Siah Posh Kafirs

Siah-Posh Kafirs ("Black-clad Infidels"), the pagan inhabitants of Kafiristan on the southern slope of the Hindu-Kush, so called by their Mohammedan Afghan neighbours. There appears to be no collective national name, though Kamoji, that of the most important group, is sometimes applied to the whole people; nor are there any true tribal divisions, or at least such as do exist are of topographical origin. Such are the Vaigal, Rangal, and Bashgal, answering to the three chief river valleys, with total estimated population 600,000, under eighteen chiefs. Speech, a Galcha language intermediate between Iranian and Sanskrit, spoken in ten different varieties. Type, distinctly Caucasic, with regular features, blue and dark eyes, hair of all shades between light brown and black, broad open forehead, tall stature, shapely figures; but General Abbot distinguishes between this noble type, that of the aristocracy (who claim descent from the Macedonian conquerors), and a very dark type, that of the non-Aryan aborigines. (W. W. McNair, A Visit to Kafiristan, Proc. Royal Geographical Society, December, 1883.)