‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎85v] (169/949)

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my visit there was a considerable surface flow, but mainly from Earezes m the
low hills on each bank. The length of tins oasis is about 5 miles, its width
from i to i a mile.
Little patches of wheat, lucerne, and vegetables are grown in openings
among the date trees, but some gram also comes from Kolwa, Kharan, and
N uslllvl
Thp staule food of the villagers and of the surrounding nomad tribes is
dates There a e at most two lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of bearing trees in the valley, and their
annual p educe is approximately a lakh One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of maunds = 3,700 tons. The bulk
of the crop is consumed locally,'or bartered with the nomads for ghi and wool,
hut a small Quantity of the better dates is exported to Nushki and Karachi.
The primitiveness of the country will he best understood from the fact that
there were only five banias in the three villages. Panjgur is the hill station
for all the wealthier people of Makran. The climate is remarkably cool for
the elevation 3 000 feet; cooler, I thought, than places of corresponding altitude
near Quetta.’ Further up the valley water is no longer met with in the river,
and is only obtainable from springs at the base of the mountains. In places
there is a little “ barani ” cultivation from the streams that descend from the
hills on both sides.
One of the two feasible routes for an invader leads from the Persian
frontier at Kuhatc, four marches off, through Isa Kalat and up the Eakshan to
Kalat and Quetta. There is said to be only one severe Kotal on the whole road.
The foregoing description of Panjgur applies equally, mutatis mutandis, to
Kech The latter valley is much hotter being at an elevation of only 500 feet
or less and the hills are closer on either hand. Water is plentiful all along
the Kech (Kilkaur) Kiver from Turbat, the capital, westwards to Tump, a
distance of 40 miles. A dozen fair-sized villages with their fringe of date trees
line the edge of the river, and the population is much larger than that of
Panjgur, amounting probably to 12.000 inhabitants.
The Nazim of Kech informed me that the Khan of Kalat owns four lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees
of trees in the valley. On the assump-
See Appendix. t - 0Ilj ^hich is probably within the mark,
that one-half of all the trees are his property, the total number would he eight
lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , and their produce about four lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of maunds yearly==15,000 tons. A
little rice and lucerne are grown in patches among the date trees, and there
are gardens of orange trees and mangoes.
There are excellent Karezes at Turbat,
JJiLSt &°oS‘oitaLr Te but lower down, I understood, the water
Nazim. was mainlv derived from the river.
Here too the staple food of the inhabitants is dates. A considerable
quantity goes to the ports of Ormara and Gwadnr, roiite, it is said, tor
Karachi, hut the hulk of the crop is consumed locally or . bartered with the
nomads for ghi and wool. With improved communications there can he no
doubt that a large export of dates would spring up, with an import of gram in
exchange. The people would very much prefer the latter if it could be got.
So sick were they of a perpetual diet of dates, which recent failures of their
rain crops had restricted them to, that I found a ration of flour had a puch
greater attraction for guides and camelmen than a daily wage. As the price of
dates in Kech is annas 8 to 12 per maund and m India Ks. 5 to 10 per
maund, there would he a wide margin of profit on the transaction.
The climate is hot and unhealthy j fever and clioleia^ being prevalent
before the date season (July-August). It is difficult to estimate heat when
Irvin 0 * in a small tent, hut I consider Kech, though cooler than Sihi or Jhansi, is
quite as hot as Cawnpore. Some twenty miles east of Turbat, in the same
valley are the two isolated villages of Sami and Sharak, with fifteen or
twenty thousand date trees. Their main water-supply is from a Karez, but
a little is obtained from the river. Further east again, at Herokh and Oskap,
there is a slight surface flow in the river and small patches of rice on its
hanks. Elsewhere from Turbat eastwards to the Kilkaur Tangi, on the borders
of Kolwa, water is only found in large pools in the riverbed, though there is
probably a flow through the shingle.