The Marwati or Maraoti tribe of Pathans give their name to the Marwat division of the Bann district ; they are a branch of the Lobani tribe, being descended from Loh and his first wife Shiri. They have five khel or clans,—Bahram, Dreplara Musa, Tapi, Nuna, and Jhandu. They were formerly pastoral, and traders in the Katawaz district of the Ghilzae country, but left it from a quairel and tried to settle in Tank, from which the Daulat Khel ousted them, and they came on to Marwat. They are tall, muscular, and fair, often rosy-cheeked, and evidently of pure Afghan blood, forming a striking contrast to their mongrel neighbours the Banuchi ; they are a bold, manly, simple, and upright people, deeply attached to their sandy villages and reed huts. They are proud, but dignified, and frank and simple in their manner with strangers, and are distinguished from all the Pathan tribes by a more generous treatment of their women.
Their country is excessively arid ; the water is so far below the surface, they cannot afford to sink wells to it. Their women are the water carriers. At the census of 1868 they numbered 42,729 souls, and their sections in former days could turn out 5500 fighting men,—Bahram, 2000; Dreplara, 2000; Musa Khel, 1500.
Bann, in lat. 32° 15' to 33° N., and long. 70° 20' to 71° 20' E., a district in the Paujab, 60 miles long and 55 miles broad, with an area of 2036 square miles. Its Trans-Indus portion is bounded N. by the Khatak hills, W. and N.W. by the hills of the Waziri, S. by the Batani and Masrot ranges, and E. by the Indus. It is surrounded by barren bills, but is a highly fertile valley ; in spring a vegetable emerald, and in autumn I clothed with crops growing from lacustrine calcareous clay often 40 and 50 feet deep. The 1 climate is feverish. The population is about 200,000, mostly agricultural — Baluch about 70,000 ; other Muhammadans, 100,000 ; and Hindus, 200,000. The chief towns are Edwards Laki, Ns. Khel, and Kalabagh ; their houses built of mud, with a Chouk or place of assembly, and a guest-room. The people are dirty. They are strict Muliammadans.
isa Khel is a division of the Banu district, en closed between the Indus and the Khatak hills. Most of the inhabitants are Niazi ; but the Awan, and Jat, and Hindus are intermixed. Many of the Niazi are migratory.
The sanatorium of Shekh-Budin, in lat. 17' -19" N., and long. 70° 50' 49" E., and 4516 feet above the sea, is on the Mohar range in the Banu district, 64 miles south of Bann.
The Banuchi or Banuwal is a mixed tribe occupying the Banu subdivision of the Banu district. The people have come from all the surrounding lands, and their stature and appear ance are of the most varied kind ; most of them aro spare, without much muscular development, attributable to the malarious climate. They are morally a low, vicious race, very litigious and untruthful. The Waziri, the Marwati, and Isa. Khel are as different from them in character as in race.
The nnar Khan Khel, one of the clans of the liairam Maorat, occupy the Agzar Khel village in the Banu district.
The Niazi is a tribe of Afghans settled in the 13anu district, descendants of Niaz Khan, son of Jodi, king of Ghor, by his second wife Takia.
Lodi was the Lohani chief who invaded Hindu stan, A.D. 15 (A.u. 955), and the Daman; and the Isa Kiwi districts were allotted to Niaz, whose descendants still occupy it. The :qui, like most of the Lohani, are divided into au agricultural and a Povinda portion. The agriculturists are all in British territory; their sections or khel are the ha, Kamar, Kundi, and Sarhang. The Povinda have five branches, and trade between Khorasan and the Dehrajat. Their sections or khel are the Mamrez, Nur Khan, Mahsud, Ali, and Mala. The Niazi are good loyal subjects. They have no money expenditure at their marriages. The Michan Khel section of the Niazi hold villages in the Banu district. They are Shaikhs, and very wealthy.
Tor and Spin are two factions on the Banu frontier. They originated from the quarrels of two Bantichi, Sarke and Ibrahim, in which all the tribes got involved. Those who sided with Sarke were called Sarke Gundidar, subsequently Kohna Gundi, and afterwards Tor Guudi ; they comprise 02 sections. The Spin faction embraces 27 sections ; they were first called Jan-behdar, afterwards Noya Gundi, and lastly Spin Gundi.
The Dehrajat is a portion, about two-thirds, of a narrow strip of land which extends along the west bank of the Indus river, about 300 miles from the Kalabagh range to the N. boundary of Sind, and hemmed in between the Suliman range and the Indus. The three prtions of the Dehrajat are the Dehra Ismail Khan, Dehra Ghazi Khan, and Dehra Fattah Khan. A thin f ringe of cultivation and jungle extends along the bank of the great river, and terminates, as you advance into the interior, in a flat desert country, where a precarious supply of water from the hills affords a poor cultivation in the vicinity of the thinly-scattered villages. Lower down, the hill streams become smaller, and the aspect of desolation still greater, so that for miles not a human being is visible, nor can a drop of water be procured to quench the thirst produced by these scorching plains. Tho Pathan and Baluch tribes who inhabit the hills, have the same attachments to their chiefs, internal heredi tary feuds, dislike to combination, and predatory habits, which distinguish so many mountain races, but have withal a martial bearing and love of independence. The scarcity of water limits culti vation, and their wealth consists in their herds, which find a scanty pasturage at the foot of the hills. Amongst the mountains occur a few fertile patches. The country being traversed by foot paths known only to themselves, the bill tribes were accustomed to issue from it in raids on their wealthier neighbours in the plains, harrying their cattle, and retreating in safety to their impractic able mountains. To stop this, in the beginning of 1857, after one of such inroads, the Panjab Government sent an expedition from amongst the troops of the Panjab irregular force, to reduce the Bozdar tribe ; and names known to fame in the Indian mutinies—Chamberlain, Coke, Nichol son, Hodgson, Probyn, Watson, Wylde, and Green—were all trained in this school of warfare, involving severe marches, incessant fights, and exposure to all the seasons of the year.