Khasi people

“ There seems, nevertheless, to have been always a strong party of opposition in the desert, where the Bedouins clung to the traditions of their independence and chafed under the religious discipline imposed on them. Kasim and Jebel Shammar, both of them centres of Bedouin life, never accepted the Wahhabi tenets with any enthusiasm, and the people of Hasa, an industrious race standing in close commercial relations with Persia, accepted the rule of the Ibn Saouds only on compulsion. ”

“ The Chinese endeavoured to conciliate, and to [Pg 168] make the necessity for their presence felt by the people; the Athalik Ghazi was supremely indifferent to the prosperity of his subjects, so long as they were willing to pay him the tribute money, and to serve in his army. An exactly opposite result might have been expected, for there was far more kinship between the Khokandian adventurer and the Kashgari, than there was between the Khitay and the Andijani. ”

“ The long-feared and long-expected Khitay were drawing nigh to the capital, in irresistible strength; and the apprehensions of a cowed people made them know, too surely, that their end was at hand. The dissensions among the people themselves, the discord in the ruling house, and the dissentient elements in every effort towards unity, had all operated in favour of the invader. While the Chinese had plotted and prepared in the deliberate manner of a great nation, the people of Kashgar had entered into cabals and schemes of party tactics that were well nigh ludicrous. ”

“ In these eastern parts of the dominions of Nepal, the mountain Hindus are far from having extirpated the aboriginal tribes, most of which, until the accession of the Gorkha family, enjoyed their customs and religion with little or no disturbance, and they are still numerous and powerful, as will be afterwards mentioned; but, west from the Kali river, there is a great difference. The whole people in Kumau, and Garhawal at least, as well as their language, are called Khasiyas, as having settled in the Khas country ”

“ A trace, however, of such an extension appears in a belief entertained by the Khasis of Assam, that if a man defies tribal custom by marrying a woman of his own clan, the women of the tribe will die in childbed and the people will suffer from other calamities. ”

“ I have mentioned the prerogative of the Shah to raise whomsoever he chooses from the lowest to the highest position, except under restrictions in the military tribes. This quite falls in with the democratic spirit which lies dormant among the people, ready to be displayed in willingness to accept a Sovereign of signal power who springs from the lower ranks of life. The social equality which Islam grants to all men was nothing new to Persia in forming ideas regarding a popular leader and elected King. ”

“ The other crops are inconsiderable. The other part of the country, south and east from the capital, is called Khasant. One half of its inhabitants are Brahmans, mostly of the bastard (Jausis) race, who plough and carry burthens; one-fourth consists of Khasiyas, who call themselves Khatris; and one-fourth consists of other Hindus of a lower birth, but called also Khasiyas. Very few of even these spurious Hindus have settled among the Gurungs, and very few of the latter have remained in the Khasant. ”

“ I have now much lightened the labours of inspecting the attendants and administering many outward labours by having brought an excellent khawass from Cairo. These khawasses, who form a peculiar corps of officers of the Pasha, are in this country a very exclusive and important class of people. Only Turks are admitted into it, and these, by their nationality, have an inborn preponderance over every Arab. There are few nations that possess so much talent for governing as the Turks, whom we often picture to ourselves as half-barbarians, rough and uncultivated in the highest degree. ”

“ About one-fourth of the people in this country are Brahmans, Rajputs, and Khasiyas, who follow the doctrines of the p. 287present Hindu law. The Bhotiyas are on the whole the most numerous tribe, and with Gurungs, Rohanis, Khatis, and Rahals, all impure mountain tribes, make up the remaining three-fourths, who chiefly adhere to the Lamas. The language spoken at Court was the Khas, but differed very much from that of Palpa or Gorkha; even the titles of the chief officers of government were totally different, although the same forms of administration were established. ”

“ The other races are ill disposed towards them, and attribute all the vices they can think of to their doors. But these Khitay managed to efface themselves in the country, and although they formed a very important minority among the males, they never appear to have been regarded in the light of a possible danger when their brethren from China should draw near. In addition to the native Kashgari, and these two important elements just mentioned, there are numerous immigrants from the border states, particularly from Khokand, to the people of whom Yakoob Beg naturally manifested especial favour. ”

“ The educational establishments devoted themselves to the three main objects recognised by the Moslem world, Theology, Civil Law and Belles Lettres; and a multitude of trained Councillors enabled the ruling powers to establish and enlarge that complicated machinery of government, at once concentrated and decentralized, a despotism often fatal to the wealthy great but never neglecting the interests of the humbler lieges, which forms the beau ideal of Oriental administration. Under the Chancellors of the Empire the Kazis administered law and order, justice and equity ”

“ Cattle and game abound in the country, and the river Kur and the Caspian Sea supply fish of fresh water and of the ocean. The vineyards of Khakheti yield the best wine of Asia, and at a price so moderate as to bring it within the reach of the poorest people. Such a country might well excite the cupidity of its powerful neighbours, and accordingly we find it passing under the protection of one of these after another. Shah Ismail of Persia compelled the Czar of Georgia to pay him tribute and to send him hostages. ”

“ I was in Qum at the time when he gave recognition to this government of infidels - and Jewish infidels at that - thereby affronting Islam, the Qur'an, the Muslim governments and the entire Muslim people. The name of Israel was not openly mentioned at first, but later it was.
Indeed, this person was a slave from the very beginning as he himself later made clear. This man (the Shah) who openly raises the question of human rights is in fact quite right to ask what it is all about. What does human rights mean? It means the logic of bandits! It is nothing to do with human rights. ”

“ They are a well-built, brave but quiet people who carry on a trade with British districts, and have never given the government much trouble. There is little doubt that the Kohistanis are, like the Kafirs of Kafiristan, the remnants of old races driven by Mahommedan invasions from the valleys and plains into the higher mountains. The majority have been converted to Islam within the last 200 years. The total population is about 16,000. ”

“ A Yashkun man cannot marry a Shîn woman. Ahmad Shah, the Jalkoti belonged to this caste.
The people of Northern Kandiá (Gabriál) are called Bunzárî, and of the southern part (i.e., Patan) Maní, as the Chilasis are called Boté. A foreigner is called Raráwi, and fellow-countryman, Muqámi.
Religion.—The Gabriális, as well as all the people of Chilás, Patan, and Palas, are Sunnis, and are very intolerant to the Shias, who are kidnapped and kept in slavery (Ghulam Mohammad, the Gilgiti, has been [9] for many years a slave in Chilás, as Ahmad Shah reports) . ”

“ He is said to have been especially hated and dreaded by the Sufis, whose Practise he ridiculed, and whose Faith amounts to little more than his own, when stript of the Mysticism and formal recognition of Islamism under which Omar would not hide. Their Poets, including Hafiz, who are (with the exception of Firdausi) the most considerable in Persia, borrowed largely, indeed, of Omar's material, but turning it to a mystical Use more convenient to Themselves and the People they addressed; a People quite as quick of Doubt as of Belief; as keen of Bodily sense as of Intellectual ”

“ The extortion practised upon these kindly-dispositioned people has frequently driven them into revolt. In 1879 they joined the Chinese marauders in their attack upon the Laos; and also in 1887, when they sacked and destroyed Luang Prabang, the chief town and capital of the Shan State of that name.
The Khas, like all the hill tribes in Indo-China, offer sacrifices to evil spirits, who, according to them, are the cause of all the ills that man is heir to. In a single case of sickness as many as ten or twelve buffaloes, or other animals, are at times offered up. ”

“ Kafiristan alone, which lies in the Hindu Kush range for the most part at an altitude of 12,000 feet or more, harbors in its recesses many remnants of primitive peoples, speaking various languages and dialects, strangers alike to any native affinity or political union. It is a mere agglomeration of ethnic fragments, in which the people of one village are often unable to converse with those of the next.1397 Relief has fashioned the ethnology of the Caucasus in the same way. ”

“ The people have often before acted as they have now; they confined my brother Mahmood in the Balla Hissar; the conspirators then were Mooktear-oo-dowlah and Ahmed Khan, Noorzye, &c. They pretended it was a quarrel between the Sheeahs and Soonees; but it proved a great matter, and they saw that without me they could not settle matters. I was then among the Kakurs. The Khans sent for me, and all obeyed me.
In the present instance people said, “There are crores of rupees in the Chaonee; let us strengthen Islam.” Such are the people. Three or four dogs are gone (dead) ; as many remain. ”

“ The Kazaks are an honest and trustworthy people, but heavy, sluggish, sullen and unfriendly. Even the hospitality enjoined by the Koran is displayed only towards the orthodox Sunnite sect. So essentially nomadic are all the tribes that they cannot adopt a settled life without losing the very sentiment of their nationality, and becoming rapidly absorbed in the Slav population. ”

“ The Khasias, luckily, are very strong men, but they think it necessary always to begin by informing you that you are much too heavy to be lifted by any single individual, unless that said individual be compensated at the end of the journey with double pay. ”

“ Yet the Khassia looks down on these new forms of civilization unmoved. As a servant or a trader he must have been for centuries familiar with both: but he clings to his old faith, and erects his rude-stone monuments, as his forefathers had done from time immemorial, and it is doubtful whether either our soldiers or our missionaries will soon wean him from this strange form of adoration. ”

“ Khazneh, with arms folded and chin upon his breast, remained in an attitude of deep meditation.
Suddenly he asked in a low, hoarse tone, first glancing round to assure himself that he was not overheard,—
“And in such case, what sayest thou should be my reward?”
“Thou wilt gain wealth and power,” the Khalifa answered. “Think, what art thou now? A mere harem slave of thy Sultan. If thou renderest me the assistance I have suggested, thou canst rise to be first in the land.” ”

“ So soon as the snow melts on the mountains, and the new year puts on its green, we shall sweep over the hostile aouls, taking by force what is denied to forbearance. We are the terror of the unbelieving, but the strength and refuge of the faithful; and he who follows us shall have peace and eternal life. Amen."
But in Himri was destined to terminate the brief career of glory run by Khasi-Mollah. With the first singing of birds he did indeed go forth, carrying devastation beyond the Russian lines, even from Kisliar to Wladikaukas, from the Caspian to the central Caucasus ”

“ The son of the Kazi having brought letters from Abyssinia, was shortly introduced by Hajji Kásim, own cousin to Izhák, and by far the most reasonable of the Tajúra party. Being in the course of conversation quietly interrogated touching the cause of the Ras el Káfilah’s continued irritation, he turned at once to his companion, and solemnly adjured him by the beard of the Prophet to answer conscientiously the following questions. “A head is ahead, is it not, all the world over?” ”

“ Spirits are drunk on these occasions; but the hill Khasia is not addicted to drunkenness, though some of the natives of the low valleys are very much so. These ascend the rocky faces of the mountains by ladders, to the Churra markets, and return loaded at night, apparently all but too drunk to stand; yet they never miss their footing in places which are most dangerous to persons unaccustomed to such situations.
The Khasias are superstitious, but have no religion; like the Lepchas, they believe in a supreme being, and in deities of the grove, cave, and stream. ”

“ Must I be in fear of Cais and the whole tribe of the Absians? By the faith of an Arab, I will let all men of honor know that if Cais refuse to send the camels I will not leave one of his tents standing." The sheik was indignant, and to increase the fear he would cast into the heart of Hadifah he spoke to him in verses, to the following effect: "Insult is cowardliness, for it takes by surprise him who is not expecting it, as the night enwraps those who wander in the desert. When the sword shall once be drawn look out for blows. Be just and do not clothe thyself with dishonor. ”