1 82 PANJAB CASTES.
2 the Indus. Their history and distribution have been related in sections 399 and 403. They
3 are indifBerent enltivators, and still retain much of the Pathan pride of race. The cis-Indus
4 branch is the more orderly and skilful in agriculture. The Isa Khcl is the predominant and
5 most warlike section ; but they all make good soldiers. A section of them is still independent
6 and engaged in pawindah trafiSc, spending the summer about Kandahar and wintering in
7 Derail Ismail. They are strict Sunnis. They seem to be a quarrelsome people, for the proverb
8 says — ' The Xiazi like rows."
9 Minor tribes are the Mughal Khel clan of Tusufzai who conquered a small tract round
10 flhoriwfil some seven centuries ago, and still sliow their origin in speech and physiognomy.
11 The Khatak will be described when I discus-; the Koliat tribes.
12 405. The Waziri. — The whole of the Bannu portion beyond our border is occupied by
13 the Darvesh Khel Waziri, while south of them, along the Derail Ismail border, behind the
14 Bitanni country, and as far south as the Gomal pass, lie the Malisiid ilau of the same tribe.
15 The V\'aziri are descended from Sulemilu, son of Kakai, and are one of the Karlanri tribes. >
16 The original seat of the tribe was in the Birmil hills, west of the Kliost range which separates
17 them from their kinsmen the Banmichi descendants of Shitak. Suleman had two sons, Lalai
18 and Khizrai. Lalai had to fly by reason of a blood feud, and settled in Xingrahar on the
19 northern slopes of the western Safed Koh, where his descendants the Lalai Waziri are still
20 settled. Khiziai had three sous, Musa, Mah^iid, and Uurbuz. From llab-^ud are descended
21 the Mahsiid Waziri, divided into the Alizai and Rahlolzai ; while from 'Mu-a Darrcsh are
22 descended the Utmanzai and Ahmadzai clans, usually joined under the title of Darvesh Khel
23 Waziri.
24 About the close of the 14th century the Waziri began to move eastwards. They first crossed
25 the Khost range and drove the Bannuchi out of Shawal, and occupied the hills of the Bannn
26 and Kohat border north of the Toehi. Then, crossing that river, they drove the Urmar
27 Afghans, descendants of Unnar, son of Sharkiibiin and near kinsmen of the Abdali,- out of
28 the hills south of the Tochi on the lower Bannu and Tank borders to take refuge in the Loghar
29 valley near Kabul, and dislodging the Bitanni from Kaniguram, drove them back beyond
30 Garangi to the low hills on our immediate frontier. They thus obtained po-session of all that
31 confused system of mountains which, starting from the Gomal pass which marks the northern
32 extremity of the Sulemans proper, runs northwards along our border to Thai and tlie Knrram
33 river, where it joins the lower ranges of the Safed Koh. Their two main sections are the
34 ^Mabsud and Darvesh Khel, the former holding the hills to the south, and the latter those to the
35 north of the Tochi river and the Khasor pass ; while of the Darvesh Khel counti-y, the Ahmadzai
36 occupy the southern and the Utmanzai the northern parts. The Hasan Khel, an impoiiant
37 Utmanzai sept, hold the extreme north -western portion of the tract. The two great sections
38 are practically independent tribes, owning no common head, and with liut little common feeling.
39 They still nominally hold the Birmil country, though the Suleman Khel and Kharoti Ghilzai
40 winter there with' their flocks, and during their stay the Waziri are confined to then- walled
41 villages. They were till lately wholly nomad and pastoral ; but they have of late years encroached
42 upon the plain country of tlie Marwat, Bannuchi, and Khatak, and now hold cultivated lands
43 in Bannu and Kohat.
44 The Gurbuz, an unimportant tribe, accompanied the Waziri in their movements, and once
45 occupied the hills between their Mahsiid and Darvesh Khel brethren, where, as abeady narrated,
46 they disputed the possession of the Ghabbar peak with the Bitanni. They have now returned
47 to their original seat west of the Khost range, and north of the Daur who hold the trans-border
48 banks of the Tochi river.
49 The Waziri are one of the most powerful and most troublesome tribes on our border, the
50 Mahsiid being pre-eminent for tiu-bulence and lawlessness. They are exceedingly democratic
51 and have no recognised headmen, which increases the difficulty of dealing with them. They
52 are taU, active, muscular, and courageous, and their customs differ in several respects from those
53 of the Pathans in general. They are still in a state of semi-barbarism. They are well described
54 in the Baij/df-i- Afghani (-pagei 227 ffoi the translation). The large number of Waziris sho\vn
55 in the Bannu district is partly due to the Census having been held on the night of the weekly
56 fair. But Mr. Thorburn estimates the Waziri population of the purely Waziri border villages
57 alone at 13,523, and there are always many members of the tribe scattered about the district
58 ' in search of work or of opportunities for theft,' especially during the sjiring mouths. On the
59 Bannu border distress o^^^ng to failure of rain had probably made the number of such persons
60 unusually high at the time of the census.
61 1 Dr. Bellew makes them the Wairsi sept of the Lodha tribe of Pramara Eajpiits ; and says
62 that they crossed from the Indus riverain across the Sham plain into the Birmil hills, then held
63 by the Khatak whom they drove northwards, taking the whole of their country from the Sham
64 plain to the Kohat valley. He gives no authority for these statements.
65 - This is according to the genealogies. But the Unnar are probably of Hindki origin, and
66 speak a Panjabi dialect known as Urmari, of which a grammar has just been submitted to
67 Government for approval.