considered as representing the imaginary Lung "Dragon," "the god of rain," who is fabled at times to ascend and descend in the clouds. The four sides of the vessel are said to represent, or to be in honour of, the felicitous bird Hwang, which appears only at periods of great national prosperity. Other parts of the relief, which are described in the same fanciful manner, were, in those days, considered admonitory of the necessity of decorum and propriety when sacrificing, by not abusing the creatures.

END OF PART II.

ART. XX.-An Account of the Country of Sindh; with Remarks on the State of Society, the Government, Manners, and Customs of the People, by the late Captain JAMES M'MURDO, of the Bombay Military Establishment. — Communicated by JAMES BIRD, Esq. M.R.A.S., F.R.G.S.

Read 5th of July, 1834.

THE author of the Tohfat-al-Giráni states, that "the country of Sindh takes its name from SIND, the brother of HIND, the son of NOAH. It is reckoned the forty-third of the sixty-one countries of the universe. The line of the second climate passes, from the north, directly through its centre; and although Sindh is situated in the five first climates, it nevertheless chiefly appertains to the second, and, consequently, lies in the region of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina." It would be difficult to discover where the author quoted has found these grandsons of the patriarch; indeed, as is usual in such genealogies, they are probably altogether imaginary. The Hindú writings may, perhaps, afford some more satisfactory explanation of the name; but I have not been so fortunate as to meet with it. As far as I can learn from such sources, this country was called Sindhudès, or "the country of the ocean," alluding doubtless to the river Indus, which receives that dignified appellation in their sacred writings. The same authorities also state Sindh to have been governed by a Xhuthi, named JAYADRAT'HA, who was slain in the civil wars of the Pandús; and it has, in consequence, sometimes received the name of Jayadrat'hadès, after that chieftain.

I think it highly probable that Sindh, generally speaking, takes its name from the river, an opinion which I formed from finding the same appellation used in ancient times; for such I take the Sindomana of the Greeks, which was the capital of a province, to be; and further investigation has confirmed me in the belief, that Sindh was the name originally of a small tract of a country lying upon the river, but whose precise boundaries are now lost, in the changes, both local and otherwise, to which this country has been subject in a remarkable degree; and I conceive that in this division, wherever it may have been, is to be found the site of the ancient Sindomana.

The limits of this country, as they may have existed at various periods of its history, and under different governments, cannot now be exactly defined; nor is it even possible to determine, with correctness,

the precise boundaries of the present province of Sindh proper. The fairest mode of ascertaining its extent would, perhaps, be to confine the term Sindh to the tract watered by the Indus, corresponding nearly with the territories at present held by the Tálpúras, the acknowledged rulers of the province; and the same method is, upon the whole, the safest for defining the limits of the country, at the earliest period. According to this plan, the province of Sindh will lie between the twenty-third and twenty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and sixty-seventh and seventieth degrees of east longitude: while, in general terms, it may be said to be bounded on the north by the territories of Kábul; by the Dávudpútras, to the west and east of the Indus; and on the south by the district of Cutch and the ocean. The great sandy desert, and the territories which it embraces, separate Sindh from India, whilst a vast chain of rocky mountains forms a distinct and natural boundary along the whole western frontier.

If credit is to be given to the Greek historians, the country, included in the limits which I have just fixed for those of Sindh, was divided into several considerable sovereignties, possessed of powerful resources both in men and riches. Judging, however, from the extent of space allotted to them, I am inclined to believe that their importance has been much exaggerated, in order to enhance the exploits of an ambitious individual. Whatever changes may have occurred to them, either politically or statistically, in the course of a series of centuries, they cannot have been such, as in any respect to justify the accounts of so many sovereigns and nations being subdued by the army and policy of ALEXANDER, in the space between Múltán and the sea. Difference of name, habits, or language, may perhaps have given rise to this hyperbolical classification of the divisions of Sindh; for although we should never think of calling a portion of country, not equal in size to a province, by the name of a nation, yet if people were found living under distinct governments, and differing from each other in manners, customs, and language, the appellation would, in such case, become at least less ridiculous. No traces of such a variety however can be discovered, either in written documents or traditionary accounts; although, with the progress of society, it may fairly be supposed that certain changes must have been produced.

Passing over those obscure and unsatisfactory conjectures, let us proceed to consider the divisions of Sindh, as understood among the people themselves. The province has had, from time immemorial, two grand divisions, the northern and southern. The former, extending from the neighbourhood of Bhakar to the parallel of the modern Hálakandi, below Sehwán, is styled Sirra; and the latter, including

the space to the ocean, is named Lár. Of the etymology or origin of these names, I can find no trace; but that they are extremely ancient is probable, because the geographers, in the commencement of the Roman empire, I believe, applied the name of Laryía to the country lying near the mouth of the Indus; and in the same name we discover the origin of Lári Bandar, or the port of Lár, in whatever part of the delta that place may have at different times been situated.+

Each of these two divisions appears to have had its respective capital; viz. Álór in Sirra, and Bráhmanábád in Lár; at least we find no mention made of other cities on the same scale as those, in the earlier times of the Muhammedans. They were undoubtedly considered as the first and second cities in the empire of the Raias. Sirra and Lár were, in all probability, divided into a number of inferior districts, which, it is likely, were, in some instances, known under their present names, and, in others, by appellations now either totally lost, or so corrupted as not to be distinguished. Súndra, Sehwán, Tehri, Lóhri, Gora, or Carnalla, are, at all events, names of districts coeval with the Muhammedan conquest, and probably of a much earlier date; but the titles of a moiety of the present divisions are evidently modern, and have their origin in local or temporary circumstances. The districts into which Sindh is now divided, are generally said to be forty-four in number; and, perhaps, in the public records and accounts of the province, they are restricted to that number. The division is, nevertheless, subject to variation; for some modes of dividing the country increase the parganahs to above fifty.

The following is the most popular mode of dividing this country: In the delta lie - Cháchgám, Jhátti, Kakrálla, Sákra, Thatta Dhárája, Súndrá, Pallejar, Chakerhálla, Imámwah, or Tranda of MUHAMMED KHÁN TALPÚRA.

East of the river-Sirra, Jám Tumáchi, Battóra (menpúr), Rúpa, Odihjáhi, Samawatti, Tránda, Mir Elláh Yárkhán, Mattaloi, Sheh

* Mr. POTTINGER, in his definition of the name Lárkhána, says it is derived from a word signifying saliva. This meaning, if authentic, would apply better to the delta of the Indus; for its ooziness is greater than that of any other part of Sindh. Ládkána is spelt with a d, which makes it a different word from Lár, which, in Sindhi, signifies low.

+ Dr. VINCENT gives a Láribandar, and a Bandar-Lári, the one on the east, and the other on the west branch of the river. I have not been able to discover any foundation for such a distinction, nor, indeed, is the term Láribandar at all familiar to the natives. The name, however, might, with equal propriety, have been applied to any port in the delta.

dádpúr, Hálakandi, Dim, Kandiára, Ráni Gumbat, Lakáwat, Hállam, Behlani, Lóhri, Móraguchira, Khairpur, Máttila (Mírpúr).

West of the river-Kóteri, Khóntó, Sum, Sehwán, Tehri, Bobuk, Samtani, Khódábád, Kullah, Kácha, Bághbán, Tigger, Chandka, Gohrah or Cárnálla, Doába or Haiderábád, and Karáchí, with its country to the westward of Thatta, called Chápper, which is a modern addition to the Sindh territory.

Various, however, are the divisions in the parganahs, and to enumerate these would only be to confuse. Jow and Baddin, two large districts, are included in that of Cháchgám, as is the very ancient Mandra. Násirpúr was at one time a large sirkár, and rose upon the ruins of Mattáloi. It has, however, in its turn again become dependant on its more fertile or favoured neighbours. Under the head of T'hatta are included several parganahs, but in particular that of Druk, supposed to be very ancient; also that of Gúngra, both of which are now separated from T'hatta by the river. The Dirák is another ancient district now not much known by that name.

The author of the Tohfat-al-Giráni states Sindh to be blessed with a fine climate. The mornings and evenings, he remarks, arè truly delightful; the northern division warm, and the lower cool. The fact, however, I believe to be, that this province is, generally speaking, unhealthy; particularly in the neighbourhood of those parts subject to the annual inundation. "When it is considered," says `a gentleman, who resided several years in Lár, "what an immense tract of land is laid under water, and afterwards exposed, with its vegetation, to the putrifying effects of a burning sun, it can hardly be supposed that this climate, farther corrupted by the stagnations which every where take place, can be very congenial to the human constitution; on the contrary, a numerous train of diseases are here prevalent, among which, as may be expected, intermittent fevers, asthma, and rheumatism take the lead." The northern division of the country, however, does not bear so bad a character in point of climate, although the hot winds blow, in some parts, with uncommon severity; and throughout the summer months, the heat surpasses, by all accounts, that of any part of India. So great is the estimated difference between the climate of Lár and Sirra, that all public servants receive superior salaries when on duty in the former division, where they seldom remain for any length of time (if not natives) without suffering in their health.

The whole of the delta, as far west as T'hatta, is exposed, in some degree, to the effects of the south-west monsoon, which, consequently, brings the temperature of this portion nearly to that of the west coast