Chamkani, a tribe who inhabit the base of the Safed Koh, said to have 3500 fighting men. They are very poor.
Shirani or Sheorani are a Pathan tribe who inhabit the hill country to the W. of the British frontier, from the Shekh Hyder pass on the N. to the Ramak on the S. They thus adjoin the subdivisions of British Tank, Kolachi, Draband, and Chaodwan. Their fighting men have been variously estimated at from 3000 to 10,000. They have three great sections,—the Chua Khel, Uba Khel, and Sen Khel,—with numerous clans. A , great part of their territory is occupied by the Takht-i-Suliman and the hills which surround its base. Many parts of it are nearly inaccessible ; one road in some places is cut out of the steep face of the hill, and in others supported by beams inserted in the rock, and is still impracticable for loaded bullocks. The population is scattered in villages of from 20 to 40 houses through the valleys and lower part of the mountains. The sites of their houses are cut out of the slopes of the hills, so that on three sides the earth forms the lower part of the wall. Each cottage has only one room and one entrance, which is closed at night by the branch of a thorny tree. The Shirani are of middle stature, spare, but stout; have bold features, grey eyes, high cheek bones, and their general appearance is wild and manly. They are hardy and active. The clothing of a common Shirani consists of a coarse black blanket tied round their middle and another thrown over their shoulders ; a few yards of white cotton cloth is loosely twisted round their heads ; and their feet are protected by sandals made of leather prepared by the tamarisk. Their usual food is bread made of Indian corn, with butter and kurut, and wheaten bread; their luxuries are milk, wild olives, pomegranates, and pino seed. Mutton is occasionally eaten. They never kill horned cattle for food, but when a bullock happens to die, they cut its throat in the Muhammadan manner, and eat it. They marry late, and the women have only domestic work, except at their two harvests. The principal employment is agri culture, the valleys being largely irrigated. The common stock consists of small bullocks, but they have asses, a few goats, and a very few horses. They are punctual in their prayers. They were at war with all the surrounding tribes that pass through their country in the annual migrations.
The passes into their country are the Chaodwan, Draband, Gajestan, Guioba, Isparikat, Kuram, Ramak, Shekli Haider, Shirani. Prior to the British annexation of the Dehrajat, the Shirani were the terror of the whole border, and were generally the aggressors. From 1849 to 1853 they annually made inroads on the British terri tory, but in the last-named year they were met and defeated and followed up by Brigadier Hodgson, and their fort of Kotki mined and blown up. Mr. Elphinstone gives a very favourable account of them, but Colonel MacGregor commenting on it observes that a Pathan obeys no one, and, except the dictates of his own revengeful and avaricious nature, nothing has any influence with him.' The Babar tribe inhabit the Koh-i-Daman of the Dehra Ismail Khan district, opposite the Saugor and Dahina passes. Between them and the Mian Khel, on a boundary dispute, a blood feud raged for upwards of a hundred years, each year renewed. They are a brave but scattered tribe. They are of Shirani descent. They number 600 or 700 fighting men. They are of mercantile habits, and are the richest of all the tribes of the Daman. They are very fair, and are the most superior race in the Trans-Indus districts. The proverb, ' A Babar fool is a Gandehpur sage,' testifies to their wisdom.
The Ushtarana or Oshtcrana is an Afghan tribe who inhabit the outer hills opposite the extreme south portion of the Dehra Ismail district. They are conterminous of the Dehra Ismail Khan and Dehra Ghazi Khan districts. They are largely engaged in trade, and have been supposed to be a division of the Lohani tribe. They are in two clans, the Gagalzai and the Alunadzai, each of which has about 450 fighting men, but there had long been a blood feud between them, and they were hardly on speaking terms. Nothing can be more miserable than the whole of the Ushtarana country. They are not predatory, and are the bravest tribe of the Suliman range. They possess a large tract of land in British territory. On the outbreak of the Sikh war in 1848, 200 of them followed Major Edwardes to Multan. The Vooch or Korah pass, on the border of the Ushtarana hills, and nearly opposite to Debra Fattah Khan, constitutes the boundary line between the Pathan and Baluch tribes. It is faced by the British out posts of Doulalwalla and Vihowa.