Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/121

 KHWAJAH MAHOMED KHAN AND SON. (251)

HE Khuttuk clans inhabit a tract of hilly country lying south and south-west of Kohat, and including spurs of the great Sooliman range from Dullun, on the Upper Koorum river, to Kooshalgurh, on the Indus, and from the Bungush valley of Kohat to the Wuzeeree lands in Bunuoo. The men represented in the Photograph are of the Baruk clan of the Khuttuks, which holds the most fertile portion of the Khuttuk country, and belong to a respectable class in life. The Baruk Khuttuks are cultivators of the soil, and, for the most part, men of settled and peaceful habits; other portions of the tribe, however, who inhabit the mountains, are a pastoral people, wilder and more restless than the cultivators, and differ little from Afreedees and other mountaineers. As Mahomedans they do not present any particular features for remark, and in customs or belief they are the same in most respects as other Pathans; but their costume, especially of the lower orders, is more simple, consisting of a woollen shut, tied at the waist by a cord, with no under garment or drawers. The better classes dress in turban, tunic, and drawers, with, in winter, a chogah, or pelisse, of warmer stuff, or of quilted cotton or fur, over all. The young man is fully armed with gun and sword, and hanging from his belt are two powder-horns, one containing coarse powder for loading with, the other fine, for priming. The Khuttuks claim to be Afghan Pathans, and probably hold a somewhat higher rank than the Afreedees. Many of them are handsome men, with fine figures, and, in general, they are of a fairer complexion than the Afreedees of Kohat, as they are also of a milder and more settled character. They are, however, as equally ignorant, haughty, and fanatical, as all other frontier tribes, though by no means so fierce and dangerous as some. Like the rest, they have bound themselves to the British Government by solemn agreements, and it is only just to state, in respect to the Khuttuks, that they appear to be faithfully observed.

The Photograph represents the chief of the Khuttuk tribe or clan, who, having firmed the district of his tribe from the Sikh Government, was confirmed