“_Vizier._”—From the Arabic word, “Wuzir,” literally, a bearer of a
burden. A Grand Vizier is the highest temporal dignitary in Mahomedan
States. The title of “Wuzir” dates from the 8th Century and was
conferred on the Chief Minister of the first Abbaside Califs, a dynasty
which reigned at Baghdad from about A.D. 740 to 1,250, and they derived
their name and descent from a paternal uncle of Mahomed.
“_Shepherd._”—The Hindustani word, and that in frequent use, is
“Gadryā,” from “Gādar,” a sheep, but in the original the local word is
“Ajuree,” Ajur being the term for flocks and herds, and “Ajuree” the
caretaker.
The shepherds of this and many other districts are a simple-hearted set
of men, owing not a little to the rustic kind of life they lead. In
this district they possess some few sheep and goats of their own, but
more frequently they graze the flocks of the neighbouring farmers. The
dogs they have, usually two or three to each shepherd, are bred and
trained in the district.
They are fierce and savage to strangers, but docile and obedient to
their own masters, clever in protecting the flocks from wild animals,
and in controlling their movements from place to place. They do not
come at the call of a whistle, but at the shrill cry of “Toh! Toh!”
several times repeated. The names they give them are generally after
the colour of their hair. A black dog would be called “Kaldo” or
“Kulwa.” A spotted dog would be “Dubboo.” A yellowish grey dog would be
called “Gaindar,” and a reddish coated dog “Loha.” For dogs of a dark
grey the term would be “Sauah,” and a white dog “Bugla,” after a crane
of that colour. It is not an uncommon thing for a dog to be called
“Motee,” a pearl. Some fine dogs, and standing over three feet in
height, shaggy in coat, bushy tail, small ears and eyes, not fleet but
powerful, are bred in the hills in the Kangra district. They are called
“Gudhi” dogs, after a Hindu shepherd tribe.
These dogs will not live long in the plains. There is another fine hill
dog bred in the country round about Chitral, as large as a good-sized
Newfoundland, with a head like a mastiff, and long hair.
These Gudhi shepherds in the extreme winter come down to the lower
ranges of hills, together with all their sheep and goats. The farmers
are glad to let them pen their flocks on their fallow land for a few
nights, the shepherd and his dogs being fed by the farmer, who receives
more than his equivalent in the manure afforded by the flocks.
The shepherds for the most part carry a staff, with or without a crook,
and by way of a solace they have a wind instrument, of music called an
“Alghūza.” It is something in the shape of a piccolo, and usually to
obtain the double notes they put two in the mouth at the same time.
They also have sometimes a fife, called a “Bānsli” These are all made
out of a hard wood, and sometimes from bamboo.
If you ask a shepherd why he grazes goats and sheep together, he
replies that but for the nimble goats he would never get the sheep
along. When a murrain breaks out amongst the goats, which it sometimes
does, there is a class of men called “Unga” who inoculate the healthy
goats behind the ear with a portion of the caul of the liver of one
diseased, and this has the effect generally of stopping the spread of
the disease.
To protect the flocks and herds at nights from the depredation of wild
animals, the shepherds in the summer time raise a high ring fence of
thorny bushes; in the winter they are housed at nights in the closed
sheds.
The Indian Shepherds have a custom which is purely Asiatic, of
preceding their flocks to pasture, as in the words of the Psalmist “He
shall lead me beside the waters of comfort.” Most of the Nomad races in
India are shepherds, and in Asia generally they were so. Moses herded
the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, and David tended his father’s
sheep.
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