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                         POVINDAHS.
                           (264)

THESE wandering merchants carry on all the trade between Central Asia and India. They are Soonnee Mahomedans, and are a distinct tribe of Afghans, as much soldiers as merchants. Every year they descend from the passes into Afghanistan, with long droves of camels laden with wool and other produce, and take back salt, spices, sugar, Indian condiments, with British and Indian manufactures. Their routes are, however, of continued peril until the passes are traversed, and the long lines of camels stretch out across the plains of the Derajat and the Indus. The Povindahs, however, pay black mail or transit dues to the Wuzeerees, and other frontier tribes; and as long as conditions of agreement are observed, the merchants are safe. But these conditions are extremely uncertain: the tribes are but too often capricious. One portion of a tribe may have a feud with another, or avarice may prevail over solemn agreements. In such cases the Povindahs have nothing left but force, and they must fight their way through an opposing tribe, or section of a tribe, or submit to any exaction demanded. The person represented is fully armed with matchlock, sword, and shield. The Povindahs have, for the most part, no settled habitation. Their cities are their camps: tents of black felt in the winter or cool season in India; in summer, in Afghanistan. They have partnerships among themselves, but the encampments are always under the charge of a sheikh, or chief leader, to whose advice and direction all pay deference. The Povindahs are Soonnee Mahomedans, but do not intermarry with others out of their own sect or connexion. They have not the fire and dash of the Afghan soldiery, but are brave in defence of their own property, and capable of vast endurance in their long and rough marches. Povindahs seldom cross the Indus. Kohat, Dehras Ismael and Ghazee Khan, Gundapoor, and other great marts along the Indus, are where they take up their quarters, dispose of their goods, and are met by merchants from India. Their wealth lies chiefly in camels, of which they possess large and valuable herds. The security afforded to them by the establishment of order on the frontier is gratefully