1 SINDE. 217
2 a few Afghans, especially in the north-western part of the country.
3 The Sindians,‘ collectively, are described as handsome, though of ‘ Pott.377; Mac-
4 dark complexions; well limbed, but inclined to corpulency, and Se
5 above the middle size. The beauty of their women is proverbial,
6 and Pottinger® remarks, that among the numerous sets of dancing *377.
7 girls whom he saw, there was not one who did not display loveli-
8 hess of face or symmetry of figure. The Belooches, and the
9 mixed race between them and the Hindoos, are considered the
10 finest part of the population. They have “an oval contour of face,§ * Macmurdo, 248.
11 aquiline nose, arched eye-brows, and high forehead, with expres-
12 sive eyes.” The character of no people, perhaps, has been visited
13 with greater obloquy than that of the Sindians. Pottinger? repre- * 576.
14 sents them as ‘avaricious, full of deceit, cruel, ungrateful,
15 strangers to veracity ;” and adds, that among bordering nations,
16 the term ‘‘ Sindian dog’”’ is synonymous with ‘‘ treacherous liar.”
17 Macmurdo § observes, that ‘* with most, if not all, the vices com- ° *4-
18 mon to Asiatics, the Sindians appear to possess few, or none, of
19 their virtues,” and declares them ‘‘ the most bigoted, the most
20 self-sufficient, and the most ignorant people on record.” Burnes,
21 on the contrary, gives a favourable estimate of their character ;
22 having found those with whom he had transactions kindly,® grate. ° Burnes’ Bokh.
23 ful, faithful, and of unimpeachable honesty; as the traveller and ee
24 his company lost nothing in their progress through the country,
25 though all they possessed was at the mercy of the rude individuals
26 Cusually drawn to serve as guards or servants; and when the
27 British army, in 1839, marched through Sinde to Afghanistan, the
28 people acted with great honesty, and it was observed, that a
29 similar camp! ‘* would have suffered more from robberies in one ' Kennedy, i. 167.
30 night in Guzerat, than we [the British] had done for the three
31 months we had been in Sinde.” The charge of cruelty, also, is
32 discountenanced by reference to the various occasions on which
33 British envoys and agents visited and explored Sinde, with views
34 dreaded and detested by its rulers, but without becoming the vic-
35 tims of any Sindian cruel or treacherous actions. They are
36 charged with adulation, but their expressions and manners in this
37 respect appear to amount to little more than awkward and over-
38 strained attempts at politeness. The natural results, indeed, of
39 their semi-barbarous state and long-continued misgovernment are
40 apparent. The people are grossly ignorant and bigoted, and in-
41 clined to be tricky in matters of business.2, The Hindoos engaged ? Conolly, ui. 243.