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 PERSIAN CLAIM TO SEISTAN. 379 dancy over the races who had been longer settled in that country, and who were much divided amongst themselves. The Kayanian tribe of Seistanis, who boasted of being descended from the oldest dynasty of Persian kings, was long the ruling race in that province ; but this tribe was driven from Jelalabad by some others who united them- selves together against it. The chief of one of these tribes (not aBelooch one), called Sirbendi, now exercised most influence in Seistan ; but on his death his son was unable to preserve his high position, and, in order to be able to put down his uncles, he reluctantly had recourse to asking the aid of the Persian governor of Kerman. One of his uncles also applied to the same person for aid ; and the Prince of Kerman thought that the conjuncture was a favourable one for practically asserting the vague claims of his master to the possession of the province of Seistan. The route by which a Persian army from Kerman could reach Seistan would be that by Tehrood, Bern, Koorook and Terij, and thence by places not marked in the maps of that region, along a distance of about four hundred and fifty miles in all ; the greater part of which is a desert tract having wells at intervals. A march over such a region, and in the face of active Belooches who would seize the passes, would not be likely to be attended with success, while it would certainly entail unusual hardships and difficulties. It may have been the dread of these, or it may have been the fact that the Ameer-i-Nizam had already more than sufficient to occupy the resources, of the government, that induced the Shah's Ministers to reject the proposal of the Prince of Kerman to invade the province of Seistan. The siege of Meshed continued, during a period of