'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME IV.' [‎276r] (556/652)

of the Shamil river which enters it between Kuh-i-Nian and Kuh-i-Zindan.
The former contains a salt stream called the End Shur and its channels
turning to the south and leaving the villages of Nung and Baghu on its right
bank reaches the sea at a point 8 miles east of Bandar Abbas. The bed
of the Shamil, divides on entering the district, sending one branch straight
to the village of Shamil and thence south-south-east to the sea, while
another branch strikes south-westwards until it receives, near Budik village,
an affluent from the the hills known as the Jamush when it turns to the
south-south-west and rejoins the eastern branch 8 miles from the sea: in
the neighbourhood of the coast the united stream bears the name of the
Rud Shirin. Both the Rud Shur and the Shamil river vary greatly in
volume being sometimes wide rippling streams a few inches in depth and
after rain impassable torrents ; the western branch of the Shamil river is fre
quently dry. The Rud-i-Kul or Kul river, which bounds the district on
the west, is salt and its riparian villages depend on wells for their drinking-
water ; near Gurband it receives from the north a stream called the Rud
Shur which carries part of the drainage of the southern slopes of the Kuh-
Ginau. The remainder of the southern drainage of that mountain is
borne by a channel which runs eastwards to Chah Chakur, then breaks
through the sandstone coast range and, turning southwards, reaches the sea
a very little to the west of the stream from Baghu.
The district contains some clear flowing streams and a number of
springs, especially in proximity to the hills. The water of most of these
is absorbed in irrigation, or by the porous soil, before reaching any channel
by which it could be brought to the coast. Mimosa, oleander and the
wild caper are among the commonest plants and in places the country
is covered with thorny jungle.
The climate of Shamil resembles that of Bandar Abbas, but inland
the summer heat is even more intense owing to the distance from the sea
and the reflection of the sun’s rays from the bare sandy soil.
The people of Shamil are of Persian race with probably a considerable
Population. infusion of Baluchi and Arab blood and the
. , , . universal language is Persian of a purity which
increases with the distance from Bandar Abbas. Arabic is scarcely under
stood and Baluchi is not heard except at the eastern end of the district.
On the west side of the mouth of the Shamil river, however, is a cluster of
villages near the coast, of which the inhabitants are all Baluchis speaking
both Persian and a debased form of Baluchi. There are no distinct or
well-known local tribes.
The people are nearly all Shl’ahs with the exception of about a dozen vil
lages, all further west than Bandar Abbas, which are either altogether or
predominantly Sunni. _ As subjects the Shamllls are weak, peaceable
and oppre ised: as cultivators they are idle and unthrifty. The majority
nve m a squalid fashion in date-leaf huts, and as long as they can obtain
enough dates to eat they are content to do nothing. In the interior they
are cultivators, on the sea -shore fishermen and boatmen: in the season
every man, woman and child becomes a date-picker. There are practi
cally no arms among them; only a headman here and there owns a rifle
or wo. Ihe total population, excluding Bandar Abbas, which is not '
reckoned as part of Shamil, probably amounts to about 25,000 souls^