Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/91

 MOMUNDS. (245)

NE of the most powerful tribes of the Hazara is the Momund, which is divided into three portions—


 * Pind Alee;
 * Alumzye;
 * Miehnee.

These are separate from the small portion of the general tribe which is settled in the plains of the Punjab, and inhabit a wild and rugged tract of the Hazara, which, bounded by the district of Swat to the north, extends beyond the Kabool river, both banks of which are in their possession. The capital of this district is the town of Lalpoora. None of the possessions of the Momunds are British territory, nor are the mountain Momunds British subjects; they are entirely independent, owing a nominal allegiance to the Ameer of Kabool, but resisting any interference by him, and recognizing only the government of their own chieftains.

The Miehnee Momunds and the Alumzye, however, hold fiefs in British territory. The triangle at the junction of the Swat and Kabool rivers belongs to the fomier, and Punjpao, in the Dooab, to the latter. These fiefs are, for the most part, rented by the tribe to dwellers in the plains, and it is only in a comparatively few instances that the Momunds take up portions of these lands themselves; and it seems a rule of their clan not to subject themselves in any way to the operation of British laws or obligations. These fiefs were granted to the Momunds by preceding governments in order to buy off" depredations, in fact, as black mail, and as they were found in enjoyment of them, they have been confirmed. They have not, however, served to prevent outrage. Between 1850 and 1857 six different attacks upon British posts and villages were made by confederate Momunds, and tracts of cultivation ravaged and laid waste. The causes alleged for these raids