Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/252

Rh 234 AFGHANISTAN [TRADE. to second-rate English dogs. The khandi is another sporting dog, most useful, but of complex breed. He is often used for turning up quail and partridge to the hawk. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS. These are not important. Silk is produced in Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, and Herat, and chiefly consumed in domestic manufactures, though the best qualities are carried to the Panjab and Bombay. Excellent carpets soft, brilliant, and durable in colour are made at Herat. They are usually sold in India as Persian. Excellent felts and a variety of woven goods are made from the wool of the sheep, goat, and Bac- trian camel A manufacture, of which there is now a con siderable export to the Panjab for the winter clothing of our irregular troops, besides a large domestic use, is that of the postin, or sheepskin pelisse. The long wool remains on, and the skin is tanned yellow, with admirable softness and suppleness. Pomegranate rind is a chief material in the preparation. Rosaries are extensively made at Kandahar from a soft crystallised silicate of magnesia (chrysolite). The best are of a semi-transparent straw colour, like amber. They are largely exported, especially to Mecca. TRADE. Practically, there are no navigable rivers in Afghanistan, nor does there exist any wheeled carriage. Hence goods are carried on beasts of burden, chiefly camels, along roads which often lie through close and craggy denies, and narrow stony valleys among bare mountains, or over waste plains. Though from time immemorial the larger part of the products of India destined for western Asia and Europe has been exported by sea, yet at one time valuable caravans of these products, with the same destina tion, used to traverse these rugged Afghan roads. The great trade routes are the following : 1. From Persia by Mesh hed to Herat. 2. From Bokhara by Merv to Herat. 3. From the same quarter by Karshi, Balkh, and Khulm, to Kabul. 4. From the Panjab by Peshawar and the Tatara or Abkhanah Passes to Kabul. 5. From the Panjab by the Ghawalari Pass towards Ghazni. 6. From Sincl by the Bolan Pass to Kandahar. There is also a route from eastern Turkistan by Chitral to Jala labad, or to Peshawar by Dir ; but it is doubtful how far there is any present traffic by it. Towards Sind the chief exports from or through Afghanistan are wool, horses, silk, fruit, madder, and assa- fcetida. The staple of local production exported from Kandahar is dried fruit. The horse trade in this direction is chiefly carried on by the Syads of Pishin, Kakars, Bakh- tiyaris, and Biluchis. The Syads also do, or did, dabble largely in slave-dealing. The Hazaras furnished the largest part of the victims. Burnes s early anticipation of a large traffic in wool from the regions west of the Indus has been amply verified, for the trade has for many years been of growing importance; and in 1871-72 2,000,000 5&amp;gt; were shipped from Karachi. The importation to Sind is chiefly in the hands of Shikar- pur merchants. Indeed, nearly all the trade from southern Afghanistan is managed by Hindus. That between Mesh hed, Herat, and Kandahar is carried on by Persians, who bring down silk, arms, turquoises, horses, carpets, &c., and take back wool, skins, and woollen fabrics. The chief imports by Peshawar from India into Afghanis tan are cotton, woollen, and silk goods; from England, coarse country cloths, sugar and indigo, Benares brocades, gold thread and lace, scarves, leather, groceries, and drugs. The exports are raw silk and silk fabrics of Bokhara, gold and silver wire (Russian), horses, almonds and raisins, and fruits generally, furs (including dressed fox skins and sheep skins), and bullion. The trade with India was thus estimated in 18G2:- By Peshawar By Ghawalari Pass By Bolan Pass Exports to India. 156,513 130,000 31,870 318,383 Imports fiora India. 120,643 164,000 18,892 303,535 Totals. 277,156 294,000 50,762 621,918 But this omits some passes, and the Bolan exports do not in clude the large item of wool which enters Sind further south. A relic of the old times of Asiatic trade has come down to our day in the habits of the class of Lohani Afghan traders, commonly called Povindahs, who spend their lives in carrying on traffic between India, Khorasan, and Bok hara, by means of their strings of camels and ponies, banded in large armed caravans, in order to restrict those recurring exactions that would render trade impossible. Bullying, fighting, evading, or bribing, they battle their way twice a year between Bokhara and the Indus. Their sum mer pastures are in the highlands of Ghazni and Kala t-i- Ghilzai. In the autumn they descend the Sulimani passes. At the Indus, in these days, they have to deposit all weapons ; but once across that, they are in security. They leave their families and their camels in the Panjab plains, and take their goods by rail to all the Gangetic cities, or by boat and steamer to Karachi and Bombay. Even in Asam or in distant Rangoon the Povindah is to be seen, pre-eminent by stature and by lofty air, not less than by rough locks and filthy clothes. In March they rejoin their families, and move up again to the Ghilzai highlands, sending on caravans anew to Kabul, Bokhara, Kandahar, and Herat, the whole returning in time to accompany the tribe down the passes in the autumn. The Povindah trade by all the passes is now estimated to reach 1,500,000 in value annually. INHABITANTS OF AFGHANISTAN. These may first be divided into Afghan and non- Afghan, of whom the Afghan people are predominant in numbers, power, and character. The Afghans themselves do not recognise as entitled to that name all to whom we give it. According to Bellew they exclude certain large tribes, who seem, nevertheless, to be essentially of the same stock, speaking the same language, observing the same customs, and possessing the same moral and physical characteristics. These are recog nised as Pathans, but not as Afghans, and are all located in the vicinity of the Sulimani mountains and their off shoots towards the east. We do not attempt to name them, because the information on the subject seems con tradictory. There are tribes of somewhat similar character elsewhere, such as the Wardaks, to the south of Kabul; and there are again some tribes, in contact with these and with Afghan tribes, who speak the Afghan language, and have many Afghan customs, but are different in aspect, and seem not to be regarded as Pathan at all. Such are the Turis and Jfijis of Kurram. Of the Afghans proper there are about a dozen great clans, with numerous subdivisions. Of the great clans the following are the most important : The Durrdnis, originally called Abdalis, received the former name from a famous clansman, Ahmed Shah. Their country may be regarded as the whole of the south and iOuth-west of the Afghan plateau. The Ghilzais are the strongest of the Afghan clans, and perhaps the bravest. They were supreme in Afghanistan in the beginning of last century, and for a time possessed the throne of Ispahan. They occupy the high plateau north of Kandahar, and extend, roughly speaking, east ward to the Sulimani mountains, and north to the Kabul river (though in places passing these limits), and they xtend down the Kabul river to Jalalabad. On the British