Captain Postans distinguishes the Biluch from the Mekrani of Mekran; but of this latter people I know no good description. They are, probably, Kerman Persians. The hill-range between Jhalawan and Sind is occupied by a family which has commanded but little notice; yet is it one of the most important in the world, the Brahúi.
_The Kurds._--A line drawn obliquely across Persia from Biluchistan towards the north-west brings us to another frontier population; a population conterminous with the Semitic Arabs of Mesopotamia, and the unplaced Armenians. These are mountaineers--the Kurds of Kurdistan. Name for name, they are the _Carduchi_ of the Anabasis. Name for name, they are the _Gordyæi_. Name for name, they are, probably, the _Chaldæi_ and _Khasd-im_--a fact which engenders a difficult complication, since the Chaldæi in the eyes of nine writers out of ten--though not in those of so good an authority as Gesenius--are Semitic. The Kurd area is pre-eminently irregular in outline. It is equally remarkable for its physical conditions. It is a range of mountains--just the place wherein we expect to find old and aboriginal populations rather than new and intrusive ones. On the other hand, however, the Kurd form of the Persian tongue is not remarkable for the multiplicity and difference of its dialects--a fact which suggests the opposite inference. Kurds extend as far south as the northern frontier of Fars, as far north as Armenia, and as far west as the head-waters of the Halys. Have they encroached? This is a difficult question. The Armenians are a people who have generally given way before intruders; but the Arabs are rather intruders than the contrary. The Kurd direction is vertical, _i.e._ narrow rather than broad, and from north to south (or _vice versâ_) rather than from east to west (or _vice versâ_), a direction common enough where it coincides with the valley of a river, but rare along a mountain-chain. Nevertheless it reappears in South America, where the Peruvian area coincides with that of the Andes.
_The Afghans._--The Afghan area is very nearly the water-system of the river Helmund. The direction in which it has become extended is east and north-east; in the former it has encroached upon Hindostan, in the latter upon the southern members of a class that may conveniently be called the Paropamisan. In this way (I think) the Valley of the Cabul River has become Afghan. Its relations to the Hazareh country are undetermined. Most of the Hazarehs are Mongolian in physiognomy. Some of them are Mongolian in both physiognomy and language. This indicates intrusion and intermixture--intrusion and intermixture which history tells us are subsequent to the time of Tamerlane. Phænomena suggestive of intrusion and intermixture are rife and common throughout Afghanistan. In some cases--as in that of Hazarehs--it is recent, or subsequent to the Afghan occupation; in others, it is ancient and prior to it.