Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/282

 266 Balochi Folklore.

is perhaps descended from the Buddhist Chaitya, to which it seems to correspond according to etymological rules. Another kind of cairn is known as a dambul. This is a cairn of mockery, erected in scorn of some contemptible action, something contrary to the ndmilSh or Baloch code of honour. I remember once seeing a pile of stones in the Chachar Pass and asking what it commemorated. After some hesitation and a good deal of laughter I was told it was a dambul put up against a certain chief of a neighbour- ing tribe w^ho had proved faithless, and turned back from an expedition on which he had set out.

Tombs in the hill country are much more elaborate and permanent than houses. The grave is generally covered with a pile of stones arranged in lines, black and white alternately, and these stones are often carried long distances. The chiefs' tombs are masses of masonry, solidly built, and the more wealthy and civilised chiefs erect elaborate monu- ments. Nawab Sir Imam Bakhsh Khan Mazari has built a group of domed tombs covered with blue and white Multan tiles, which will compare. favourably with anything of the sort I have seen built in modern times in Northern India. The habit is an old one, for the tomb of Ghazi Khan Dodai at Churatta, of about the year A.D. 1550, is a fine octagonal brick building in the Persian style, wdth remains of coloured tiles.

I once saw a tomb erected to a dog — at least there was a legend to that effect. This was in the country of the Marris, and the story told me was that of a dog and a wolf, almost identical with the Beddgelert story. This is certainly remarkable, as the Indian version of the story, found in the Hitopadesa, contains nothing about a dog and a wolf, but a mungoose and a snake figure in it.

Among the more settled Baloches the position of women is much the same as among other Muhammadan races. The principal men have zenanas, and the women do not appear in public, but this restriction is not strictly observed among