LAS.—Las and Makran are two seaboard pro vinces. Their coasts are arid and sterile, with sandhills and other rugged hills near the sea.
The Las province lies between lat. 24° 50' and 26° 15' N., and long. 28' and 67° 18' E., with an area of 5000 square miles. Las means the plain country. Las extends from the Hingor river to the river Hubb (by Has Muari), and is separated from Lower Sind and the delta of the Indus by the Hala mountains. Its chief town is Bela (Beyla), and is the residence of its chief, the Jam. The houses of this town are mean, but ancient coins, trinkets, and funereal jars are exhumed near it.
The Chandra kup or basins of Rama Chandra are in the province of Las, near the Phor stream, on the road to the temple of Hinglaj, and between the greater and lesser Hara mountain ranges. The kup are seven small truncated conical hills of very light coloured earth, rising two to four hundred feet somewhat abruptly from the plain, with numerous fissures at their base. They are saline mud vol canoes, the mud constantly bubbling up, and sometimes overflowing. There are similar mud volcanoes in Makran.
Shahr Roghan is a deserted town of caves re sembling those of Bamian. It is about 9 miles north from Bela in Las, on either bank of the Purali river, in a wild, broken ravine, with cliffs rising perpendicularly 400 or 500 feet. The ex cavations, about 1500 in number, are in the form of rooms 15 feet square. The legend connected with it resembles that of Tobit and the seven friends. It relates to a beautiful but demon harassed princess, Buddul Taman], who slew her seven lovers, and was at length rescued by Saif-ul-Mulk, son of the king of Egypt.
Hinglaj in Las is famous for its Hindu temple. It is on the Hara range, near the Aghor or Hingor river, about 30 miles from the seaport of Ormara, and 150 from Kurachee. It is one of the fifty-one pita or spots on which, according to Hindu belief, the dissevered limbs of Sati or Durga fell. Muham madans regard it as the shrine of Bibi Nani, the Nanaia of the old Babylonians, Bactrians, and Persians.
It has many subdivision, such as Jamhot, Gungah, Angariah, Chuta, also the Gadur, Mas orah, Manghia, Shekh, Shahoka, Sur, Vahreh, Sabrah, Mandarah, Runja, Bural, Dodah, etc. The population of Las province has been estimated from 30,000 to 60,000 souls. Their tribes are the Lumri or Numri, the Chuta, Med, Jokia, and Barfat. The people are Muhammadan, many of them of the Mehman sect. The seaport Sonmiani contains numbers of the Mehman sect or race, and part of the fixed population of Bela is called Jaghdal.
The Lumri or Numri is the dominant tribe, and is commonly termed the Lassi branch of the Lumri tribe. The Lumri or Numri are believed
to be descendants of the Samma and Sumra Raj puts. They trace their origin to Samar, who founded Samarcand, and acknowledge a con sanguinity to the Bhatta of Jeysulmir. Lumri have obtained possession of all the hill tract lying between the Pubb mountains and the Indus, east and west, and between the Mallir and Bharun rivers on the north and south, from which, about A.D. 1780, they ultimately drove the Khosa. Their features resemble those of the Rajputs. They wear arms, but they are peaceful shepherds and cowherds. They form the bulk of the population of Las. The Jamhot or Jamot are the dominant tribe of the Lunari and furnish the .Tam nr ruler of the province. The Dodeh are a section of the Lumri in Las. The Lumri are an active, hardy, pastoral people ; their wealth consists in flocks of goats, with fewer buffaloes and camels. They despise agriculture ; wild Lumri aro found grazing on the rocky banks of the Hab river. Their language varies little from that current in Sind. They manufacture coarse fabrics from tho wool of their goats and camels. Tho Lumri eats meat almost raw, and is greatly addicted to the use of opium.
The Biruvi tribe dwell near Bela ; they sell their children when in want. They are better looking, than the Sidi, and, as they speak Sindi, Hindus prefer them as domestic servants.
a sterile district with a port of same name, is subject to Las. Near Jabal Malan is a tribe called Gujur ; at Garuki, the Sanger tribe ; and at Hormara in Makran, with four hundred houses, is a tribe of this name. The Horrnara tribe say they came originally from Sind. Persani, west of Ilormara, is a small port of two hundred houses.
Chuta, a small tribe of 2500 souls, occupy a district of the same name, on the river Hub, which falls into the sea at Cape Monze. They are said to be of Sumrah, but also, it is said, of Brahui origin, and seem to occupy the Pubb hills of Kurachee, on both banks of the river Hub, and separated from British territory by the Kurter, and Mel hills. The Chuta say that when Dodeh, their ruler, fell in the battle by Allah-ud Din, the Chuta tribe left Sind and joined the Brahui. They are pastoral, cattle graziers. They are of smaller stature than the Sindians. Their huts aro of mat or of coarse blanket, drawn over a rough framework of sticks. They wake their dead. They are quarrelsome, and so addicted to thieving as to have an alliteration of their name Chuta Buta, Chuta Rogue. They have 14 clans.
Las has two or three places for receipt of custom.