Baluchi language belongs to the Iranian branch of the Aryan sub- | fruitful plain, including the chief town, Gandava. It was during family of the Indo-European family. It is divided into two mair. dialects which are so different that speakers of the one are almost unintelligible to speakers of the other. These two dialects are separated by the belt of Brahui and Sindhi speakers who occupy the Sarawan and Jalawan hills, and Las Bela. Owing probably to the fact that Makran was for many generations under the rule of the Persian kings, the Baluchi spoken on the west of the province, which is also called Makrani, is more largely impregnated with Persian words and expressions than the Eastern dialect. In the latter the words in use for common objects and acts are nearly all pure Baluchi, the remainder of the language being borrowed from Persian, Sindhi and Panjabi. There is no indigenous literature," but many specimens of poetry exist in which heroes and brave deeds are commemorated, and a good many of these have been collected from time to time. The philological classification of the Brahui dialect has been much disputed, but the latest enquiries, conducted by Dr G. A. Grierson, have resulted in his placing it among the Dravidian languages. It is remarkable to find in Baluchistan a Dravidian tongue, surrounded on all sides by Aryan languages, and with the next nearest branch of the same family located so far away as the Gond hills of central India. Brahui has no literature of its own, and such knowledge as we possess of it is due to European scholars, such as Bellew, Trumpp and Caldwell. Numerically the Brahuis are the strongest race in Baluchistan. They number nearly 300,000 souls. Next to them and numbering nearly 200,000 are Pathans. After this there is a drop to 80,000 mixed Baluchis and less than 40,000 Lasis (Lumris) of Las Bela. There are thirteen indigenous tribes of Pathan origin, of which the Kakars (q.v.) are by far the most important, numbering more than 100,000 souls. They are to be found in the largest numbers in Zhob, Quetta, Pishin and Thal-Chotiali, but there are a few of them in Kalat and Chagai also. The most important Baluch tribes are the Marris, the Bughtis, the Boledis, the Domkis, the Magassis and the Rinds. Owing partly to the tribal system, and partly to the levelling effect of Islam, nothing similar to the Brahmanical system of social precedent is to be found in Baluchistan.

History-Of the early history of this portion of the Asiatic continent little or nothing is known. The poverty and natural strength of the country, combined with the ferocious habits of the natives, seem to have equally repelled the friendly visits of inquisitive strangers and the hostile incursions of invading armies. The first distinct account which we have is from Arrian, who, with his usual brevity and severe veracity, narrates the march of Alexander through this region, which he calls the country of the Oreitae and Gadrosii. He gives a very accurate account of this forlorn tract, its general aridity and the necessity of obtaining water by digging in the beds of torrents; describes the food of the inhabitants as dates and fish; and adverts to the occasional occurrence of fertile spots, the abundance of aromatic and thorny shrubs and fragrant plants, and the violence of the monsoon in the western part of Makran. He notices also the impossibility of supporting a large army, and the consequent destruction of the greater part of the men and beasts which accompanied the expedition of Alexander. In the 8th century this country was traversed by an army of the Caliphate.

The precise period at which the Brahuis gained the mastery cannot be accurately ascertained; but it was probably about two and a half centuries ago. The last raja of the Hindu dynasty found himself compelled to call for the assistance of the mountain shepherds, with their leader, Kambar, in order to check the encroachments of a horde of depredators, headed by an Afghan chief, who infested the country and even threatened to attack the seat of government. Kambar successfully performed the service for which he had been engaged; but having in a few years quelled the robbers against whom he had been called in, and finding himself at the head of the only military tribe in the country, he formally deposed the raja and assumed the government.

The history of the country after the accession of Kambar is as obscure as during the Hindu dynasty. It would appear, however, that the sceptre was quietly transmitted to Abdulla Khan, the fourth in descent from Kambar, who, being an intrepid and ambitious soldier, turned his thoughts towards the conquest of Kach Gandava, then held by different petty chiefs under the authority of the nawabs of Sind

After various success, the Kambaranis at length possessed themselves of the sovereignty of a considerable portion of that See V. A. Smith, Early Hist of India (ed 1908), p 103 seq.

this contest that the famous Nadir Shah advanced from Persia to the invasion of Hindustan; and while at Kandahar he despatched several detachments into Baluchistan and established his authority in that province. Abdulla Khan, however, was continued in the government of the country by Nadir's orders; but he was soon after killed in a battle with the forces of the nawabs of Sind. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Haji Mahommed Khan, who abandoned himself to the most tyrannical and licentious way of life and alienated his subjects by oppressive taxation. In these circumstances Nasir Khan, the second son of Abdulla Khan, who had accompanied the victorious Nadir to Delhi, and acquired the favour and confidence of that monarch, returned to Kalat and was hailed by the whole population as their deliverer. Finding that expostulation had no effect upon his brother, he one day entered his apartment and stabbed him to the heart. As soon as the tyrant was dead, his subjects; and immediately transmitted a report of the Nasir Khan mounted the musnud amidst the universal joy of events which had taken place to Nadir Shah, who was then encamped near Kandahar. The shah received the intelligence with satisfaction, and despatched a firman, by return of the messenger, appointing Nasir Khan beglar begi (prince of princes) of all Baluchistan. This event took place in the year 1739. Nasir Khan proved an active, politic and warlike prince. He took great pains to re-establish the internal government of all the provinces in his dominions, and improved and fortified the city of Kalat. On the death of Nadir Shah in 1747, he acknowledged the title of the king of Kabul, Ahmad Shah (Durani). In 1758 he declared himself entirely independent; upon which Ahmad Shah despatched a force against him under one of his ministers. The khan, however, raised an army and totally routed the Afghan army. On receiving intelligence of this discomfiture, the king himself marched with strong reinforcements, and a pitched battle was fought in which Nasir Khan was worsted. He retired in good order to Kalat, whither he was followed by the victor, who invested the place with his whole army. The khan made a vigorous defence; and, after the royal troops had been foiled in their attempts to take the city by storm or surprise, a negotiation was proposed by the king which terminated in a treaty of peace. By this treaty it was stipulated that the king was to receive the cousin of Nasir Khan in marriage; and that the khan was to pay no tribute, but only, when called upon, to furnish troops to assist the armies, for which he was to receive an allowance in cash equal to half their pay. The khan frequently distinguished himself in the subsequent wars of Kabul; and, as a reward for his services, the king bestowed upon him several districts in perpetual and entire sovereignty. Having succeeded in quelling a dangerous rebellion headed by his cousin Behram Khan, this able prince at length died in extreme old age in the month of June 1795, leaving three sons and five daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Mahmud Khan, then a boy of about fourteen years. During the reign of this prince, who has been described as a very humane and indolent man, the country was distracted by sanguinary broils; the governors of several provinces and districts withdrew their allegiance; and the dominions of the khans of Kalat gradually so diminished that they now comprehend only a small portion of the provinces formerly subject to Nasir Khan.

In 1839, when the British army advanced through the Bolan Pass towards Afghanistan, the conduct of Mehrab Khan, the ruler of Baluchistan, was considered so treacherous and dangerous as to require "the exaction of retribution from that chieftain," and "the execution of such arrangements as would establish future security in that quarter." General Willshire was accordingly detached from the army of the Indus with 1050 men to assault Kalat. A gate was knocked in by the field-pieces, and the town and citadel were stormed in a few minutes. Above 400 Baluches were slain, among them Mehrab Khan himself, and 2000 prisoners were taken. Subsequent inquiries have, however, proved that the treachery towards the British was not

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of his loves and friendships and that of his actual work. The | Études philosophiques, &c. Much pains have been spent upon first has some small resemblance to Scott's similar experiences, this title and Balzac's intentions in selecting it. But the though in Balzac's case there was no great cr h but a lifelong "Human Comedy," as a description for mere studies of life as pressure; on the other hand, his debts were brought upon him his, will explain itself at once or else can never be explained. by a long course not so much of extravagance in actual expendi- Of its constituents, however, some account must be given, ture (though there was something of this) as of financial irregu- and this can be best done through an exact and complete list larities of almost every description,-anticipations of earnings, of the whole work by years, with such abbreviated notes on costly methods of production (he practically wrote his novels the chief constituents as may lead up to a general critical sumon a succession of printed revises), speculations, travel, and mary. Of the two capital works of 1829, we have spoken. lastly the collection of curiosities. As regards the second, 1830, the epoch year, saw part (it was not fully published till although his fashion of life made him by turns a hermit and a the next) of La Peau de chagrin, one of the crudest, but according vagrant, he was on good terms with most of the famous men of to some estimates, one of the greatest of the works, full of letters of his day from Hugo downwards, and seems never to have romantic extravagance and surplusage, but with an engrossing quarrelled with any man, except with some of his editors and pub- central idea-the Nemesis of accomplished desire-powerfully lishers, by his own fault. Balzac was indeed, in no belittling sense worked out; La Maison du chat qui pelote, a triumph of observaof the word, one of the most good-natured of men of genius. But tion and nature, together with a crowd of things less in bulk his friendships with the other sex are of much more importance, but sometimes of the first excellence-El Verdugo, Étude de and not in the least matters of mere gossip. His sister Laure, as femme, La Paix du ménage, Le Bal de sceaux, La Vendetta, Gobseck, has been said, and a school-friend of hers, Mme Zulma Carraud, Une Double Famille, Les Deux Rêves, Adieu, L'Élixir de longue vie, played important and not questionable parts as his correspondents. Sarrazine, Une Passion dans le désert and Un Épisode sous lo But at least three ladies, all of a rank higher than his own, figure Terreur. In 1831, La Peau de chagrin appeared complete, as his "Egerias" to such an extent that it is hardly extravagant accompanied by Le Réquisitionnaire, Les Proscrits, Le Chef-d'œuvre to say that Balzac would not have been Balzac without them. inconnu (a masterpiece fortunately not unrecognized), Jésus These are Madame de Berny, a lady connected with the court of Christ en Flandre and Mattre Cornélius. 1832 gave Madame the ancien régime, much older than himself and the mother of nine Firmiani, Le Message, Le Colonel Chabert and Le Curé de Tours children, to whom he was introduced in 1821, who became to him (two stories of contrasted but extraordinary excellence), La La dilecta, who was the original of Mme de Mortsauf in Le Lys Bourse, La Femme abandonnée, Louis Lambert (autobiographical dans la vallée, and who seems to have exercised an excellent and philosophic), La Grenadière and Les Marana (a great favourite influence on him in matters of taste till her death in 1836; the with the author). In 1833 appeared Ferragus, chef des dévorants. marquise de Castries, who took him up for a time and dropped the first part of L'Histoire des treize (a collection in the more him, and who has been supposed to have been his model for his extravagant romantic manner, very popular at the time, and less impeccable ladies of fashion; and lastly, the Polish-Russian since a favourite with some, but few, good judges), Le Médecin countess Evelina Hanska, who after addressing, as l'Étrangère, a de campagne (another pet of the author's, and a kind of intended letter to him as early as 1832, became his idol, rarely seen but document of his ability to support the cause of virtue, but, constantly corresponded with, for the last eighteen years, and his despite certain great things, especially a wonderful popular wife for the last few months of his life. Some of his letters to her "legend of Napoleon," a little heavy as a whole), the universally have long been known, but the bulk of them constituted the admitted masterpiece of Eugénie Grandet, and L'Illustre Gaudisgreatest recent addition to our knowledge of him as given in the sart (very amusing). 1833 also saw the beginning of a remarkable two volumes of Lettres à l'étrangère. Of hers we have practically and never finished work-out of his usual scope but exceedingly none and it is exceedingly hard to form any clear idea of her, powerful in parts-the Contes drolatiques, a series of tales of but his devotion is absolutely beyond question. Old France in Old (or at least Rabelaisian) French, which were to have been a hundred in number but never got beyond the third batch of ten. They often borrow the licence of their 15th and 16th century models; but in La Succube and others there is undoubted genius and not a little art. 1834 continued the Treize with La Duchesse de Langeais and added La Recherche de l'absolu (one of Balzac's great studies of monomania, and thought by some to be the greatest, though others prefer Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu), La Femme de trente ans (the chief example of the author's caprice for re-handling, and very differently judged as a whole), with yet another of the acknowledged triumphs, Le Père Goriot. On the whole, this year's work, though not the author's largest, is perhaps his most unique. Next year (1835) followed Melmoth réconcilié (a tribute to the great influence which Maturin exercised, not over Balzac only, at this time in France), Un Drame au bord de la mer, the brilliant, if questionable, conclusion of Les Treise, La Fille aux yeux d'or, Le Contrat de mariage and Séraphito. This last, a Swedenborgian rhapsody of great beauty in parts, has divided critics almost more than anything else of its writer's, some seeing in it (with excuse) nothing but the short description given above in three words, the others (with justice) reckoning it his greatest triumph of style and his nearest attempt to reach poetry through prose. 1836 furnished La Messe de l'athée, Interdiction, Facino Cane, Le Lys dans la vallée (already referred to and of a somewhat sickly sweetness), L'Enfant maudit, La Vieille Fille and Le Secret des Ruggieri (connected with the earlier Les deux Rêves under the general title, Sur Catherine de Médicis, and said to have been turned out by Balzac in a single night, which is hardly possible). In 1837 were published Les Deux Poèles, destined to form part of Illusions perdues, Les Employés, Gambara and another capital work, Histoire de la grandeur et de la décadence

Business, friendship and love, however, mucn more other things, were in Balzac's case always connected with and on the whole quite secondary to work. He would even sometimes resist the commands by which at long intervals Mme Hanska would summon him to see her, and abstract the greater part of his actual visits to her in order to serve this still more absorbing mistress. He had, as we have seen, worked pretty hard, even before 1829, and his work had partly taken forms not yet mentioned-political pamphlets and miscellaneous articles which are now accessible in the Edition définitive of his works, and hardly one of which is irrelevant to a just conception of him. Nor did he by any means abandon these by-works after 1829; indeed, he at one time started and almost entirely wrote, a periodical called the Revue parisienne. He wrote some dramas and planned many more, though the few which reached the stage left it again promptly. Balzac's dramas, as they appear in his works, consist of Vautrin, Les Ressources de Quinola, Pamela Giraud (arranged for the stage by others), La Marâtre and Mercadet le faiseur, the last of which has, since his death, been not unsuccessful. But on the whole he did devote himself to his true vocation, with a furious energy beside which even Scott's, except in his sadder and later days, becomes leisurely. Balzac generally wrote (dining early and lightly, and sleeping for some hours immediately after dinner) from midnight till any hour in the following day-stretches of sixteen hours being not unknown, and the process being often continued for days and weeks. Besides his habit of correcting a small printed original into a long novel on the proofs, he was always altering and re-shaping his work, even before, in 1842, he carried out the idea of building it all into one huge structure-the Comédie kamoine with its subdivisions of Scènes de la vie parisienne, I