if he be dead; and these heads of a few families are called Speen Zheras or Elders, (literally, white beards). Every ten or twelve Elders are subject to a Cundeedaur, or head of a Mehel, Mohulla, or Quarter, who is the representative of their common ancestor. A certain number of these compose a subdivision, ruled by the representative of the ancestor of all its members, who is called Mullik or Mooshir: several subdivisions form a division governed as before; several divisions compose the Khail, which, in the case alluded to, is under Abdoolla Khaun. The Esau Khail, and six other Khails, compose the clan of Ahmedzye, which is governed by Khaunaun Khaun, the representative of Ahmed, their common ancestor. The Ahmedzye, and three other clans, compose the Ismaelzye; but they are not under the authority of any common chief, and the head family of the Ismaelzye is extinct or neglected. my The sons of Ismael and those of Pitch, form the Solimaun Khail, the chief of which is Ahmed Khaun, the representative of Solimaun. There is now no head to the house of Boorhaun, composed of the Solimaun Khail and the Ali Khail; but the chiefs of those two clans, and those of seven other clans similarly composed, all acknowledge the supremacy of Abdooreheem Khaun, the head of the eldest branch of the tribe of Ghiljie. I beg readers to remark, that hereafter, when I speak of the great divisions of the Afghauns, I shall call them tribes; and, when the component parts of a tribe are mentioned with reference to the tribe, I shall call the first divisions clans; those which compose a clan, Khails, &c. as above. But, when I am treating of one of those divisions as an independent body, I shall call it Oolooss, and its component parts clans, khails, &c. according to the relation they bear to the Qolooss, as if the latter were a tribe, Khail is a corruption of the Arabic word Khyle, a band or assemblage; and Zye, so often affixed to the names of tribes, clans, and families, means son, and is added as Mac is prefixed by the Highlanders. The term Mullik, which is applied to the head of a subdivision, means King, in Arabic; and Mushir is, I apprehend, a corruption of the Arabic word Moosheer, (a Counsellor). Y |