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THE BALOCHI LANGUAGE.

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ENGLISH-BALOCHÍ DICTIONARY, ETC., M.R.A.S.,
NÁGARÍ PRACHÁRINÍ SABHÁ, ETC.

ASSISTED BY

GHÁNO KHÁN, HADDIÁN.

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.

PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN & SONS, LTD.,

HERTFORD.

1923.

(All rights reserved.)

PK 6853

G47

DEDICATED

ΤΟ

MY OLD AND HUMOROUS PAL

THE BALOCH.

FOREWORD.

THE COUNTRY.

If we include the Agencies and Native States, Balochistán covers no less than 131,855 square miles. arrived at as follows:

1. Native States of Kalát and Lás Bela

2. Agency Territories

3. British Balochistán

These figures are

sq. miles.

78,034

44,345

9,476

The area of this vast province thus exceeds that of the whole of the British Isles. Add to this the fact that it is nearly all mountainous. At first sight the difficulty of governing it appears stupendous. But, fortuitously or otherwise, we have hitherto always managed to get the right men there. On the north it is bounded by Afghánistán and the North-West Frontier Province; on the south by the Arabian Sea; on the east by Sindh, the Panjáb, and in part by the North-West Frontier Province. On the west lies Persia.

There are a number of salt-water swamps near the coast, but of lakes proper there are none of any importance. The Hámún-iMáshkel and Hámún-i-Lora are lakes at certain seasons only, after heavy floods, that is to say. In Lás Bela we have the Siranda Lagoon.

The Hingol is the principal river in the country. Most of the others are mere streams, which often during a spate become raging torrents. The regular monsoon, the mainstay of India, is unknown in Balochistán. Speaking of the country as a whole, the average yearly rainfall is probably not more than 8 inches.

There are only six towns in this unwieldy territory, and somewhat less than three thousand villages. The reason for this is that the people as a rule are nomads, men and women who appear to have an inherited dislike of stationary town-life, and even of permanent village-life. Their choice of life is still to a large

extent that of the care-free wanderer.

Quetta was permanently occupied by us in 1877, in accordance with an agreement made with one Mir Khudádad Khán, the then

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