)8

INDIA

finer physique. The Hazara talks Persian, and, like the
Persian-speaking communities throughout Afghanistan, he
holds a social position below that of the Pathan, who is
his master whenever they meet. The Hazara is, however,
built of excellent material. In the field of manual labour he
is unrivalled amongst Eastern workmen—patient, hardworking,
 and cheerful, and easily amenable to discipline.
The Amir has formed a most efficient corps of sappers
and miners from this recruiting ground, and there is no
doubt that Hazaras would make most excellent soldiers
in any capacity.
It is not to be supposed that this very superficial sketch
of the ethnography of Afghanistan embodies more than an
outline of that strange conglomeration of mixed nationalities
 that is included within the boundary recently
demarcated. There are remnants of Chaldean, Turk,
and Mongolian races innumerable engrafted in the Aryan
stock, of which the ancient Aria, or Herat, is represented
to be the original home ; and in the wilderness of inaccessible
 mountains which we call Kafiristan there is solid
proof of existing remnants of Pelasgic origin. Within
these hills are probably gathered together representatives
of whole colonies of ancient peoples who, unable to hold
their own against the restless and ever-moving waves of
Central Asian immigration and the ferocious progress of
[slam, have retired farther and farther into the inaccessible
 mountains, their progressive movements having been
spread over ages, until at last they are hidden in the
remotest valleys that lie under the shadow of the highest
peaks of the Hindu Kush—as strange an agglomeration of
tribal survivals as can be found in the whole world.
Speaking a great variety of dialects (if not actually diverse
languages), acknowledging no common affinity or confederation,
 the people of one valley being frequently unable
 to converse with those of the next, they are all
lumped together by the orthodox Muhammadan under
the term Kafir, or infidel. Amongst them no doubt are
survivals of the Greek dominion in this part of Asia which
was the result of Alexander's conquest of the Persian