was frequently in the Sirdar's Ghedan, when his whole family was present.

a

A Belooche soldier, when armed cap-a-pee, makes a very formidable display. He carries matchlock, sword, spe ir, dagger, and shield, besides a multiplicity of powder flasks, priming horns, and pouches; the latter crammed with bills, slugs, flints, tinder boxes, and other warlike apparatus, which, on active service, must encumber hira beyond conception; they do not, however, seem to mind it, and a warrior's prowess is often estimated by the weight of his accoutrements. They are all capital marksmen, and on that account in battle, avoid as much as possible, coming to close combat; but when they have no alternative, they either throw away their fire-arms, or sling them by the side of the camel, or horse on which they are mounted. The best and most prized warlike weapons they have, are of foreign manufacture. Matchlocks, swords, and daggers, they get foom Persia, Khorasan, and ilindoostan : shields from the latter country; and for spears they are generally indebted to their neighbours the Sindians. At Kelat there is an armoury for matchlocks, swords, and spears, belonging exclusively to the Khan, but the workmanship I saw from it was bad and clumsy.

The amusements of the Belooches are such as we should expect to find among a wild and uncivilized people: they are enthusiastically fond of every species of field sports; and much of their time is passed in shooting, hunting, and coursing, for which latVOL. LVIII.

ter purpose, they bestow a vast deal of attention on the training of their greyhounds: a good one is valued at two or three camels, or even more, and I was informed that the Khan of Kelat has been known to pay to the value of four hundred rupees for one dog. Firing at marks, cudgelling, wiesting, practising with swords, and throwing the spear, are likewise, all favourite diversions with them; and neighbouring Kheils cope with each other at these exercises; the four latter they understand scientifically, and at the former, some of them are so incredibly expert, that I am assured they can invariably hit a target, not more than six inches square, off a horse at full gallop; and I can positively affirm, that the different guides I had during my journey killed, at the distance of fifty or sixty yards, every small bird, such as larks, sparrows, &c. they fired at with a single ball; nor did they appear to consider this as any signal proof of their dexterity as marksmen. Before I close this enumeration of their diversions, I may describe a very hazardous, though popular one among all classes, which they perforin on horseback, and call Nezuh Bazee, or spear play. A wooden stake of moderate thickness is driven into the ground, and a horseman at full speed, pierces it with the point of his spear in such a manner, as to force it out of the earth, and carry it along with him; the difficulty and danger in accomplishing this feat, is evidently augmented or decreased, according to the depth that the stake is in the ground; but in its easiest form, it requires a violent 2 L

and

and dexterous exertion of the arm and wrist, combined with the most critical management of the horse and spear at the same in

stant.

THE BRAHOOE.

(From the same.)

The Brahooé or second great class of the natives of Beloochistan now remains to be spoken of, but as I have been obliged to characterize it in most instances, while contrasting the Belooches and that people, I have but a few brief particulars to add regarding them. They are, as the Belooches, divided into an indefinite number of tribes and Kheils, and are a still more unsettled wandering nation, always residing in one part of the country during the summer, and emigrating to another for the winter season: they likewise change their immediate places of abode many times every year in quest of pasturage for their flocks, a practice which is rare amongst the Belooches. In activity, strength, and hardiness few people surpass the Brahooés; they are alike inured to the cold of the mountainous regions of Beloochistan, and the heat of the low plain of Kutch Gundava. They differ so much from the Belooches in external appearance, that it is impossible to mistake a man of one class for a member of the other. The Brahooés, instead of the tall figure, long visage, and raised features of their fellow-countrymen, have short thick bones, with round faces, and flat lineaments; in fact, I may assert, that I have not seen any other Asiatics to whom they bear any

resemblance, for numbers of them have brown hair and beards.. In husbandry and other domestic occupations, they are laborious hard workers, and those who reside in the vicinity of the plains to the southward of Kelat, till large tracts of land, and dispose of the produce for exportation to the Hindoos of Kelat, Bela, and Khozdar; this and the sale of the cheese and Ghee, made from the flocks, with a few coarse blankets, carpets, and felts, form the only traffic the Brahooés enter into. Their food is the same as the Belooches, except that they prefer flesh-meat to every thing else, and devour it in a half dressed state, without bread, salt, or vegetables; they are famous for having most voracious appetites, and their flocks of sheep and goats, being very numerous and prolific, enable them to indulge their inclination for meat by consuming a greater quantity. They affirm, perhaps with truth, that in the cold mountains which they inhabit, it would be impossible to survive during the winter without a certain portion of animal food, which they deem not only nutritious, but to have the same heating properties that are attributed to spirituous liquors in Europe, and to serve for this consumption they accordingly cure a supply of meat the latter end of Autumn, by drying it in the sun and then smoking it over a fire of green wood: the meat thus prepared has by no means a disagreeable flavour, and its taste may be very aptly compared to that of the reindeer's tongues exported from Russia; it will keep for several months, and when they store it up for the cold weather, the only precaution

precaution they conceive requisite is to place it so, that one piece shall not touch another.

The Brahooés are equally faithful in an adherence to their promises, and equally hospitable with the Belooches, and on the whole 1 greatly prefer their general character. From what I have already said on it, it is evident that they are a more quiet and industrious class, and their habits are decidedly averse from that system of rapine and violence pursued by the other; nor can we fairly ascribe this to any sentiment save a good one, for in personal bravery and endurance of privations and hardships, the Brahooés are esteemed superior to the inhabitants of all the neighbouring countries: their chiefs exercise a much more despotic authority in the various tribes andKheils, than among the Beloochés, and the people are equally tenacious of their respectability, though they obey them from a different feeling in manner they are mild and inoffensive, though very uncivilized and uncouth; but as the latter is evidently the effect of a want of worldly knowledge and guile, their awkward attempts to be civil please, because we see that they are incited to make them by a natural propensity to oblige, unaccompanied by any interested motive. They are free from the worst traits of the Belooches, which are comprised in being avaricious, revengeful, and cruel, and they seldom look for any reward for their favours or services their gratitude is lasting, and fidelity such, that even the Belooche chiefs retain them as their most confidential and trust-worthy servants.

The amusements of this class are so correspondent with those already described of the Belooches, that I need not particularize them: in general the Brahooés pride themselves on being better marksmen than the Belooches, who admit the fact, and ascribe it to their having more practice, for none of them ever quit their Ghedans, even to go a few hundred yards, without a matchlock: they are likewise good swords-men, but never use spears, considering them a useless cumbersome weapon. A Brahooé always dresses in the same style, and whether it be summer or winter, freezing hard, or under a vertical sun, his whole clothes are comprised in a loose white shirt, a pair of trowsers of the same texture, and a felt cap: the shepherds sometimes wear a covering of white felt, made so as to wrap round the body, and come to a peak above the crown of the head; this habit will keep off a vast deal of rain or snow, and is exclusively used for that purpose. The domestic life of the Brahooés is simple in the extreme; the men tend the flocks, till the ground, and do other outdoor labour, in which they are, if needful, assisted by the women; but commonly the duties of the latter are to attend to the household affairs, such as milking, making butter, cheese, and Ghee, and they also weave and work carpets, felts, and coarse white cloth. They are not, as I have préviously remarked, secluded from the society of the men, but all live and eat together. Their dress consists of a long shift and pair of trowsers, both of cotton cloth, 2 L2 and

and after they arrive at the age of puberty they wear over the former a kind of stays, made to lace behind, the fronts of which are decorated with ridiculous devices of birds or animals worked in coloured worsted. In religion the Brahooés are all Soonnitte Moosulmans, and their external forms of religion, marriage and interment, are practised according to the tenets of that sect.

People of the Teng'gar Mountains. (From Gov. Raffles's Speech, delivered to the Literary and Scientific Society at Java, Sept. 1815.)

To the eastward of Surabaia and on the range of hills connected with Gunning Dasar, and lying partly in the district of Pasuraun and partly in that of Probolingo, known by the name of the Teng'gar mountains, we find the remnant of a people still follow ing the Hindu worship, who merit attention not only on account of their being the depositaries of the last trace of that worship discovered at this day on Java, but as exhibiting a peculiar singularity and simplicity of character.

These people occupy about 40 villages, scattered along this range of hills in the neighbourhood of the Sandy Sea, and are partly under Pasuraun and partly under Probolingo. The site of the villages, as well as the construction of the houses is peculiar, and differs entirely from what is elsewhere observed in Java. The houses are not shaded by trees, but built on spacious open terraces, rising one above the other, each house occupying a terrace, and being in length from thirty to seventy, and even eighty feet.

The door is invariably in one corner, at the opposite end of the building to that in which the fireplace is built. The building appears to be first constructed with the ordinary roof, but along the front, is an enclosed veranda or gallery of about eight feet broad, with a less inclined pitch in the roof, formed of bamboos, which are so placed as to slide out, either for the admission of air, or to afford a channel for the smoke to escape, there being otherwise no aperture, except a small opening, of about a foot square, at one end of the building, above the fireplace, which is built of brick, and so highly venerated, that it is considered sacrilege for any stranger to pollute it by the touch. Across the upper part of the building, rafters are run across, so as to form a kind of attic story, in which they deposit their valuables and instruments of husbandry.

The head of the village takes the title of Petingi, as in the low lands, and he is generally assisted by a Kabayan; both elected by the people from their own village. There are four priests, who are here termed Dukuns, having charge of the sacred records.

These Dukuns, who are in general intelligent men, have no tradition of the time when they were first established on these hills; from what country they came or who intrusted them with the sacred books to the faith contained in which they still adhere. These latter, they state, were handed down to them by their fathers, their office being hereditary, and the sole duty required of them being to perform the puja according thereto, and again to

hand

the mean time some notices of their customs, and of the cere monies performed at births, marriages, and funerals, may be interesting.

When a woman is delivered of her first child, the Dukun takes a leaf of the Alang Alang grass, and scraping the skin of the hands of the child and of the mother with it, as well as the ground, pronounces a short benediction.

When a marriage is agreed upon, the bride and bridegroom being brought before the Dukun within the house, in the first place, bow with respect towards the south-then to the fire. place,

bride and bridegroom respectfully present them with betel-leaf.

At the marriage feast which ensues, the Dukun repeats two puja, which will be found in the collection. The marriage is not consummated till the fifth day after the above ceremony-which delay is termed by the undang mantu. A similar delay is, in some cases, still observed by the Javanese in other parts of the island, under the term undoh mantu.

On the death of an inhabitant of Teng'gar, the corpse is lowered into the grave, the head being placed to the south (contrary to the direction observed by the Mahometans) and bamboos and planks are placed over, so as to prevent the earth from touching it. When the grave is closed, two posts are planted over the body, one perpendicular from the breast, the other from the lower part of the belly. Between these two a hollowed bamboo is inserted in the ground, into which, during seven successive days, they daily pour a vessel of pure water, placing beside the banboo, two dishes also daily replenished with cat

At the expiration of the seventh day, the feast of the dead is announced, and the relations and friends of the deceased assemble to be present at the ceremony and partake of the entertainment, which is conducted as follows:

An image of leaves, ornamented with variegated flowers, made to represent the human form, and of about a cubit high, is prepared and placed in a conspicuous place, and supported round the body by the clothes of the deceased. The

Dukun