W. Ainsworth, Esq.

“ The men are a strong and healthy race, though more fitted for fatigue than activity. Rotundity is the mark of greatness, and considered as a beauty; prescriptions for increasing bulk are in much esteem. Many of the Belooch chiefs and officers of their court are too large for the dimensions of any European chair. Under a government where extortion, ignorance, and tyranny are, perhaps, unequalled in the world, they are avaricious, full of deceit, cruel, ungrateful, proud, impatient, knavish, mean, fanatical, and superstitious. ”

“ The brilliant collection of jewels and armour in the possession of the Ameers of Sinde is calculated to excite the surprise of a stranger. They adorn their daggers, swords, and matchlocks with rubies, diamonds, pearls, and emeralds, many of which they wear as rings and clasps in different parts of their dress. Colonel Pottinger mentions an emerald larger than a pigeon's egg, and Dr. Burnes alludes to one which was cut in the shape of a parroquet as large as life. Their sword-blades are extremely valuable, and worth sometimes, even when plain and unornamented, half a lac of rupees. ”

“ The advantage which Sinde has, and which enables her to struggle against the curses of misrule and ignorance, is her independence of periodical rains. The government has no more sympathy with the farmer than the ryot, and is not deaf to appeals against him. The Mussulmen are all soldiers, and rarely lease-holders, and the revenues are thus, for the most part, in the hands of Hindoos who are out of favour at court; and the farmers are not, as is the case in Cutch, civil magistrates. ”

“ Religious toleration is not a virtue of the Sinde government. The Hindoos suffer many indignities. and are forced to wear the Mahommedan dress and to wear beards; few are allowed the privilege of riding horses or of having saddles; and circumcision is performed upon them on the slightest pretences. The Seyuds, or descendants of the prophet, are looked upon with the most unbounded and superstitious respect. Faqueers, or religious mendicants, infest the public highways at Hyderabad, demanding aims in tones of overbearing insolence. ”

“ Like their countrymen in general, they wear long beards and mustachios, and are armed with swords, daggers, matchlocks, and shields. With the exception of a small corps of Beloches, who are kept to garrison the fortress of Hyderabad, the armed retainers of the Ameers are few in number and contemptible in appearance. The government, it is said, could assemble about forty thousand men in the course of a few days, by some means resembling the red cross of our own forefathers, they being at other times employed in agriculture and other peaceful occupations. ”

“ Their internal policy is directed towards the accumulation of wealth, on which they consider the grandeur and stability of their dynasty to depend. The enormous imposts and taxation resulting from this system have the effect of paralysing trade, and trampling down industry. ”

“ Science and literature were neglected; arts and agriculture remained consequently stationary; while, for ages, fanaticism and superstition, prejudice and despotism, have united in overwhelming the industry and latent enterprise of the inhabitants. ”

“ Their active diversions are shooting and clapping with their swords. They are good marksmen with their matchlocks, and inimitably dexterous with their bows and a blunt heavy arrow which they use for game, and dart in a transverse instead of a straight direction, so that the body, and not the point of the arrow, strikes the object. With these arrows they kill partridges flying to the right and left, as expeditiously as any European sportsman with a double-barrelled gun. ”

“ The revenues are farmed to the highest bidders, who only enjoy their contracts by the grace of their masters, and exert, in consequence, to the utmost, during their often brief administration, their powers of exaction and oppression. ”

“ The villages of Sinde are inferior even to those of Cutch. They are, for the most part, collections of low huts composed entirely of clay and thatch; while even the mosques with which they abound are generally of the same frail materials, and only distinguishable by their greater elevation, and a feeble attempt at ornament. Many of the inhabitants live in grass hovels in the field which they cultivate. Most of the villages have no name except that of their actual owner ”

“ The military classes of the subjects of the Ameers may be considered as a body of marauders ready to take arms for any came which will afford them support, or which offers a prospect of plunder. In the field, though brave and hardy, the Sindian soldier has no discipline, and their vanity and boasting are excessive. ”

“ Burnes by Kurim Ali bore the Mahommedan date, 1122 (A.D. 1708) , and was valued in Sinde at two thousand rupees. The armoury of their highnesses is graced with swords which have been worn by almost every prince renowned in Asiatic story. Their swords do not appear heavier than common English sabres, but are differently balanced; and the above-mentioned gentleman saw one of the young princes with a single stroke cut a large sheep in two.
In their religious creed the Sindians, like the Beloches, are generally Soonees. The family of the Ameers is very religious. ”

“ The population, at the time Colonel Pottinger visited it, amounted to near 20,000 souls,—and Mr. Burnes gives double that amount; but its sheds consist chiefly of ruinous and uninhabited houses, the walls being built hollow by means of a frame of wood, plastered over with mud or mortar; and this, it is probable, Mr. Burnes mistook for stone, which he mentions as used in the construction of Tattah. All the houses have badgeers, or ventilators, like chimneys.
The Sindians are mostly tall, with good features, and well-formed limbs. Their complexions are dark? ”

“ They are not regardless either, nor deficient in fidelity and hospitality, which latter is probably imposed upon them by their religion. And their mental energies and natural faculties also appear good. ”

“ The imports from India are iron, tin, steel, lead, copper, ivory, tea, sugar, spices of all descriptions, chintz, broad-cloth, glass, china ware, cocoa nuts, indigo, areca nuts, muslin, gold cloth, shields, &c. ”