The Ilazara, or Hazarajat, are so called from the innumerable Taifah, or tribes, into which they are divided,-Hazar signifying in Persian a thou sand. Their principal subdivisions are (1) Deh Zangi, (2) Deh Kundi, (3) Jaguri, (4) Faoladi, (5) Deh Chopan, (6) Shaikh Ali. They occupy the whole range of the Paropamisus, or the moun tains extending between the Hindu Kush and the city of Herat, to within a few days' march of Kan dahar. The inhabited parts are 5000 to 10,000 feet above the sea, and the highest peaks rise to 20,000 feet. Their numbers have been variously estimated at from 50,000 to 300,000 souls by Elphinstone, Bellew, Burnes, Wood, Leech, and .Lumsden. They are supposed to be of varied origin. The Hazara of the bill country near Ghazni and Kan dahar are Turanian in a marked degree, and are without doubt of Mongolian blood. They seem to be in many ways like the Brahui, and at one time they possessed the country on the Kalat side of Kandahar, and were then nearer to the Brahui than they now are. In appearance, these very much resemble the Gurkha ; they have the same high cheek-bones, the same small eyes, very little beard, and no doubt are of Turanian origin.
The Hazara are a middle-sized race of stout make, with small grey eyes, high cheek-bones, and wanting in beard. They are of harsh aspect, and are ashamed of their beardless Tartar appearance. They are simple, mild mannered, and industrious, but unblushing beggars and thieves. They are, as a tribe, weak, vacillating, and disunited, very passionate,—at one moment fickle and capricious, and again merry, conversable, and hospitable. Their women are slender, handsome, engaging, and immoral. The Jaguri tribe follow the Kooroo Bistan ' custom of lending their wives for a night or for a week, and do this to so large an extent that they are said to be losing their Tartar form of features, to which they have a great aversion. Broadfoot, however, limits his remarks on this part of their character to the observation that the women are ugly and not very chaste. The men do all out-door labour, and the women manage the house. They are never beaten. They sing and play on the guitar, and many of them are poets. Their out - door amusements are hunting and racing. Their clothing is made of the coarser camel hair cloth called barak,' their boots of rough goat skin, and they twist rolls of cloth around their legs. The women go unveiled ; twist two or three lungi on their bead like a tiara ; they wear long woollen frocks, and boots of soft deer-skin, which reach to their knees. The weapons of the men are sword and matchlock, the latter being most trusted to. They manufacture excellent powder, and are good shots. Some of the clans have a military repute ; they would make good soldiers, and might have risen to distinction, but they are disunited. Their food consists chiefly in the flesh of their sheep, oxen, and horses ; grain is scarce, and their bread is tasteless, as few of them can afford to use salt. They are poor, and in times of scarcity they voluntarily dispose of some of their children to the Uzbak slave-dealers. Each village
is defended by a high tower capable of containing ten or twelve men, loop-holed, with a kettle drum, and in time of peace a single man remains in the tower to sound an alarm if necessary. They are violent shiahs, reverence Ali and his Syud descend ants, but practically they have no religion, observe no forms or fasts, and have no form of prayers. They speak a kind of Persian; they are very ignorant and illiterate. Their titles are Khan, Sultan, Ikhtiar, Wali, Mir, Mehtar, and Turkhan. They barter men, women, oxen, cows, sheep, ghi, carpets, sulphur, and lead, with merchants from Kabul, Herat, Turkestan, and Kandahar, in exchange for coarse cotton cloth, chintzes, tobacco, felts, carpets, dye-stuffs, iron spades, plough coulters, molasses, and raisins. Almost every tribe is at war with its neighbours ; and they are constantly exposed to inroads of Uzbaks from the north, who sweep away whole villages into slavery. The Aimak also carry off as many of them as they can con quer or kidnap ; and the chiefs of their own race in their petty wars steal each other's subjects and sell them to Turki merchants. All the unskilled labour in Kabul is done by Hazara, some of them slaves and some of them free ; and in winter there are not less than 10,000 of them residing in the city, earning a livelihood as porters and by clear ing the snow from off the house-tops. The Hazara pay tribute to the Afghans. Their pro perty consists in dumba (big-tailed) sheep, and a small, hardy breed of horses. Their country has lead and sulphur ; they make barak ' or hair cloth and good carpets.
The Jamshidi Hazara are of undoubted Iranian extraction. These are estimated at only 8000 to about 12,000 families, and are very poor. They inhabit the country north of the range of moun tains which bound Herat. They live in black felt tents ; they assist the Turkoman in their slaving raids. The women make fabrics of wool and goat's hair, which sell well in Persia.
The Hazara Zeidnat are a rashly brave, ferocious mannered tribe, occupying the country at the sources of the Murghab river in Afghanistan, and could muster 12,000 fighting men. They number 28,000 tents. They make large quantities of cloaks from barak ' hair-cloth, rear horses, and have great flocks of sheep, goats, and herds of camels and oxen. In 1847, Yar Muhammad defeated Karimdad, and deported 1000 of their families to Herat ; and in 1857, the Persians, after their capture of Herat, removed the whole tribe within the Persian territory, taking from them all their baggage and cattle to prevent them running away. There are no better horsemen in Asia. Their women pride themselves in their ability, when necessity requires, to mount a horse, and use a matchlock and sword with an intrepidity equal to that of their warlike husbands and brothers. They are not pretty, but are well made, enjoy perfect liberty, and their husbands are not jealous of them. In time of peace they do all the household and field work, and with their children weave the barak ' cloth.