BALUCHISTAN

33

of India was thus defined by a well-marked line of topographical
 features, which, if imperfect as a military barrier,
possessed at least the merit of great simplicity and easy
recognition.
Just so far as the shelving slopes of the clay and
conglomerate foot hills that buttressed the central limestone
 ridges of the Sulimani and Kirthar mountains were
productive and available for the sowing of crops when
stones and superincumbent débris was cleared therefrom,
 so far did the old landowners of Sind and the
Punjab claim full advantage of the soil, caring nothing
for the rugged intricacies of the hills in front of them, nor
troubling themselves about the development of a few
square yards of cultivation here and there along the
narrow edges of the torrent-swept water-courses which
drained their cramped valleys.
Every now and then there would be a descent of the
Baluch clansmen into Sind, or of the Pathans of the
Sulimani hills into the nearest plains; and a general lifting
of cattle and goods ensued which called for reprisal and
vengeance. The plains of India have ever furnished the
hills of the frontier with a vicarious subsistence of this
nature, but the ruggedness and intricacy of that borderland
 was far too effective, and the savage energy of the
Rind descendants of early Arab occupation, or of the
Pathan clans of the Suliménis, was too well appreciated
for any great show of reprisal, or for the conduct of a
hill warfare such as might lead to permanent conquest.
The Arab and Dravidian tribes of the Baluch frontier
(Rinds and Brahuis) were never conquered and reduced
to dependence any more than were the Pathans of the
north, before our time. Through their fastnesses genera
tions of immigrants, invaders, and a few conquerors have
passed from the highlands of Persia and Afghanistan to the
plains of the Indus Valley, and in more recent years the
process has been reversed by a reflex wave of migration ;
but the independence of these mountaineers has never been
seriously compromised, not even by the assertion of a
right of way through their hills, and the balance of

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