The Gala, a mixed race between Sindians and Sidi women, were equally slaves with their mothers, and could be bought or sold at will.
Languages.—Sindi is the prevailing vernacular tongue, but the Sindi people and language are more confined to Lower Sind, and there the Sindi has much Arabic mixed with it. It is, however, spoken from the northern boundary of Kattyawar northwards to Bahawulpur, and from the hills on the west to the desert which separates Sind from the western portion of the Indian Peninsula. The Arabic character is used in writing. The language of Lar is purest. Sindi is of Hindi origin, being a still greater variation from the Sanskrit than the Gujerati. It is often written in a peculiar character, called the Khuda Wadi, and the Hindus keep all their own accounts and correspondence in it. This tongue has the dialect of the Siraiki of Upper Siud, containing numerous Jataki words.
Cutchi has in it elements of the Gujerati. That of the hunters and tanners, Dedh, is another dialect.
The language in use in the Thur and Parkur is called Dati. It is a combination of Sindi, Marwari, and Gujerati. In some parts of the Thur district they carry on business in Gujerati, but the Dati, with which they are more familiar, is in more general use.
Jataki is the language of the wide-spread Jat race, from the northern regions of the Panjab southwards to the Arabian Sea.
The Persian and the Urdu are also to some extent in use.
The few Afghan zaniindars settled in the north of the province still use the Pushtu of their fore fathers ; but the dialect is not sufficiently diffused among the people to be included in the languages of Sind. The same is the case with pure Pun
jabi; it is confined to the small number of Sikhs who are settled in the different cities and towns.
Baluchi is spoken by the tribes who have migrated to the plains of Siud. One-half of its words appear to be Persian or dialectal variations from that tongue. Like Bralmiki and Pushtu, the Baluchi vocabulary contains a few Sanskrit and Arabic roots, together with a considerable proportion of other words. As must happen among a people divided into clans, and separated from each other, the dialect abounds in diversities of words and idiom, and, being naturally poor, it borrows many vocables from the neighbouring countries. Its literature is confined to a few tales, legends, war songs, and the productions of the Bhat or Baluch bards.—Sir henry Elliot's History of India ; Mr. (Sir George) Camp bell's Ethnology of India ; Census Reports, 1872, 1881 ; Dr. Forbes IVatson's People of India ; Aitcheson's 'treaties; Tod's Rajasthan ; Elliot's History of the Panjab ; Postans' Personal Obser vations ;. Pestans' Sind; Masson's journeys; Bur ton's Scinde Ouseley's Travels ; Hindu Infanti cide; Pennant's Hindoostan ; Ilennell's .21femoir ; Rawlinson, Herod. ; Smith's Dictionary of the Bible; Cunningham's Ancient India ; Gent Merewether in Literis.