BALUCHISTAN

49

An exception to the general rule of arid desolation
is found in the long valleys of the interior—the valleys
of Kej, of Bolida, of Panjgtr and others of minor
importance, where the wealth of cultivated crops overshadowed
 by a thick growth of feathery date-palms affords
a scene of luxuriant beauty which is all the more impressive
 from the rugged nature of its setting of desolate
hills. The dates of Panjgir are celebrated, and, with
wool, which is also of an exceptionally fine quality, and
dried fish, form the chief exports of Makran. Date groves
of an inferior sort are also to be found in the salt swamps
adjoining the Mashkhel Hamun ; but inferior as is the
quality of the fruit grown there, its bare existence is quite
sufficient to render these groves the object of constant
raids, They have been the scene of much bloody border
strife which continued almost without intermission until
the question of boundary rights was settled by the Perso-Baluch
 Boundary Commission of 1895-96.
This very cursory description of the nature of the
Baluch and Makran mountain wilderness, that country of
which the inhabitants are wont to say that ¢ when God
made the world He left the rubbish in Baluchistan,” but
which yet possesses many points of great physical beauty,
would be incomplete without some account of the ancient
highways of Southern Asia which pass through it Indiawards,
 and which have assisted to shape the ethnographical,
if not the material, development of the peninsula. For
the sake of preserving continuity when associated with
the routes of Afghanistan we will commence with the
Southern Coast.
During many centuries of medieval history eastern
trade by land and sea with India was in Arab hands. For
Centuries previous to the Christian era it is probable that
Arabs traded down the coasts of the Red Sea and Persian
Gulf, and found their way to the Indus by hugging the
Coast-line of the Arabian Sea. Thence creeping round
the Indian Continent they reached Ceylon and the East
Indian islands. But in order to avoid the full force
of the monsoon at certain seasons, they established an