1 w
2 11 6. '
3 *
4 Turk.
5 ■ ■
6 villages have accepted permanent partitions, while otliora have agreed
7 to divide the land till the next Revenue Settlement is made. Again, as
8 th iv e id v e a d lle as y th
9 w e a y s n
10 o e t re c m
11 on a q d u e ere
12 d o a n t g a th b e low
13 th u
14 e s ac c q la u n isitio
15 d su
16 to lt b is e
17 d
18 w
19 am
20 vario
21 s. n T s he ha re
22 that the possessions of each clan are scattered about over the
23 whole valley and do not lie in compact blocks. But to this day a
24 distinction is observed between pioneer families who took part in the
25 earliest conquests and those who came after them. No Turi is con
26 sidered as asil or of blue blood unless he can point out his possessions
27 in the first Turi colonies of Mal&na and Peiwar. But some of the
28 clans, mostly Saragalla and a few Duperzai, are still nomad and
29 pastoral, and those who live in tents and summer in Upper Kurram,
30 but move down in winter to the pastures of Lower Kurram are called
31 huchi as o
32 pposed to those who have settled iu hamlets and are called
33 kothi. In
34 tensely democratic the Turis own no chiefs and their sense of
35 individuality is so strong that each hamlet, with its central tower
36 and circle of plane trees, is known by the name of its present holder
37 and it is an offence to call it by its founder’s name.
38 The aims in life of every Turi are to marry the woman he loves,
39 murder the enemy he hates, play the swell as a malik, collect money by
40 corruption and wash away his sins by a pilgrimage to Karbala. In the
41 famous battle at that place some Byzantine Christians fell on the side
42 of the sons of Ali and that event has given a religious touch to the
43 Turis’ devotion to the British Government. Unfortunately the Turi
44 though shrewd in business and above the average in intelligence is
45 lavish in his expenditure at weddings and in bribing the jirgas. The
46 costs of ahddi (marriage), hade (bribery) and badi (feuds) account for
47 about four-fifths of the alienations of their land, but their expro
48 priation has not yet reached alarming dimensions. Formerly
49 splendid horsemen and born moBS-troopers the Turis still make excellent
50 irregular soldiers, but they are litigious and saturated with party
51 feeling which makes them utterly untruthful. Still their hospitality
52 is great and the fidelity of a Turi escort or badragga proverbial.
53 Though darker in complexion than the Bangasli they are a fine people
54 physically and the M a c h or fathom* of a full-grown Turi is by repute
55 feet.
56 T ubs , in the Punjab proper means, probably invariably, a Turkoman native
57 of Tdrkistdn and of Mongolian race. But in tbo Delhi territory the
58 villagers, accustomed to describe the Mughals of the empire as I urks,
59 use the word as synonymous with ‘official’; even Hindu clerks or
60 the K&yath caste being described as Turks merely because they were
61 in Government employ. And about Karnfil any Mughal, Sayad, Pa^h&n
62 or Shaikh will be called Turk as a compliment. On the Baloch frontier
63 again the word Turk iu commonly used as synonymous with Mughal. The
64 Turks of the Punjab are practically confined to Haz&ra and are doubt
65 less the representatives of the colony of K&rlugh Turks who came
66 into the Punjab with Tamerlane (1899 A.D.) and possessed themselves
67 of the Pakhli tract in that District-, which apparently included the
68 Tauawal, Dhamtaur, ami w&ti country arid was politically attached
69 •*— *
70 * Iho length to which the two arms can be extended.
71 8