Popular Poetry of the Baloches. By M. Longworth• Dames. 2
vole. (Royal Asiatic Society. 15s.)—It is not every one that could give offhand a summary of Baluchistan history during the last half-century, though there is a general knowledge of the fact that it is occupied by a turbulent race which has been happily pacificated by our rule. One advantage of their sub- mission i9 to be seen in these two volumes. Mr. Longworth Dames, a retired Indian Civil servant, has devoted much time to collecting, translating, and generally investigating their national poetry. It is not exactly that they wanted the vales seem He was there in force. Bnt he wanted an interpreter, and this want has been supplied by the industry and ability of Mr. Longworth Dames. Forty years ago research into Baluchi literature would have been accompanied with very formidable dangers and difficulties. The oldest literature here given does not go back beyond the sixteenth century ; it is still alive and flourishing. • Poem %XXVI., for instance, is an elegy on Iamat Khan,- a _chief of the Leghari tribe, who died as recently as 1881. It won the prize offered, a camel ; and Mr. Longworth Dames took it down from the dictation of the author. Vol. I. contains the intro- duction, dealing with the Baluchi poetry in general, its various branches, metrical forms, and date; and a translation of the poems. In the second volume we have the text, glossaries, &o.
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