THE WALLS OF NASRATABAD
Nasratabad is garrisoned by two Kain regiments,[25] one of which is disbanded at home, while the other supplies shopkeepers to the capital in the intervals of military duties. The nominal strength is 1000, but less than 800 men are mobilised. They are armed with the useless jezail, although at Birjand there is a store of Werndl rifles; they are supposed to receive a new uniform every second year. Service is for life and is hereditary in the families supplying the soldiers. Their pay is twenty krans—twelve shillings—and 7½ mans of wheat yearly; on service in Seistan they are given rations. As may be supposed, they do not constitute a formidable body of fighting men. In addition to the infantry there are 20 gunners hailing from Tabriz, who hold a position of which they take the fullest advantage. They carry on the business of moneylenders, charging 500 per cent. as a minimum!
It has long been recognised in Seistan that, while Indian commerce can achieve no compensating return in the markets of Khorassan against the trade of Russia and a dam of prohibitory tariffs blocks any little trickle from India entering Central Asia, something might be gained by concentrating attention upon Seistan itself. Accordingly, when in 1896 the laying-out of a route between Nushki and Nasratabad was begun and the construction of a railway between Quetta and Nushki was mooted, two important steps in the right direction were indicated. The distance from Quetta to Nasratabad along the route which was adopted is 565 miles. The five stages out of Quetta down to Nushki, a distance of 93 miles, pass through mountainous country. The road descends 2564 feet from the Quetta plateau to the great tableland which stretches away to Seistan at a height of 3000 feet. Across it lies the track, fairly level and admirably adapted for the passage of caravans. The hills tower in rough fantastic forms along the road to Nushki, and in crossing from valley to valley vistas of the mountain scenery of Baluchistan open out in constant succession. The altitude of the country above the sea and the dry bracing atmosphere create, in winter, a pleasant feeling of exhilaration. The heat in summer is intense, but the temperature varies between the extremes of heat and cold.
BAZAAR SCENE, NASRATABAD
The hills are the great feature of Quetta. To the east, within a mile or two of the bazaar, the Mardar range rises to a height of 11,000 feet, forming a splendid background to the cantonment. To the north, west and south the plain stretches out to the foot of the Zarghim, Tuckatoo and Chiltan hills. Bare and rugged are their slopes, for the juniper groves are tucked away in clefts on the hill-sides. Chill and forbidding are their summits, save at sunset when they flush scarlet as sin; then deepening gradually to purple pale to amethyst as twilight falls. As the night darkens, too, the fires of the charcoal-burners in the juniper valleys flash out, and the lowing of cattle from a distant bazaar reverberates in the still air. The atmosphere is very clear and distances are most deceptive. Dust-storms are frequent and the tiny dust-devil may be seen across the plain twirling rapidly in the radiant sunlight. Near Quetta there are a few mud-walled villages. They contain mostly a mixed population, the Baluchis proper being nomads and living in black blanket-tents. Even of these there are very few except at harvest time, when beside every threshing-floor, dotted amongst the golden mounds of bhusa, are ragged shelters. Each tent is composed simply of a couple of coarse goats’-hair blankets stretched, one to the windward and one overhead, across some forked sticks. Inside swarm a mass of men, women and children. The women wear long-sleeved, red cotton shirts reaching to the ankles, full cotton trousers and chaddas of indigo blue cotton. They do not appear to veil themselves among their own people; upon the approach of the white man a corner of the chadda is caught quickly across the mouth. The chadda falls straight down from the crown of the head to the heels and the frayed, soil-worn tail is left to drag among the dust heaps. The long black tresses of the women are thickly plaited and ornamented with blue beads and white cowries. Sometimes a mass of coins is worn like a fringe over the forehead. Their shirts are finely worked in green and gold on the hems, at the sleeves, neck, skirt and down the opening at the throat with the Russian cross stitch.
The Baluchi is a wild-looking man with long, black, well-oiled locks, which he keeps hanging in heavy curls round his neck and shoulders. He wears flowing cotton trousers, a cotton shirt, a waistcoat and a variety of coats according to his means. His apparel is of the dirtiest and his bare feet are thrust into heavy ammunition boots with never a lace in them. In spite of certain defects in his attire, he is a very dignified-looking man and a born leader—of camels! Moreover, he does not set too high value upon his womenfolk; labour is divided, and in ploughing his wife and a camel are usually harnessed together. The price of a spouse is calculated in so many goats, sheep, donkeys or camels.
From Quetta a good driving road runs as far as Samungli, 8 miles distant, where there is a small caravansary. From this point a kutcha road bears off south-west circling round the northern foot of Chiltan in the valley of Girdi Tallao, near the middle of which is the next halting-place. Here there is a caravansary built in the Persian fashion—a square courtyard with leans-to for cattle and camel-men and in one corner quarters, consisting of a mud rez-de-chaussée and a wooden chappar khaneh, for travellers of a better class.