These people are nomads, living in tents, or, when they camp for a longer period, in temporary huts, or oftener in a sort of wickerwork wigwam, dome-shaped, and covered with felt called the “khirgar.” These wigwams can be taken down and packed on a camel in less than an hour. The Turkoman women are unveiled, and work in camp and field, and weave the beautiful rugs that are so much in demand in Afghanistan and India.
The Usbàks are a confederation of many Turk and Tartar tribes, not one race. They are flat faced, with scanty beard and slanting eyes. They speak the same language as the Turkoman—Turki—and have the same disposition, tastes, and ferocity. They do not, however, lead a wandering life, but dwell in villages, and may be considered the established and civilized inhabitants of Central Asia beyond the Oxus. Their type is occasionally somewhat altered by intermarriage with the Persians.
There are other prominent but less numerous races in Afghanistan: for instance, the Kizilbashes, who are the better educated among the townspeople. There is a colony of them in Kabul, at Chendawal, to this day. They are Persianized Turks, who were brought to Afghanistan by Nadir Shah in 1737. They speak pure Persian, and constitute chiefly the merchants, physicians, traders, and scribes. His Highness’s chief secretary, the Dabier-ul-Mulk, was a Kizilbachi. These men belong to the Shiah sect of Mahomedans.
The Christian Church.
At one time there was a colony of Armenians in Kabul, brought from Persia by Nadir Shah, and a Christian church was in existence, until it was accidentally blown to pieces in the last Afghan war.
The Armenians, however, have drifted away to the large towns in India and Persia, and only one family remains, that of my Interpreter.
I went one day to pay my respects to a Christian lady in Kabul, an aged Armenian some ninety years old. She wept bitterly as she told me of the church built by a Mahomedan King for their use and destroyed by Christians.
Of other races in Kabul, there are Tajiks of Arab descent, Hindkis of Hindu descent, and Kohestani and Pashai tribes, who are considered to be the unconverted aborigines of the Kabul province.