Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/28

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8
A HISTORY OF PERSIA.

Beloochistan, the Affghan and Belooch elements are prominent in the population. At Kerman a few Hindoos reside, and at Yezd there are about two thousand families of the original fire-worshippers of Iran. But the two principal races to be met with in Persia are the Turks and the Persians or Mongols. The former are, as a general rule, spread over the northern provinces ; the latter over the southern. The Persians of Mongol extraction for the most part speak only the Persian language, while those of Turkish race speak the Turkish language in preference to the Persian.

The inhabitants of Persia may be divided into two classes those who inhabit the towns and villages, and those who dwell exclusively in tents. The former class remain stationary during the greater part of the year, the richer orders only leaving the towns for two months during the summer heats, when it is possible to obtain cool air in the hills or upper grounds close by. The tribes who dwell in tents move from place to place with the varying seasons of the year. In the spring time they drive their flocks and herds to their accustomed pasture-grounds, and if they have a right to the pasture of mountains which are inaccessible in spring they move up to their summer quarters as soon as the snow disappears. Winter finds them on the plains prepared, in their black tents, to brave its utmost rigour. These Eelyat tribes serve each a separate chief. For the Eelyats of Fars there is a hereditary chief called the Eelkhani, to whom they all owe allegiance; from whom they receive the laws that rule their conduct; and to whom they pay the revenue imposed upon them. They contribute a certain number of soldiers to the