‘The strategic importance of the Euphrates valley railway’ [‎58] (139/204)

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of the " Ichthyophagoi," and the modern name
Makran bears a strange similarity to the Persian
word " Mahi-khoran," a literal translation of the
Greek plural word.*
Having myself passed over the utmost length of
Makran in the course of duty, entering it twice from
the Persian, and once from the Indian, side, I have
no hesitation in pronouncing it to be one of the
most desolate and arid of regions. As a rule, the
coast is a flat sandy waste; but here and there the
inland chains of mountains throw out a spur towards
the sea, and a few abrupt cliffs, laved by the salt
waters, block up the traveller's path, and drive
him to the interior. There are no less than twenty-
seven " khors," or mouths of temporary rivers,
which come down suddenly after rain, and disappear
as rapidly as they rise.
The people of the country are divided by Pottin-
gerf into two great classes, Brahui and Baluchi,
between which he finds there is no affinity of lan
guage or physique. Kelat, the ruling chiefdom in
Eastern Baluchistan, or that half which is not under
Persian supremacy, is peopled mostly by Brahuis.
Like its larger and more important neighbour
Afghanistan, although it has been through a phase of
hostility towards us, its ruler and people are now
our allies, and its relative position to British India
* 'Brief History of Kelat,' by Major Leech, in Asiatic Society's
Journal, 1843.
t ' Travels in Baluchistan and Sinde,' Longman, 1816.