of 34°, and the Bungushes; on the south they have Bunnoo, and the Lohaunees of Daumaun. They are in two divisions, which are quite distinct, though the chiefs are cousins.

The Khuttuks are probably over-rated by the Afghauns, who reckon the northern division at ten thousand, and the southern at fourteen thousand families. The Khauns in both divisions have great power over their clans, but the northern division is as much subject to the King, as the tribes of Peshawer; while the southern Khaun, secured by his mountains, maintains a greater degree of independence.

The people of the northern clan are praised for their honesty and their orderly conduct. They are tall, well-looking, and fairer than any of the tribes of Peshawer, but in their dress and manners they have a great resemblance to the people of India.

The country of the southern Khuttuks is various, but all mountainous; the southern part is the most so. It consists of stony, barren mountains, separated by deep and abrupt valleys, and is thinly inhabited by the predatory clans of Baurik and Saughur. It is impossible to imagine any thing more dreary than this part of the country; nothing is seen but rude and bare mountains, confusedly heaped together, nothing heard but the salt torrents that rush down the valleys. The scene is not rendered less forlorn by the straw hovels which are scattered by twos and threes on the summits of the mountains, and even these are met with but once or twice in a space of twenty miles. The savage inhabitants either fly from the traveller, or hover on the mountains, watching opportunities to attack him. The sight, however, is sometimes cheered by a patch of corn on the face of a hill, or by a green valley discovered far off from a height: the narrow valleys, though rough and dismal, are romantic; and the banks of the torrents are sometimes rendered pleasing by a clump of wild olives. Further north, the country is still crossed by ranges of high, steep, and rocky mountains; but among them are spacious and well cultivated plains. The principal of these are Maulgeen, Lauchee,

and Teeree, which last place is the residence of the Khaun. They produce wheat and Bajree.

They export a great deal of rock-salt, dug from the Salt range, principally in the neighbourhood of Feeree.

None of our party saw the Bauriks, except at a distance, nor had we any communication with them, but what arose from their attacks on our stragglers. We, however, learned, that though they were Khuttuks, they were independent on both Khauns, and lived in a state of anarchy.

The Khuttuks immediately to the north of the Bauriks, were dark men, dressed like some of the people in Hindostan, but ruder in their manners. In their intercourse with us, they were mild and inoffensive, and such, I hear, is their general character.

The clan of Bungush has the hills of the Khyberees on the north, the Khuttuks on the east and south-east, some of the Vizeerees on the south, and the Toorees on the west.

Their country consists of a long valley widening into a plain about twelve miles in diameter. The valley is called Upper, and the plain Lower Bungush. The plain is fertile and well watered; the uncultivated parts are covered with dwarf palm, but there are few trees, except in some pleasing gardens about Cohaut, the residence of the chief. This has been a neat little town, but has been reduced by the distractions in the tribe, to the size of a considerable village. Upper Bungush is well watered, and productive in the bottoms, but the hills are steep and rugged.

Both the Khuttuk and Bungush countries have great variety of climate. Some parts of the hills are covered with snow, as late as March, while others are scarcely whitened in the depth of winter; and some are never visited by snow. are colder as they are nearer the plains, though colder than Peshawer,

snow.

In general, the hills and vallies Solimauny mountains. The have seldom, if ever, falls of

The people of Lower Bungush, are very obedient to their Khaun and to the King, those of Upper Bungush less so.

They have something of the appearance of the tribes of Peshawer, but dress like Khyberees. The family of Bungush, which has made so great a figure in India, and from which are sprung the Nabobs of Furrukabad, is descended from a peasant of Upper Bungush.

West of Upper Bungush, are the Toorees, inhabiting a continuation of the same valley. The country and produce are, of course, much the same. The people are independent on the King, and, what is surprising among Afghauns, they are Sheeahs; many of the Upper Bungush also belong to this sect.

Farther up the same valley, which continues to stretch west nearly parallel to the Koorrum, are the Jaujees, the inveterate enemies of the Toorees. Their valley runs up the steep side of the range of Solimaun, and is narrower, poorer, and colder than that of the Toorees. The sides of the valley are covered with pines; the chief animals are goats. The inhabitants live in houses half sunk in the ground, wear Afghaun shirts of blanket, and burn fires day and night for the greater part of the year. One road from the Indus to Caubul runs up this long valley, and after passing the Jaujee country, issues through a defile in the highest ridge of the Solimauny range, into the high countries north-east of Ghuznee.

Neither the Jaujees nor Toorees are included among the Berdooraunees, and the following tribes are generally reckoned amongst those of Damaun; they differ, however, from those tribes in so many points, that it will be more convenient to mention them here.

These are the Esaukhail, the Sheotaks, the Bunnossees, the people of Dower, and the Khostees; the three first lie to the south of the Khuttuk country; and the others to the south of the Toorees; they have Damaun on the south.

The country of the Esaukhail stretches along the bank of the Indus, for upwards of thirty miles. It is about twelve miles broad, and is bounded by high hills on the other three sides. It is a very fertile, well watered, populous, and highly cultivated country. The watercourses are so numerous, and so broad and deep, as greatly to obstruct the roads. The villages. are thickly planted, and most of them

very large most of the houses are thatched. Some large islands on the Indus belong also to the Esaukhail; many of them are under cultivation, and the rest are clearing and improving. The chief produce of the whole country is wheat.

The Esaukhail disregard the royal authority, and have little government within themselves. They plunder weak travellers, and steal from those who are too strong to be plundered.

Beyond the hills on the west of the Esaukhail, lies a plain, cultivated by a tribe called Sheotuk, respecting which I have no information.

Farther west, and higher up is Bunnoo, a very extensive plain, watered by the Koorrum, full of villages, and covered with corn fields. It is hot in summer, but in winter it has ice that will bear a man. It produces rice, wheat, barley, and Indian corn, in abundance, and sugar cane, tobacco, turmeric, ginger, and a few esculent vegetables; there are no fruits but melons, mulberries, citrons, lemons, and limes. The hills are bare, or only covered with bushes; on the plains are very large tamarisk trees, and some of the thorny bushes common in India. Among the wild animals are wild boars, wild sheep, and the animal called Pauzen in Persia; but the most extraordinary are the wild dogs, which exactly resemble tame ones, and go in packs of four or five couple.

The people are of various clans, not connected by blood, and without any common government. They live in perpetual contention. They pay some regard to the King's authority, and a great road passes through their country; but travellers have often a great deal of trouble, from the importunities of the people of every village, which it is not quite safe to reject.

Above Bunnoo, and divided from it by hills, is the long but narrow valley of Dower, which stretches up to the country of the Jadrauns, on the ridge of the Solimauny mountains. It is a populous country, full of walled villages, always at war with each other. There can be little or no government, since a powerful person can seize the children of a weak one, and sell them for slaves. They are remarkable

for their disgusting vices, and indeed there is nothing to praise in their manners. Those of Bunnoo are not much better, and the Moollahs, as usual in such countries, have great power, which they do not fail to abuse.

To the north of Dower, between it and the Koorrum, lies Khost, a small country, peopled like Dower and Bunnoo, by many small clans of various descent. It lies as high as Dower, but is separated from it by hills. It is in obedience to the King, and is governed by one of its own chiefs, who acts as deputy to the King's Sirdar; nevertheless it is torn by internal dissensions. The whole valley is divided into two factions, called the Tor Goondee, and Speen Goondee (i. e. the black and white leagues), which are perpetually at war about the quarrels of one or other of their members.

East of Khost is Drugye, a small country inhabited by a tribe called Tunnee, of which I know nothing but the name..

The hills which surround the four last countries, are inhabited by the mountain tribe of Vizeeree.