Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/107

 SIND 91 anufac ture.5. Soil and The soil is largely dependent on the river overflow. This grand cnltiva- provision of nature is, however, uncertainly exercised ; and not only tiou. is the actual volume of water supplied from the upper Indus liable to fluctuation, but the particular lauds inundated or untouched by inundation vary according to the caprices of the river. Questions of alluvion and diluvion are therefore of frequent occurrence ; and it is often as hard to say whether newly-thrown-up lands belong to the state or an individual proprietor as it is to decide who is the loser in the case of lands newly submerged. In the lands which, as a rule, are reached annually and in fair proportion by the inundation, the soil is so rich as to produce two crops or even more in the year without the assistance of manure. Salt is present in great quantity. The two principal yearly crops are the vernal, known as rabi, sown in autumn and reaped in spring, and the autumnal, known as k/tarif, sown in summer while the river is high and reaped from October to December. In some districts there is a distinct third crop called fshras, sown in March and reaped in July and August. The imple- ments of husbandry are the plough (har), drawn by two bullocks ; the harrow (sahar), a heavy log of wood drawn by four bullocks, a man standing on each end ; the seed-sower (ndri), a tube fixed to the plough with a wooden funnel on the top, used while the ground is being ploughed for the last time ; a curved hook (ddtro) with teeth like a saw, for reaping; and a hoe (kuriah), for weeding. Products. The principal products are bcijri (a well-known Indian grain), and judri (the Indian millet), rice, cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, oil-seeds, wheat, barley, and indigo. Of these, wheat may be con- sidered the staple produce of Upper, and bdjri and judri of Middle and Lower Sind. Dates, plantains, mangoes, limes, oranges, pomegranates, citrons, figs, grapes, apples, tamarinds, mulberries, and melons are said to be fruits common to the country ; and it is added that of late years nectarines, peaches, apricots, and other fruit trees have been successfully introduced, but the statement must be received with some reservation in respect of quantity and quality. There is no doubt that the fruits imported by the Afghan traders find more favour than any home products. Among the chief manufactures may be mentioned the gold, silver, and silk embroideries, carpets, cloths, lacquered ware, horse-trappings and other leather-work, paper, pottery, tiles, swords, and matchlocks, and the boxes and other articles of inlaid work introduced more than a century ago from Shiraz. The lac work, a widely extended industry in India, is also in vogue in Sind. Variously coloured lac is laid in succession on the boxes, &c. , while turning on the lathe, and the design is then cut through the different colours. Hyderabad has long been famous for its silks and cottons, silver and gold work, and lacquered ornaments, and the district could once boast of skilled workmen in arms and armour ; but, unless the demand for the products of its industries increase, it is to be feared that its old reputation will not long be maintained. In the cloths called sudi, silk is woven with the striped cotton a practice possibly due to the large Mohammedan population of the country, as no Moslem can wear a garment of pure silk without infraction of the law. As regards the carpets, Sir George Birdwood states that those from Sind are the cheapest, coarsest, and least durable of all made in India. Formerly they were fine in design and colouring, but of late years they have greatly deteriorated. The cheap rugs, which sell for about 9s. each, are made with the pile (if not altogether) of cow hair, woven upon a common cotton foundation, with a rough hempen shoot. The patterns are bold and suited to the material, and the dyes good and harmonious. In 1837 the zoology of Sind was reported by Burnes to com- prise of genera and species 20 mammals, 191 birds, 36 fishes, 11 reptiles, besides 200 in other departments of natural history. Of wild animals we find the tiger (in the jungles of Upper Sind), the hyoena, the gurkhar or wild ass (in the south part of the Thar and Parkar district), the wolf, jackal, fox, wild hog, antelope, pharho or hog deer, hares, and porcupines. Of birds of prey, the vulture and several varieties of falcon may be mentioned/ The flamingo, pelican, stork, crane, and Egyptian ibis frequent the shores of the delta. Besides these there are the ub&ra (bustard) or tilur, the rock-grouse, quail, partridge, and various kinds of parrots. Waterfowl are plentiful ; in the cold season the lakes or dhandhs are covered with wild geese, kulang, ducks, teal, curlew, and snipe. Among other animals to be noted are scorpions, lizards, centipedes, and many snakes. The domestic animals include camels (one-humped), buffaloes, sheep and goats, horses and asses (small but hardy), mules, and bullocks. Of fish there are, on the sea-coast, sharks, saw-fish, rays, and skate ; cod, sir, cavalho, red-snapper, gassir, bcgti, dangdra, and buru abound. A kind of sardine also frequents the coast. In the Indus, the finest flavoured and most plentiful fish is the palo, generally identified with the hilsa fish of the Ganges. Dambhro (Labco rohita) and mullet, mordko (Cirrhina mrigala), gandan (Notoptcrus kapiraf), Ichago or catfish (Rita buchanani). popri (Barbus sarana), shakiir, jerkho, and singMri (Macroncs aor] are also found. Otter, turtle, and porpoise are frequently met with ; so too are long-snouted alligators and water-snakes. Fauna. The extent of forest land is relatively small. The forests (about Forests. eighty -seven in number) are situated for the most part on the banks of the Indus, and extend southward from Ghotki in the Holm deputy collectorate to the middle delta. They are described as narrow strips of land, from two to three miles in length, and ranging from two furlongs to two miles in breadth. The largest are between 9000 and 10,000 acres in area, but are subject to diminu- tion owing to the encroachments of the stream. The wood is principally bdbul (Acacia arabica), baJutn (Popuhis cnphratica), and kandi (Prosopis spicigera). The tali (Dalbcrgia Sissti) grows to some extent in Upper Sind ; the iron-wood tree (Tocoma undnlata) is found near the hills in the Mehar districts. There are, besides, the nim (Mil in A:il (jEgle Jf'irnielos), and the manah (Bassia latifolia). There is a specially organized forest department. For administrative purposes the province has five well-under- Terri- stood divisions : (1) Frontier, Upper Sind, of which the principal torial town is Jacobabad, named after the late General John Jacob, divisions. C. B., its founder ; the hamlet which occupied its site in 1843 was a mere speck in the desert, and its name, Khangarh, can hardly be associated with the fine canal and abundant vegetation now marking the locality ; (2) Shi/carjnir, with its capital of the same name and Sakhar, both notable places on the right bank of the Indus ; in this division also are the towns of Larkhana and Rohri, the last on the left bank of the river ; (3) Hyderabad (Raidarabad), of which the chief town, having the same name, was the capital of the province prior to the British occupation ; (4) Kurrachee (Karachi), with its modern Europeanized capital and harbour and Tattha, a town of interesting local associations ; (5) Thar and Parkar, an outlying district on the south-east, more or less part of the desert tract extending far and wide in that particular quarter. Besides these there is the territory of Mir 'AH Murad, Talpur, greatly curtailed of its original dimensions, but still forming a large land alienation in Upper Sind. "Where cultivation depends so much on the character of the year's Revenue, inundation, it is natural that the revenue should be uncertain. In 1883-84, for instance, the river was abnormally low. Consequently the area of cultivation was contracted, and, while considerable re- missions had to be granted, collections were with difficulty carried out. The rainfall, moreover, except in the Thar and Parkar dis- trict, was not only scanty but unseasonable. In Thar and Parkar the rainfall was especially favourable, and owing to an early in- undation and wise preparations lands never before cultivated were brought inider the plough. The gross canal revenue in Sind amounted in 1883-84 to Us. 3,686, 754, and the land revenue to Rs.l, 171,925. In round numbers and English figures without reference to the deteriora- tion of the rupee the total is about 487,000, of which three- fourths is due to canal irrigation. The population may be roughly reckoned at two millions and a Popula- half, an estimate which is borne out by the census of 1881. Kurrachee tiou. is now the most populous of the capitals, and its numbers far ex- ceed those of Shikarpur and Hyderabad. But the character of its inhabitants differs from that of other large towns in Sind. They are for the most part foreign and migratory, and do not represent the true Sindis. Of the two great divisions of the people in Sind the Moham- Eaces and medans comprise about two-thirds of the whole, the Hindus the castes, remaining third. The Mohammedans may be divided into two great bodies the Sindis proper and the naturalized Sindis. The Sindi proper is a descendant of the original Hindu. In religion he is a Suni, though some of the Sindis belong to the Shia sect. There are probably more than three hundred families or clans among the Sindis. There is, as a rule, no distinction of caste, ex- cept that followers of certain vocations such as weavers, leather- workers, sweepers, huntsmen are considered low and vile. The six different classes of naturalized Sindis are the four families of the Saiyids (the Bokhari, Mathari, Shirazi, and Lakhirayi) ; the Afghans, from Khorasan ; the Baluchis ; the slaves or Sid is originally Africans ; the Memans ; and the Khwajas. The Hindu population of Sind may be divided into the following principal castes : the Brahmans, Kshatrias. "Vaishias, and Siidras, with their subdivisions. Besides these there are the Sikhs, and the reli- gious mendicants the Sanasi, Jogi, Gosain, and Ogar, all of Brahman origin. The educational progress made in Sind during the quarter of a Educa- century succeeding the mutiny has been very great. In 1858 there tion. was but one Government English school, with 82 boys, at Kurrachee, and one with 25 boys at Hyderabad ; and of the 82 only 8 of the pupils were Sindi. In 1884-85 Sind could boast of a Government high school at Kurrachee with 400 pupils, of another high school at