1 ( 158 )
2 CHAP. II.
3 DIVISIONS AND GOVERNMENT OF THE AFUHAUN NATION.
4 [ATEVER doubts may be entevtauied of the pedigree, tiid
5 even of the exiatence of Kjae Abdooteaheed, it is to him th«ft
6 all the A^^iaun genealogies refisr, and on those genealoj^es the iHiole
7 of the divisions and interior gov^nment of the tribes depend. As
8 eadi tribe has a goveninient of its own* and constitutes a ommpliito
9 eommoowealth within itself it may be well to examine the rise and
10 present situation of those commonwealthSf befi»e we proceed to con-
11 sider th^ as oomposmg one state» or one oonftdeEscy* under a oom^
12 men sovereign.
13 From the four sons of Kyse, Serrabim, Ghoorghooaht, Bctnee» and
14 Kurleh, sprung the four great divisions of the A^hauns, which still
15 bear their names. The Afghaun tribes are the faniihes of the de-
16 scendnnts of these ibur, and each bears the name of its immediate
17 progenitor.
18 Taking the descent of the Afghauns from one ancestor for granted,
19 it is probable tliat, as long as the number of families was small, they
20 were all under the direction of their common progenitor : that as they
21 grew aioio lumu l ous, the four great div isions separated, ami were
22 each under the head of its eldest branch, but that when the nation
23 spread over an extensive country, and the tribes <£ the same division
24 began to be remote fiom each other, theb Gonnectitm loosened* and
25 each tribe at last remained under its own hereditary diiei^ entirely
26 independent of the common head of the raofe
27 Hie fimr original divisions ate tuvw disused, and aie only men-
28 tioned in the genealogies of the tribes.
29 Uigitizeo by LiOggle