Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/18

 RAEENS, OE ARAINS. (228)

T is comparatively rare to find any tribe or sect of Mahomedans who follow agriculture as an exclusive pursuit; but the Raeens, or Arains, belong to the agricultural classes of the Punjab, and of the Hissar division of the North-West Provinces, and rarely, if ever, serve as soldiers. They, being Mahomedans, and probably a very early conversion from Hindooism, emigrated, at a remote period, from Sinde and Jeysulmere, and are said to have been the first settlers on the waste lands lying between Bhutnair of the Jeysulmere state and Futtehabad of Hissar. They remained there as cultivators and graziers till the invasion of Timour in 1398; when, pressed upon by the Bhuttees, another tribe of converted Rajpoots, they emigrated in large numbers to the neighbourhood of Bareilly in Rohilkhund, and spread also over other parts of the North-West Provinces and the Punjab. Their present head-quarters, as it were, are in the Jullundur Dooab of the Punjab, but they are found in groups all over the Province. They are skilful and laborious agriculturists, and a peaceful, well-disposed sect, and do not ordinarily connect themselves with other Mahomedans. They belongto the Soonnee sect, and are not distinguished by any difference with others in their profession of the Mahomedan faith; but, owing perhaps to their occupation, or Hindoo origin, they have adopted a vegetable more than an animal food diet, though they have no objection to eating meat under the ordinary rules of their faith. In their dress they still adhere to the Hindoo dhoty, or waist cloth, in preference to trousers. The figures on the right and left in the Photograph wear blue waist cloths with white tunics, the centre figure is dressed in white, and has a prayer necklace of beads, or rosary, about his neck. In appearance the Raeens are a strong athletic race, and many of them are tall, powerful men. Their complexion is a fine light brown; they all wear beards, and their features have a strong manly character peculiar to themselves.