'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III.' [‎127r] (258/982)

the population of each village will be found in the separate descriptions of
places given in this gazetteer. Except in Borazjun the dwellings of the
inhabitants are nearly all huts. The inhabitants of Dashtistan were describ
ed more than two decades ago as very vicious and very warlike.
Aqriculture .—The chief staples of Dashtistan are wheat and barley, which
are grown in summer, ar d dates. In summer water-melons, musk-melons,
cucumbers, maize, cottton, castor-oil, beans, onions, garlic, and sesame are
cultivated by irrigation from wells. Livestock is represented by an ordinary
proportion of cattle, sheep and goats. The unit of land-measurement is
the Gdu or that area of land which requires 6 Haslum man? of seed gram
and can be ploughed by one yoke of animals (whether cattle, horses, mu eS
or donkeys) in a single day ; it is said to be represented by a square of which
th« side is 250 yards. In a good year the return to cultivation m Dashtistan
is from 8 to 16-fold. Dashtistan agriculturally resembles Dashti, but it is
considered the superior district. The cultivators of Dashtistan are many
cf them embarrassed with debts originating in loans taken at exorbitant
rates of interest ft r the purpose of buying seed-grain. ^
Trade. Eorazjun is the commercial centre of Dashtistan and the article
on it may be consulted for an account of the trade of the district. The
standard of weight is not uniform throughout the district, but varies from
10 1 3 20 Tabriz mans of Bushire, being 18 at the important centres of
Boraziun and Ckah Ku ah. . ^ i v ^ i
Communication s and transfort.—The district contains no natural obstacles.
Within it lie the first three stages on the ordinary route from Bushire to
Shiraz. The tram p ort resources of the district are estimated at 200 horses,
some camels, 350 mu es and 2 ; 500 donkeya. Some quantity of wheat and
barlev is purchasable locally, but not as a rule until the prospects of the
con nig harvest are assured; until this occurs the stocks m hand are hoarded.
Administration.—In the middle of the eighteenth century much of Dash
ti an was under the power of Shaikh Nas who ruled in Bushire, and the
history of the province seems to have followed more or less the fortunes
of that town, vide this gazetteer—Bushire Town. _ In 1888 Dashtistan was
placed by the Amin-us-Sultan, under Prince Nash, but later was given to
the Governor of Shiraz, and administered by a sartlp acting as_ his deputy.
At the pre-ent time (1905) the political organisation of Dashtistan is a patch-
work of mare ellous complexity. The bulk of the district is under the Gover
nor of Ears: but some of the southern villages, including the group for which
the Shaikh of Chah Kutah is responsible, are subordinate to the Governor
of the Gulf Ports. The system of farming the revenues is responsible for
further confusion, especially as a certain degree of executive power is always
conferred on the ‘ farmer ’ along with the right to collect the taxes, and the
more so in the present case that the farmer of the greater part of Dashtistan
is the Governor of the Gulf Ports, who has leased it from the Governor of
Ears. Nor is the administration of the Governor commonly direct, whether
he be actual or titular. Half or more of the villages to the north of Borazjun
are held in farm, or, as it is frequently said, as a tiyul or fief, by the Salar-i-
' Mu’azzam. Borazjun and its dependent villages, forming the greater part
of the district, are ruled by the Papari Khan of Borazjun^who also collects
the revenues, a privilege for which he pays 5,000 tumdns annually; he
1 HS