KHELAT, properly Kalat; in lat. 28° 53' N., and long. 66° 28' S., is 6800 feet above the sea. It is the capital of Baluchistan, and the seat of government of the Khan, among whose subjects are many tribes of Brahui and Baluch, some Af ghans, with sects from Persia, Arabs on the coast line, and Hindus engaged in commerce. The Khan is of the Brahui. The better known tribes are all situated along the Dehra Ghazi frontier, and along Sind. From thence the country extends inwards to the Indian Ocean from above Kurachee to the border of Persia.
The Baluch believe that they came from Aleppo, and are descended from Mir Hamera, son of Abdul Mahtab, who died in the reign of Hazrat Imam Husain about A.D. 646. Leaving Arabia, they first came to Kerman in Persia, and thence to Makran, where they remained 500 years. One of their chiefs, Yakub Khan, had four sons and a daughter, named respectively Rind, Hot, Las hari, Korai, and Massamat Yatoi. From these sprang the tribes called by these names. After some time the Rind and Lashari quarrelled, and the latter took refuge in Sind. The Brahui were supposed by Pottinger to be a nation of Tartar origin. The above are the great divisions, but there are many subdivisions. The aggregate number of men that could be brought into the field by all the tribes is calculated at 38,000 men; but not more than 8000 or 10,000 could be in duced to go out of the country, even when their most popular rulers were in power. With the certainty of pay, the British should be able to get 8000 at least, and they would form a splendid body of troops. There are two great sirdars, hereditary heads of the districts of Saharawan and Jhalawan ; to these sirdars the khan is supposed to submit all his intentions before he can carry out any thing lawfully. Besides these, there is a wazir chosen by the Tajak, or merchant community, who has a voice in the government. The language spoken in Kalat is Brahui, and is quite different from the Baluchi, though neither is written ; nearly all the official documents being in Persian.
The Baluchi women are treated better than other Musalman women. The more independent tribes, such as the Murree, have women slaves amongst them, though not many.
Raids are latterly confined to their Pathan neighbours, for Sir W. Merewether (then Captain Merewether) at Shagur in 1847, and Captain Raitt when he took Bugti Dehra (vide General T. Jacob's book on the Bugti campaign), gave them very sharp lessons. Sir W. Merewether killed 700 of
them, and the Bugti • have not recovered that punishment yet. Amongst themselves they are great sticklers to custom. For instance, in a fight between two tribes, one of them brought up a gun that had before been taken from the Khan of Khelat, and fired three or four stone shot at their opponents' village. Hardly had they done so when out rushed a whole crowd of women from the village, and, going up to the assailants, asked them how they could do so low a thing as fight with weapons that had never been used by their fathers. Curious to say, even in the heat of their passions, this argument prevailed, and the cannon being sent off to a place of security, the fight was continued with sword, shield, and matchlock. Since then, when a son of the Katran chief, Imam Bux, used rifle skirmishing with the Murree, the same argument induced him to lay aside his rifle and take to his sword. One thing specially noticeable is how on both these occasions the women took the office of intermediaries, and in both cases no idea seemed to be entertained of interfering with them, while it is equally certain that if they had been caught after the fight was decided they would have become the prize of the victors.
A very large portion consists of barren hills and sandy plains, while only a small portion is culturable. About Khelat, Mustang, and Quetta the maximum and minimum temperature in summer is about 105° and 48° ; in winter, 70° and 4°. In the sandy deserts of Makran, the cold is not nearly so great, but the heat is so intense that during the Khanna p1z, or date ripening, as it is called, a period of about three weeks, even the inhabitants keep close and do not go out.
The Baluch mare is a raw-boned animal of about 13 to 14 hands. These horses have considerable endurance, and can go 50 to 60 miles a day for several consecutive days. One man rode in and out with a letter just 80 miles in 24 hours, and his mare had the same wretched broken-down appearance as when it started, neither more nor less. Sometimes an extra good one appears on the scene, but such cases are rare. Baluchi have the same habit as the Kurd of Central Asia, namely, they do not often take the saddles off their horses. The saddles are made of wood, and are very narrow ; the stirrups are short, so that the knee goes well forward, and the foot back in a line with the hip. See Baluchistan.