Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/117

 ORUKZYE AFREEDEES. (250)

HE Afreedees, like all other frontier tribes, are divided into separate kheyls, or clans, of which one is the Orukzye, which owns lands near the mountains of the Kohat pass. In character and occupation they do not differ materially from the Afreedees in general, as described in the preceding article, and are armed and dressed in the same manner. Each clan has its separate chieftain, under whose direction they abide, and who exercises a very complete authority in general affairs. It is hardly necessary to state that, under former Mahomedan and Sikh Governments, the chiefs preserved an entire and lawless independence, the consequence of which was perpetual internal feuds, with their consequent bloody retaliations on both sides. This state of affairs no longer exists. The British Government does not interfere with what may be termed the internal economy of the tribe, but it prevents the aggression of one against another; and the local British officers are now arbitrators in disputes which, in former tunes, could only be settled by the sword.

The Orukzye Afreedees are independent. Their territories adjoin that of the Sipahs (249), and their boundary forms the north-west frontier of the Kohat district. Thence it passes round the head of the Meeranzye valley, which belongs to Kohat, and joins the territory of the Zymoosht Afghans, stretching westward for a long distance. The Orukzyes are a very numerous and powerful tribe, numbering from 20,000 to 30,000 men, who are good soldiers. In the summer they assemble on the high table land of Terah, with their flocks and herds, and in the winter return to their pasture lands at the foot of the hills near the British frontier. The tribe is divided into several sections, some of which have come into collision with British subjects and troops, but up to 1855 they had committed no material outrage. On the occasion of an expedition of troops into the Meeranzye valley, a large body of the Orukzyes assembled near the camp, but were easily dispersed; and in the same season they committed depredations upon the Bungush tribe, and carried