nd tribe--the sacro-sanctity of revenge
as a duty--the suspension of private wars when foreign foes
threaten--greater rudeness amongst the mountains--comparative industry
in the plains--the business of robbery tempered by the duties of
hospitality--black mail, &c. All this is equally Biluch, Arabian, and
Highland Scotch; and it all shows the similarity of details which
accompanies similarity of social institutions. Ethnological relationship
it does _not_ show.

The word _Biluch_ is Persian. The bearer of the designation either calls
himself by the name of his tribe, or else glorifies himself by the term
_Usul_ or _Pure_. The tribes or _khoums_ are numerous. Sir H. Pottinger
gives the names of no less than fifty-eight; without going into their
subdivisions.

If, however, instead of details, we seek for classes of greater
generality we find that _three_ primary divisions comprise all the
ramifications of the Biluch. The first of these is the _Rind_; the other
two are the _Nihro_ and the _Mughsi_. The daughter of a Rind may be
given to a Rind as a wife; but to marry into a tribe of Nihro or Mughsi
extraction is a degradation. Here the elements of _caste_ intermix with
those of _tribe_ or _clan_.

_Afghans._--_Afghani-stan_ means the country of the Afghans, just as
_Hindo-stan_ and _Biluchi-stan_ mean that of the Hindus and Biluchi,
respectively.

In India the Afghans are called _Patan_.

Their language is called _Pushtu_. It is allied to the Persian--but less
closely than the Biluch.

Fully and accurately described in the admirable work of Lord Mountstuart
Elphinstone, the Afghans have long commanded the attention of the
ethnologist; and all that has been said about the Judaism of the Biluchi
has been said in respect to them also, though not by so good a writer as
the one just quoted. No wonder. Their tribual organization, if not more
peculiar in character, has been more minutely described; a greater
massiveness of frame and feature has been looked upon as eminently
Judaic; and, lastly, an incorrect statement of Sir William Jones's, as
to the Hebrew character of the Pushtu language, has added the authority
of that respected scholar to the doctrine of the Semitic origin of the
Afghans. Against this, however, stands the evidence of their peculiar
and hitherto unplaced language. I say _unplaced_, because the criticism
that separates the modern dialects of Hindostan from the Sanskrit,
disconnects the Pushtu and the old