Persian. Nevertheless, it is anything
but either Hebrew or Arabic.

Similarity of political constitution, and its attendant spirit of
independence, have given a political importance to both the Biluch and
the Afghan. Each is but partially--very partially--British; and each
became dependent upon Britain, not because they were the Afghans and
Biluch of their own rugged countries, but because they were part and
parcel of certain territories in India. It was on the Indus that they
were conquered; and it as Indians that they are British.

Four great patriarchs are the hypothetical progenitors of the four
primary Afghan divisions--though it is uncertain whether any such
quaternion be more of an historical reality than the four castes of
Brahminism. Subordinate to these four heads is the division called
_Ulus_ (_Ooloos_).

A minuter knowledge of the Afghan affiliations--real or supposed--is to
be gained by premising that _khail_ has much the same meaning as the
Biluch _khoum_, so that it denotes a division of population which we may
call _clan_, _tribe_, or _sept_; whilst the affix -_zye_, means _sons_
or _offspring_. Hence, _Eusof-zye_ is equivalent to what an Arab would
call _Beni Yusuf_; a Greek, _Ioseph-idae_; or a Highland Gael,
_MacJoseph_. All this is clear. When, however, we try to give precision
to our nomenclature, and ask whether the _khail_ contains a number of
-_zye_, or the -_zye_ a number of _khails_, difficulties begin.
Sometimes the one, sometimes the other is the larger class. And a
_khail_ in one case may be divided into groups ending in -_zye_; in
others, a group denoted by -_zye_ may contain two or more _khails_. Each
is a _generic_ or _specific_ designation as the case may be.

However, to proceed to instances, the following groups of Afghans may be
constituted.

1. Three sections--the _Acco-zye_, the _Mulle-zye_, and the
_Lawe-zye_--are subdivisions of the--

2. _Eusof._--The Eusof and _Munder_ being branches of the--

3. _Eusof-zye._--Now the _Eusof-zye_ is one out of four divisions of
the--

4. _Khukkhi._--The _Guggiani_, _Turcolani_, and _Mahomed-zye_, being the
other three.

5. Lastly, the _Khukkhi_, the _Otman-khail_, the _Khyberi_, the
_Bungush_, the _Khuttuk_ and, probably, some others form the _Berdurani_
Afghans.

But as _Berdurani_ is a geographical, or political, rather than a
tribual designation; as it is the name by which the _north_-eastern
Afghans were known to the Moghuls;