The Khojah section are next to Jadran in the extreme east of the Ghilzae country. They mur dered Colonel Herring of the 37th Bengal Native Infantry, and were punished by Captain Outram. Their women took part in that fight, handing powder and ball to their husbands, and throwing down on the assailants incessant showers of stones.
Between the years 1839 and 1842, the British Indian army was continuously engaged with the Ghilzae, and Sir John Keane, Captains Outram, Anderson, Macan, and Woodburn, Colonels Cham bers, Wymer, and Sale, Generals Nott, Pollock, and 11i'Caskill, were at different times employed against them. The Suliman Khel attacked the army in its advance to Kabul, and when Kabul was abandoned, the Ghilzao hung upon and destroyed the retreating force. The force moved from Kabul on the 6th January 1842. It num bered then 4500 fighting men, of whom 690 were British, 970 were native cavalry, and 2840 native infantry, along with whom were 12,000 followers. Of all that body, Assistant - Surgeon William Brydon, of the Bengal army, alone reached Jalala bad, and 95 men, women, and children taken prisoners were afterwards released. From But kak the Ghilzae surrounded them, attacking, plundering, and massacring. On the 8th January, about 3000 of the retreating force and its followers were slain at the head of Khurd Kabul defile.
On the 11th January 1842, a remnant arrived at Tezin to the number of 4500 ; but at Gandamak, 20 officers and 45 British soldiers, the last sur vivors, fell, The Ghilzae indeed drank deep of blood.
In 1848 and 1849 they were engaged against the Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, who suppressed them with an army of 25,000 veteran Abdali.
The Ghilzae, although considered and calling themselves Afghan, and, moreover, employing the Pushtu or Afghan language, are undoubtedly a mixed race. The name is evidently a modification or corruption of Khalji or Khilaji, that of the great Turki tribe, mentioned by Sharif-ud-Din in his history of Timur. The testimony of Ferishta, while clearly distinguishing the Ghilzae tribes from the Afghan, also establishes the fact of their early conversion to Muhammadanism. Still there is a tradition that they were at some time Chris tians of the Armenian and Georgian churches. This tradition is known to the Armenians of Kabul ; and they instance, as corroborating it, the practice observed by the Ghilzae of embroider mg the front parts of the gowns or robes of their women and children with figures of the cross, and the custom of their housewives, who, previous to forming their dough into cakes, cross their arms over their breasts, and make the sign of the cross on their foreheads after their own manner. In the 10th century they still spoke
Turki.
East of Ghazni, in the province of Zurmat, are the Suliman Khel Ghilzae, exceedingly numerous, and notorious for their habits of violence and rapine. These have no positive connection with the Thoki or other tribes, neither have they one acknowledged head, but are governed by their respective Malik, who are independent of each other. Dost Muhammad Khan reduced them to the condition of tributaries, after having destroyed a multitude of their castles.
The Chilzao women cannot boast of beauty, which they strive to supply by ornament. • The girls from the age of eight to twenty are not much veiled, but they twist their hair, and tie it like a cake, which hangs over their forehead, and a little below their eyebrows. The centre of the lock (or hairy cake) is adorned by a gold or silver coin, which in black hair shines prettily. This is the sign of virginity amongst the Ghilzae. The women allow their twisted locks to hang upon their ears, even as far as their arms.
Moorcroft met with a party of wandering Ghilzae; their tents were nothing more than flimsy black blankets, stretched over forked sticks about four feet high ; within, they had some more blankets, sacks, and pack-saddles ; and without, a few loads of mats, ropes, and netting, for the formation of their packages ; both men and women were robust, with strongly-marked features.
The Ghilzae are both an agricultural and a pastoral people, and dwell in villages and castles, as well as i n tents. They are a remarkably tall, fine race of men, with marked features, the Ohtak and Thoki peasantry being probably unsurpassed, in the mass, by any other Afghan tribe for com manding stature and strength. They are brave and warlike, but the generality of them have a sternness of disposition amounting to ferocity, and their brutal manners are not discountenanced by their chiefs. Some of the inferior Ghilzae are so violent in their intercourse with strangers that they can scarcely be considered in the light of human beings. They irrigate by the Karez aque ducts and by wells, growing wheat, barley, lucerne, clover, and madder. The bridegroom gives a feast to the neighbours, costing a poor man about Rs. 100 ; and men often remain unmarried till 28 or 40 years old. When the engagement is arranged, the bridegroom is admitted to see his engagee once or twice alone at night, and, in general, without a breach of chastity. The women frequently fight by the sides of the men. The pastoral Ghilzae are all robbers, often mur dering. They are hospitable, and respect elders. The Andar Ghilzae are expert Karez diggers.