From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

At one P.M., after a rest of an hour and forty minutes, we mounted our camels and set out again on our route. For an hour and a half we followed a beaten track across a billowy surface of loose red sand, and then passing a ruined hostelry called Rabát, entered on a firm gravelly tract, thickly strewed with smooth black pebbles, and perfectly bare of vegetation. We crossed this by a gentle slope down to the Hazárjuft plain, and at four P.M. camped close on the river bank a little beyond a terminal bluff of the sand-cliffs bounding it to the south.

The Hazárjuft plain is a wide reach between the river and a great sweep southwards of the desert cliffs, and, as its name implies, contains land enough to employ a “thousand yoke” of oxen or ploughs. It is coursed in all directions by irrigation canals drawn from the river, and contains four or five fortified villages, around which are the reed-hut settlements of various dependent tribes.

Hazárjuft is the jágír or fief of Azád Khán, Nanshirwání Baloch, whose family reside here in the principal village of the district. It is a square fort, with towers at each angle and over the gateway. The Khán himself resides at Kharán, of which place he is governor on the part of the Kabul Amir. The other forts here are held by the Adozai and Umarzai divisions of the Núrzai Afghans, who are the hereditary owners of the soil.

In all this march there is no water after crossing the Argandáb. Our infantry escort were much exhausted by the length of the journey, and fairly broke down some miles short of its end. We passed several of them lying on the roadside completely prostrated by thirst, and they were unable to come on till we sent out water to them from Hazárjuft. They had started with an ample supply for the whole march, but, with the improvidence characteristic of Afghans, had wasted it before they got half through the journey, and hence their sufferings.

The journey might be divided in two stages of eighteen and twenty-two miles, making Gudar Barhana on the river bank the halting-place. In the hot season this would be absolutely necessary, otherwise the long exposure to the burning sands would be destructive alike to man and beast. The elevation of Hazárjuft is 2360 feet above the sea.

The most remarkable features of the Hazárjuft plain are the wide extent of its cultivation, and the vast number of ruins scattered over its surface. Some of these are of ancient date, and others bear the traces of fortifications raised upon artificial mounds, but the majority are evidently merely the remains of the temporary settlements of the migratory tribes, who shift about from place to place according to their pleasure, or, as more frequently is the case, through force of feuds amongst themselves, and disagreements with the lord of the manor.

In examining the arrangement, size, and disposition of these crumbling walls, one sees that they differ only from the existing temporary settlements around in the loss of their roofs and fronts. These are formed of basketwork frames of tamarisk twigs, coated on the outside with a plaster of clay and straw mixed together, and are easily transportable, though the necessity for this is not apparent, as the material of which they are made is found in any quantity all along the river course.

Our next stage was fourteen miles to Mian Pushta. The road follows a S.S.W. course, and diverges somewhat from the river. It passes over a level tract of rich alluvium, everywhere cultivated, and intersected in every direction by irrigation canals, now mostly dry.

At three miles we passed the Amir Biland ziárat, ensconced in a tamarisk grove. It is dedicated to the memory of a conquering Arab saint, said to be a son or grandson of the Amir Hamza. Hard by is a village of the same name, and further on are the two little forts of Warweshán. On the plain around are scattered a number of hut settlements of the Núrzais. They are named after the chiefs by whom they were founded, or by whom they are now ruled. Two of these are named Muhammad Ghaus, and others are Aslam Khán, Lájwar, Khán Muhammad, Fatu Muhammad, Sardár Khán, Abbasabad, &c. Each settlement comprised from 120 to 250 huts. Beyond all these is the Kushti village, and then Mian Pushta.