The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-03-08
kFGHkNISHAN AND IT'S PEOPLE,


London Telegraph.
Atghanistan, which we hear SO much
about, is looked upon as the northwest
gate of India" and consists OF two long
districts or provinces, named respect
lively Oabul and Khorassan: the former
being a mountainous region nsituated
north of Ghuzni and the Sufed Koh or
White mountains, and bounded on the
east and west by the Indus and the ex-
panse of country known rs the Hazara
while the latter extends on the north to
Hazara and Ghor, with the SULLIVAN
range on the east and Persia on the west.
The scenery in Cabul, which is the
chief seat of the Amer .of Atghanistan
-Shere Ali Khan-is very grand, and
consists mainly of lofty snow.capped
mountains, the lower portion rof which
are covered with pine-forests, while the
wales and glens are enriched with lux
uriant foliage and watered by numerous
mountain streams. Khorassan, or the
Land of the Sun, is, on the other hand,
almost the opposite of Cabul, for its
principal features are long low ranges Of
rocky hills and elsvated plateaus Of sand
and gravel and while the summer in
Cabui is rendered mild and bearable by
the cool breezes waited down TO its plains
from the mountains, Khorsssan has to
bear the full blaze of the fierce Indian
sun.
Iu the Mohammedan cemetery on the
southeast of the city of Cabul is tomb
stone with the following epitaph:
Here lyeth the body of John Hicks,
son of Thomas and Edith Hicks, who
departed this life 18th October, 1866"
Perhaps some of our readers can inform
MS as who John Hicks was, and what
took him to Cabul in the days when
Aurungzsbe was Mogul of India, and
Charles Ii. king of England
The population of Afghanistan is
composed OF variety of races or tribes,
among whom are the Bozdars, the Ku-
trans, the Kasranees, the Murrees, the
Cutchees and the Bugtees, beside the
wild and cruel Jajis who haunt the
Khyber Pass and its neighborhood.
The dominant race in KhorassaD is
undoubtedly the Brahoe, which is sup
posed iy some authorities to have come
from Abyssinia, while Others maintain
that the tribes are of Mongol extraction
The term Belooch for these tribes are
also known as the Beloochees-Baloo-
chistan being the original name of Kho-
rassan) or Blush, as it is written by the
Persian scribes, is, according to Prot.
Rawlinson, derived from Belus, King of
Babylonia the Nimrod Of scripture.
The government OF each tribe is
most complete democracy, split up into
as many factors as there are families.
Each section of tribe has its own quar-
rels and supports lis own chief, whose
tenure of authority is often of the most
precarious nature, being raised to power
one day to be ovefthrown the next.
There are also blood.fends of long stand
ing between them, 80 that village is
divided against village and house against
house. 1t was 10 one of these terrible
feuds that the late Lord Mayo owed his
sad death; the man who assassinated
him having been sentenced to penal
servitude for lie for killing another
with whom he had feud. He had
once been servant to the Viceroy and
thought that he should have pardoned
him. a.
The most numerous and important
race are the Aighans proper, whose form
of government and general customs re-
semble all other Mohammedan nations,
and who, Whine proud of their Islamisnn,
do NOT hesitate to break all its laws when
ever their love of fighting. thieying and