NOTE ON THE FRONTIER TRIBES OF SIND.—BELOCHEES.
IN the preceding volume of this series, the frontier tribes of Afghans were traced from the extreme north and north-west of the Punjab to its southern frontier, near the Kutchee district of Sind. It is now necessary to resume the subject, and to enumerate very briefly the tribes which follow the above on the western frontier of India as far as the sea. The list, whether of the frontier Afghans, or of the Sind Belochees, will probably be found incomplete, in some instances, by those well acquainted with the subject generally; but it is as full as the materials at the disposal of the writer, namely, the printed official reports on the Punjab and Sind frontier tribes, will permit it to be; and it may be regretted, perhaps, that they have not as yet formed the subject of a special memoir, which, brought down to the present time, could not foil to be both valuable and interesting.
In continuation of Major Pollock's report on the Afghan border tribes of the Dehra Ghazee Khan district, a memorandum by Captain C. Minchin, Political Superintendent of the Bhawulpoor State, affords much valuable information in regard to the Belochees of the southern frontier of the Punjab, and northern of Sind. In the following list the names of every section or subdivision of each tribe are omitted, as unnecessary to the purport of this note; and the number of sections of each tribe, and the totals of fighting men, are as follows:—
Sections. | Number of Men. | ||
1. | Kusranees | 42 | 2,726 |
2. | Bozdars | 44 | 3,776 |
3. | Lunds | 16 | 2,480 |
4. | Khosas | 35 | 5,620 |
5. | Lagharees | 55 | 5,120 |
6. | Goorchanees | 14 | 1,168 |
7. | Dreshuks | 10 | 1,960 |
8. | Muzarees | 39 | 2,509 |
9. | Bhoogtees | 9 | 1,250 |
10. | Shumbanees | 5 | 350 |
11. | Murrees | 11 | 2,074 |
Total | 29,033 |