government. He gives bread and broth to a hundred poor persons daily.

Koondooz belongs to the Uzbek tribe of Kuttaghun, the chief of which is Khauldaud Khaun. He could raise fifteen thousand men, and his revenue is about £30,000.

Taulikaun is possessed by a small but warlike and independent tribe of Uzbeks, who molest the neighbouring countries of Koondooz and Budukhshaun, with their incursions. They are too weak to make conquests, and too spirited to submit themselves to a conqueror. Meimuna Andkhoo, Shibberghaun, and some other little districts, are independent, most of them under Persian chiefs, and with Persian inhabitants.

CHAP. II.

OF THE EIMAUKS AND HAZAUREHS.

HE Eimauks and Hazaurehs have been stated to inhabit the Paropamisan mountains between Caubul and Heraut, having the Uzbeks on their north, and the Dooraunees and Ghiljies on their south. Their countries have been stated to be rugged and mountainous. Both united extend more than three hundred miles in length, and about two hundred miles in breadth.

One is surprised to find within the limits of Afghaunistaun, and in that very part of it which is said to be the original seat of the Afghauns, a people differing entirely from that nation in appearance, language, and manners. The wonder seems at first removed, when we find that they bear a resemblance to their Toorkee neighbours, but points of difference occur even there, which leave us in more perplexity than before. The people themselves afford us no aid in removing this obscurity, for they have no account of their own origin; nor does their language, which is a dialect of Persian, afford any clue by which we might discover the race from which they are sprung. Their features, however, refer them at once to the Tartar stock, and a tradition declares them to be the offspring of the Moguls. They are, indeed, frequently called by the name of Moguls to this day, and they are often confounded with the Moguls and Chagatyes, who still reside in the neighbourhood of Heraut. They themselves acknowledge their affinity to those tribes, as well as to the Calmuks, now settled in Caubul; and they intermarry with both of those nations. They do not, however, understand the language of the Moguls of Heraut.

Aboolfuzl alleges that they are the remains of the army of the Mogul prince Manku Khaun, the grandson of Chingheez; and Bau

ber testifies that many of the Hazaurehs spoke the language of the Moguls up to his time; but he occasions some fresh difficulties by speaking of the Toorkmun Hauzaurehs, and by always coupling the Togderrees with the Hazaurehs in the hills, while he asserts the Toorks and Eimauks to have been inhabitants of the plains*. There seems no reason to doubt that the Eimauks and Hazaurehs are the same people, though separated since their conversion to Mahommedanism by the different sects they have adopted; the Eimauks being rigid Soonees, and the Hazaurehs violent Sheeahs. They are indeed often confounded, notwithstanding this marked distinction, nor will the confusion appear at all unnatural if it be remembered that they resemble each other in their Tartar features and habits, and in the despotic character of their governments, the points in which they form the strongest contrast to the Afghauns. They differ, however, from each other in so many points, that it will be expedient to treat them separately, and I shall begin with the Eimauks who inhabit the western half of the mountains.

The country of the Eimauks is reckoned less mountainous than that of the Hazaurehs; but even in it, the hills present a steep and lofty face towards Heraut: the roads wind through valleys and over high ridges, and some of the forts are so inaccessible that all visitors are obliged to be drawn up with ropes by the garrison. Still the vallies are cultivated, and produce wheat, barley, and millet; and almonds, pomegranates, and barberries are found wild. The northwest of the country, which is inhabited by the Jumsheedees, is more level and fertile, the hills are sloping and well wooded, the valleys rich and watered by the river Margus or Moorghaub. The south of the Tymunee lands also contains wide and grassy valleys. The whole of the mountains are full of springs.

* I find it difficult to account for the number of Toorkee words which are met with in the language of those tribes. Why, if they be Moguls, should they have spoken Toorkee; and why, if Toorkee was their language, should they have lost it, residing as they do on the borders of Toorkistaun? Why should they have adopted the Persian tongue, while the bulk of their northern neighbours speak Toorkee, and of those on the south Pushtoo.

The Zoorees possess Subzaur or Isfezaur, an extensive plain among mountains covered with pines, situated to the east of the road from Furra to Heraut, and in some measure detached from the other Eimauks.

5. The word Eimauk, though I do not know that it is used in Toorkistaun, is the common term among all Tartars of the north and east for a division or a tribe *. The nation which I am now describing is correctly called the Chahaur Oeemauk or four tribes, and was in reality formed into so many divisions, although they have now branched out into a greater number.

The original four Eimauks are the Teimunees, Hazaurehs †, Teimoories, and Zoorees.

The first of these Eimauks includes two other divisions, the Kipchauks and the Durzyes; and the second includes the Jumsheedees and Feerooz-coohes. The Keryes, who live about Toorbutee Hyderee, south of Meshhed, are also said to be Eimauks, but I fancy incorrectly.

Some of these subordinate divisions are now as numerous as the Eimauks from which they sprung; and all, like the original Eimauks, have separate lands and independent chiefs. The chiefs inhabit strong castles, sometimes containing spacious palaces, where they maintain little courts of their own, and are attended by splendid retinues. They levy taxes on their tribes, and keep troops in their own pay, and mounted on their own horses. The administration of justice, with the power of life and death, and all the rights of an absolute monarch, are in their hands. They carry on their government in the King's name, but they are never controlled in their management of their own tribes.

* I learn from my friend Sir John Malcolm, that there was a large tribe called Eimauks in Syria, a colony from which established itself in Lauristaun, and produced the dynasty of Ataubeks so celebrated in Persian history.

+ These are not to be confounded with the Hazaurehs above-mentioned, who will be hereafter described.