Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/114

84 tracts abundance of agricultural wealth, both of crops and fruits. Its rivers descending from the Hindu Kush form fertile valleys which grow broader and broader as they wind northwards to the Oxus. The hills are mostly bare and arid. Now and then sandstorms from the western desert sweep over the face of the land.

On the south it is separated from Afghanistan by lofty mountains, wide plateaus, and narrow passes. But its northern boundary, the Oxus river, presents no such natural barrier to an invader, and nomadic hordes from Central Asia have in every age crossed the river and overrun the land. In the southern hills from Kabul to Herat live predatory tribes, the Hazarahs and Aimaks, hungrily watching for a chance to cut off travellers and traders in the passes or to swoop down upon the flourishing hamlets and orchards of the lowlands near the Oxus in the rear of some foreign invader. Against a regular army their hardiness and ferocity were rendered unavailing by their primitive savagery, ignorance,