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Research Methods, Statistics, and Applications
Second Edition

2
For my departmental colleagues/mentors: Claire, Richie, and Jerry and my ever-supportive guys
—K. A. A.

For my undergraduate research advisor, Grayson Holmbeck, my graduate advisor, Al Farrell,

and my family—E. K. L.

3
Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of
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4
Research Methods, Statistics, and
Applications
Second Edition

Kathrynn A. Adams
Guilford College
Eva K. Lawrence
Guilford College

Los Angeles
London
New Delhi
Singapore
Washington DC
Melbourne

5
 Copyright © 2019 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Title: Research methods, statistics, and applications / Kathrynn A. Adams (Guilford College), Eva K. Lawrence
(Guilford College).

Description: Second edition. | Thousand Oaks, California : Sage, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and
index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017046336 | ISBN 9781506350455 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Research—Statistical methods. | Research—Methodology. | Statistics.

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7
Brief Contents
Preface
About the Authors
Chapter 1 Thinking Like a Researcher
Chapter 2 Build a Solid Foundation for Your Study Based on Past Research
Chapter 3 The Cornerstones of Good Research: Reliability and Validity
Chapter 4 Basics of Research Design: Description, Measurement, and Sampling
Chapter 5 Describing Your Sample
Chapter 6 Beyond Descriptives: Making Inferences Based on Your Sample
Chapter 7 Comparing Your Sample to a Known or Expected Score
Chapter 8 Examining Relationships Among Your Variables: Correlational Design
Chapter 9 Examining Causality
Chapter 10 Independent-Groups Design
Chapter 11 Dependent-Groups Design
Chapter 12 Factorial Designs
Chapter 13 Nonparametric Statistics
Chapter 14 Focusing on the Individual: Case Studies and Single N Designs
Chapter 15 How to Decide? Choosing a Research Design and Selecting the Correct
Analysis
Appendix A Answers to Practice Questions
Appendix B APA Style and Format Guidelines
Appendix C Statistical Tables
Appendix D Statistical Formulas
Glossary
References
Author Index
Subject Index

8
Detailed Contents
Preface
About the Authors
Chapter 1 Thinking Like a Researcher
Learning Outcomes
Critical Thinking
Thinking Critically About Ethics
Ethics Codes
Ethical Principles
Ethical Standards
Practice 1.1: Thinking Critically About Ethics
The Scientific Approach
The Scientific Approach and Decision Making
The Scientific Approach and Knowledge
The Scientific Method: Defined and Refined
Overview of the Research Process (A.K.A. the Scientific Method)
Step 1: Identify Your Topic
Step 2: Find, Read, and Evaluate Past Research
Application 1.1: Step 1: Identify a Research Topic—Focus on Academic
Honesty
Step 3: Further Refine Your Topic and Develop a Hypothesis or
Research Question
Step 4: Choose a Research Design
Practice 1.2: Identifying Different Types of Research Designs
Step 5: Plan and Carry Out Your Study
Step 6: Analyze Your Data
Step 7: Communicate Results
Practice 1.3: Identifying and Avoiding Plagiarism
The Big Picture: Proof and Progress in Science
Application 1.2: The Scientific Method: Plagiarism Study Example
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Chapter 2 Build a Solid Foundation for Your Study Based on Past Research
Learning Outcomes
Types of Sources
Primary Versus Secondary Sources
Scholarly Versus Popular Sources
Types of Scholarly Works
Articles in Academic Journals

9
 Other Types of Scholarly Work
Practice 2.1: Article Comparison
Strategies to Identify and Find Past Research
Searching Library Databases by Topic
More Search Strategies
Application 2.1: Database Search for Factors Impacting Academic
Success in the Social Sciences
Find the Full Text of a Source
Reading and Evaluating Primary Research Articles
Format of Unpublished Manuscripts Versus Published Research Articles
Organization of Primary Research Articles
Application 2.2: Title of Article About Academic Success: Closing the
Social Class Achievement Gap for First-Generation Students in
Undergraduate Biology
Application 2.3: Abstract From Harackiewicz et al. (2014)
Application 2.4: Harackiewicz et al.’s (2014) Introduction
Application 2.5: Identify the Research Design of Harackiewicz et al.
(2014)
Shape of a Primary Research Article
Develop Study Ideas Based on Past Research
Ethics Tip: Give Credit to Your Sources and Avoid Plagiarism
Application 2.6: Develop Study Ideas Based on Harackiewicz et al.
(2014)
APA Format for References
Practice 2.2: Write a Reference Using APA Format
The Big Picture: Use the Past to Inform the Present
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Chapter 3 The Cornerstones of Good Research: Reliability and Validity
Learning Outcomes
Reliability and Validity Broadly Defined
Reliability and Validity of Measurement
Constructs and Operational Definitions
Deciding How to Measure Your Constructs
Scales of Measurement
Practice 3.1: Identifying Scales of Measurement
Types of Measures
Questionnaires
Observational and Unobtrusive Measures
Physiological Measures
Assessing Reliability of Measures

10
 Assessing Reliability
Using Data Analysis Programs: Measurement Reliability
Entering Data
Computing Scale Scores
Computing Internal Consistency
Assessing Validity of Measures
Assessing Validity
Ethics Tip: Using Appropriate Measures to Get Meaningful Results
Practice 3.2: Examples From the Literature
Reliability and Validity at the Study Level
Study Reliability
Internal Validity
Review of Key Concepts: Independent and Dependent Variables
External Validity
Balancing Internal and External Validity
Practice 3.3: Distinguishing Between External Validity, Internal Validity,
and Reliability at the Study Level
Application 3.1: Balancing Internal and External Validity in Research
The Big Picture: Consistency and Accuracy
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice Dataset
Chapter 4 Basics of Research Design: Description, Measurement, and Sampling
Learning Outcomes
When Is a Descriptive Study Appropriate?
Understand Prevalence and Trends
Explore a Phenomenon in Depth
Examine a Phenomenon in a Different Population
Review of Key Concepts: Study Validity
Practice 4.1: Which of These Questions Might Be Examined With a
Descriptive Study?
Validity in Descriptive Studies
Review of Key Concepts: Measurement Validity and Study Validity
Measurement Methods
Survey Research
Observational Research
Review of Key Concepts: Scales of Measurement
Archival Research
Ethics Tip: Know When to Get Informed Consent
Practice 4.2: Evaluate Methods for a Descriptive Study on Academic
Honesty

11
 Defining the Population and Obtaining a Sample
Who or What Is the Population of Interest?
How Will You Obtain a Sample From Your Population?
Application 4.1: Examples of Probability Sampling
Application 4.2: Examples of Nonprobability Sampling
The Big Picture: Beyond Description
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Chapter 5 Describing Your Sample
Learning Outcomes
Ethical Issues in Describing Your Sample
Ethics Tip: Maintain the Confidentiality of Your Participants
Practical Issues in Describing Your Sample
Descriptive Statistics
Practice 5.1: Numerical Coding
Practice 5.2: Describe How Often Scores Appear in the Sample
Describe How Often a Score Appears in the Sample
Describe the Central Tendency
Practice 5.3: Calculate the Central Tendency
Describe the Variability of Scores in the Sample
Choosing the Appropriate Descriptive Statistics
Practice 5.4: Calculating Variability
Review of Key Concepts: Scales of Measurement
Describing Variables Measured on a Nominal Scale
Describing Variables Measured on an Ordinal Scale
Describing Variables Measured on Interval and Ratio Scales
Using Data Analysis Programs: Descriptive Statistics
Calculating Frequencies With a Data Analysis Program
Calculating Central Tendency and Variability With a Data Analysis
Program
Reporting Results in a Research Report
Practice 5.5: Identifying the Type of Distribution and Choosing the
Appropriate Descriptive Statistics
Comparing Interval/Ratio Scores With z Scores and Percentiles
z Scores
Percentiles
Example z Score and Percentile Calculation
Practice 5.6: Calculating a z Score and Percentile
Using Data Analysis Programs for z Scores and Percentiles
Application 5.1: Example From the Research Literature
The Big Picture: Know Your Data and Your Sample

12
 Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice Dataset and Analyses
Chapter 6 Beyond Descriptives: Making Inferences Based on Your Sample
Learning Outcomes
Inferential Statistics
Inferential Versus Descriptive Statistics
Review of Key Concepts: Population and Sample
Probability Theory
Sampling Distribution Versus Frequency Distribution
Application 6.1: Example of Hypothesis Testing
Hypothesis Testing
Null and Alternative Hypotheses
Rejecting the Null Hypothesis
Practice 6.1: Null and Alternative Hypotheses
Review of Key Concepts: The Normal Distribution
Testing a One- Versus a Two-Tailed Hypothesis
Practice 6.2: One-Tailed and Two-Tailed Hypotheses
Setting the Criterion Level (p)
Errors in Hypothesis Testing
Type I and Type II Errors
Reducing the Chance of a Type I Error
Application 6.2: Applying the Complete Hypothesis-Testing Process in a
Study
Practice 6.3: Understanding the Hypothesis-Testing Process
Reducing the Chance of a Type II Error
Practice 6.4: Interpreting Results
Effect Size, Confidence Intervals, and Practical Significance
Review of Key Concepts: Confidence Intervals
Application 6.3: Determining the Effect Size, Confidence Interval, and
Practical Significance in a Study
Practice 6.5: Interpreting Effect Size, Confidence Intervals, and Practical
Significance
The Big Picture: Making Sense of Results
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Statistics
Chapter 7 Comparing Your Sample to a Known or Expected Score
Learning Outcomes
Choosing the Appropriate Test

13
 Review of Key Concepts: Hypothesis Testing
Answers
One-Sample t Tests
Null Hypothesis (H0)
Alternative Hypothesis (Ha)
Formulas and Calculations: One-Sample t Test
Practice 7.1: Determining Whether a t Test Result Is Significant
Calculating an Effect Size
Calculating a Confidence Interval
Using Data Analysis Programs: One-Sample t Test
Application 7.1: Sample Results and Discussion Sections Following APA
Format
Practice 7.2: Writing Results and Discussion Sections
The Big Picture: Examining One Variable at a Time
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Statistics
Practice With SPSS
Chapter 8 Examining Relationships Among Your Variables: Correlational Design
Learning Outcomes
Correlational Design
Rationale for Correlational Designs
Limitation of Correlational Designs
Designing Powerful Correlational Designs
Ethics Tip: Ethics and Correlational Research
Basic Statistics to Evaluate Correlational Research
Review of Key Concepts: Scales of Measurement
Relationship Between Two Interval or Ratio Variables
Practice 8.1: Types of Relationships
FORMULAS and CALCULATIONS: Pearson’s r
Review of Key Concepts: Hypothesis Testing
Application 8.1: A Study Examining the Relationship Between Texting
and Literacy
Practice 8.2: Evaluating Correlations
Relationship Between a Dichotomous Variable and an Interval/Ratio
Variable
Application 8.2: An Example of the Use of Point-Biserial Correlation
Practice 8.3: Selecting the Appropriate Statistic
Using Data Analysis Programs: Pearson’s r and Point-biserial r
Pearson’s r
Point-Biserial r

14
 Ethics Tip: Interpreting Correlations
Regression
Linear Regression
Formulas and Calculations: Simple Linear Regression
Multiple Regression
Practice 8.4: Practice With Regression Equations
Application 8.3: Example of Multiple Regression
Using Data Analysis Programs: Regression
Application 8.4: Sample Results and Discussion for Pearson’s r and
Regression
The Big Picture: Correlational Designs versus Correlational Analyses
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Statistics
Practice With Statistical Analysis
Chapter 9 Examining Causality
Learning Outcomes
Testing Cause and Effect
Requirements for Causality
Review of Key Concepts: Validity
Practice 9.1: Testing Cause and Effect
Threats to Internal Validity
Why the One-Group Pretest–Posttest Design Does Not Demonstrate
Causality
Group Designs
Practice 9.2: Identifying Threats to Internal Validity
How an Experiment Can Demonstrate Causality
Review of Key Concepts: Components of an Experiment
Practice 9.3: Design an Experiment
Basic Issues in Designing an Experiment
Review of Key Concepts: Power
Recruiting Participants
Random Assignment
Ethics Tip: Ethically Recruit Participants for an Experiment
Controlling Other Extraneous Variables and Confounds
IV Manipulation
Practice 9.4: Distinguishing Between Variables That Can and Cannot Be
Manipulated
DV Measures
Review of Key Concepts: Sensitivity, and Floor and Ceiling Effects
Application 9.1: Research Examining the Effect of Music Videos

15
 Other Threats to Internal Validity
Demand Characteristics
Experimenter Expectancy Effects
Diffusion of Treatment
Balancing Internal and External Validity
The Big Picture: Benefits and Limits of Experimental Design
Application 9.2: Example and Rationale of a Quasi-Experiment on the
Topic of Academic Honesty
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Chapter 10 Independent-Groups Designs
Learning Outcomes
Designs With Independent Groups
Correlational Designs
Quasi-Experiments
Experiments
Review of Key Concepts: Three Requirements for an Experiment
Review of Key Concepts: Designing an Experiment
Designing a Simple Experiment
Practice 10.1: Simple Experiment Design Practice
Independent-Samples t Tests
Ethics Tip: Experiments and Ethical Concerns
Formulas and Calculations: Independent-Samples t Test
Review of Key Concepts: Type I and Type II Errors
Practice 10.2: Type I and Type II Errors
Confidence Intervals
Effect Size
Review of Key Concepts: Strength of the Effect
Practical Significance
Using Data Analysis Programs: Independent-Samples t Test
Data Entry
Data Analysis
Practice 10.3: Practice Interpreting a Two-Group Design
Application 10.1: Sample Results and Discussion for a Simple
Experiment Using Independent Groups
Designs With More Than Two Independent Groups
Advantages of the Multiple Independent-Groups Design
One-Way Analysis of Variance
Review of Key Concepts: Within- and Between-Groups Variance
Formulas and Calculations: One-Way Independent-Samples ANOVA
Practice 10.4: Practice Completing and Interpreting a Summary Table

16
 Using Data Analysis Programs: One-Way Independent-Samples ANOVA
Application 10.2: Sample Write-Up (of Hypothetical Results and
Discussion) Using APA Format
Practice 10.5: Practice With the Analysis and Interpretation of a
Multiple-Groups Study
The Big Picture: Identifying and Analyzing Independent-Groups Designs
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Statistics
Practice With SPSS
Chapter 11 Dependent-Groups Designs
Learning Outcomes
Designs With Dependent Groups
Review of Key Concepts: Types of Independent-Groups Designs
Matched-Pairs Design
Repeated Measures Design
Analysis of Dependent Two-Group Designs
Practice 11.1: Considering Dependent Designs
Review of Key Concepts: Assumptions of the Independent-Samples t
Test
Formulas and Calculations: Dependent-Samples t Test
Confidence Intervals
Effect Size
Practical Significance
Using Data Analysis Programs: Dependent-Samples t Test
Data Entry
Computing the Statistical Analysis
Application 11.1: Sample Results and Discussion for a Hypothetical
Experiment Using Two Dependent Groups
Ethics Tip: Control Groups in Interventions
Practice 11.2: Practice With a Dependent Design
Designs With More Than Two Dependent Groups
Analysis of Dependent Multiple-Groups Designs
Practice 11.3: Practice With Participant Assignment in Dependent
Designs
Review of Key Concepts: ANOVA
Formulas and Calculations: Within-Subjects ANOVA
Effect Size
Computing Post Hoc Tests
Practice 11.4: Practice Interpreting a Summary Table for a Dependent-
Samples ANOVA

17
 Using Data Analysis Programs: Within-Subjects ANOVA
Application 11.2: Sample Results and Discussion for a Hypothetical
Experiment Using a Multiple Dependent-Groups Design
Practice 11.5: Practice Interpreting a Dependent-Samples ANOVA
The Big Picture: Selecting Analyses and Interpreting Results for Dependent-
Groups Designs
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Design and Statistics
Practice With SPSS
Chapter 12 Factorial Designs
Learning Outcomes
Basic Concepts in Factorial Design
Types of Factorial Designs
Factorial Notation
Practice 12.1: Identify Types of Factorial Designs
Main Effects and Interaction Effects
Rationale for Factorial Designs
Investigate Complex Relationships
Systematically Examine Extraneous Variables and Confounds
Review of Key Concepts: Heterogeneity and Control
Application 12.1: Building on Past Research by Designing a Factorial
2 × 2 Designs
Main Effects in a 2 × 2 Design
2 × 2 Tables and Graphs
Interaction Hypotheses
Practice 12.2: Graph a 2 × 2 Interaction
Analyzing Factorial Designs
Ethics Tip: Do Not Fish for Results
Analyzing Independent-Groups Factorial Designs
Review of Key Concepts: Independent-Groups Design
Formulas and Calculations: Two-Way Between-Subjects ANOVA
Calculate the Sum of Squares
Calculate the Degrees of Freedom
Calculate the Mean Squares
Calculate the F Ratios
Effect Size
Practice 12.3: Complete a Two-Way Between-Subjects ANOVA
Summary Table
Post Hoc Analyses
Using Data Analysis Programs: Two-Way Between-Subjects ANOVA

18
 Reporting and Interpreting Results of a Two-Way ANOVA
Results Section
Application 12.2: Sample Results for a Two-Way Between-Subjects
ANOVA
Interpreting Results in the Discussion Section
Beyond Two Ways
Dependent-Groups Factorial Designs
Review of Key Concepts: Dependent-Groups Design
Mixed Designs
The Big Picture: Embracing Complexity
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Datasets and Analyses
Chapter 13 Nonparametric Statistics
Learning Outcomes
Parametric Versus Nonparametric Statistics
Review of Key Concepts: Assumptions of Parametric Statistics
Nonparametric Tests for Nominal Data
Independent-Groups Designs With Nominal Outcome Measures
Formulas and Calculations: Chi-Square Goodness of Fit
Using Data Analysis Programs: Chi-Square Goodness of Fit
Application 13.1: Sample Results and Discussion Sections Following
APA Format
Practice 13.1: Practice With Chi-Square Goodness of Fit
Formulas and Calculations: Chi-Square Test for Independence
Using Data Analysis Programs: Chi-Square Test for Independence
Dependent-Groups Designs With Nominal Outcome Measures
Application 13.2: Sample Write-Up of the Results of the Example Study
Using Chi-Square Test for Independence
Practice 13.2: Practice With Different Types of Chi-Square
Practice 13.3: Identifying Appropriate Statistics for Nominal Data
Nonparametric Statistics for Ordinal (Ranked) Data
Spearman’s Rho
Formulas and Calculations: Spearman’s Rho
Using Data Analysis Programs: Spearman’s Rho
Two-Group Designs
Multiple-Group Designs
Practice 13.4: Identifying Appropriate Statistics for Ordinal Data
The Big Picture: Selecting Parametric Versus Nonparametric Tests
Chapter Resources
Key Terms

19
 Do You Understand the Chapter?
Practice With Statistics
Practice With SPSS
Chapter 14 Focusing on the Individual Case Studies and Single N Designs
Learning Outcomes
Samples Versus Individuals
Review of Key Concepts: Goals of Descriptive, Correlational, and
Experimental Studies
Review of Key Concepts: Type I and Type II Errors
The Case Study
Conducting a Case Study
Application 14.1: Two Examples of Embedded Case Studies From the
Literature on Academic Honesty
Strengths and Limitations of the Case Study
Single N Designs
Conducting a Single N Study
Stability of the Baseline
More Advanced Single N Designs
Ethics Tip: Return to Baseline Only When It Is Ethically Appropriate
Strengths and Limitations of Single N Designs
Practice 14.1: Single N Designs
The Big Picture: Choosing Between a Sample, Case Study, or Single N Design
Chapter Resources
Key Terms
Do You Understand the Chapter?
Chapter 15 How to Decide? Choosing a Research Design and Selecting the Correct
Analysis
Learning Outcomes
First and Throughout: Base Your Study on Past Research
Choosing a Research Design
Descriptive, Correlational, Quasi-Experimental, or Experimental Design?
Additional Decisions for Correlational Designs, Quasi-Experiments, and
Experiments
Practice 15.1: Choosing a Research Design
Selecting Your Statistical Analyses
Practice 15.2: Deciding Between the Independent- and Dependent-
Groups Designs
Practice 15.3: Selecting Appropriate Statistical Analyses
Application 15.1: Two Examples From the Research Literature
The Big Picture: Beyond This Class
Chapter Resources
Do You Understand the Chapter?

20
Appendix A Answers to Practice Questions
Appendix B APA Style and Format Guidelines
Appendix C Statistical Tables
Appendix D Statistical Formulas
Glossary
References
Author Index
Subject Index

21
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22
Preface

Together, we have over 45 years of experience teaching an integrated research methods and
statistics course. We have used several different texts over the years, but none had quite the
right approach to match our integrated class. Some were too focused on statistics, others
too focused on methods. None had enough examples, applications, and review, and we
found ourselves supplementing these texts with our own material. We finally decided that
we should write a book that would consistently integrate methods and statistics, and
include multiple examples and practical application. We also sought to use conversational
language to make the material more interesting and to take some of the mystery and anxiety
out of learning research methods and statistics.

This textbook is modeled after the Research Methods and Analysis course that we teach at
Guilford College, which is designed to provide students with firsthand experience of being
a researcher as well as the typical content related to the research process. Each semester,
students in the class are actively involved in two lines of research—one that is chosen by the
instructors and a topic of students’ own choosing. We have found that having multiple
opportunities for increasingly complex application improves learning, and the research in
teaching and learning supports our experience. Although most students approach our
course with trepidation, many end up telling us that the course was their most useful
because the content dually prepares them for critical analysis of research as an employee or
informed citizen as well as for more advanced research training in graduate programs.

We organized this book so that the first few chapters introduce students to basic issues of
design, and we then elaborate on these designs in later chapters, detail the statistics used to
analyze the designs, and raise ethical issues that might arise with different designs. The text
is designed so that professors can cover topics in a different order than presented in the
book. In our own research methods course, we have been able to easily skip over some
topics and present topics in a different order than what is presented in the text. The
chapters are written to support different content or sequencing choices by inserting a
“Review of Key Concepts” segment or referring to an earlier chapter when understanding
new concepts or statistics depends on material that is covered previously in the text.

We believe one of the greatest strengths of this text is the consistent integration of research
methods and statistics so that students can better understand how the research process
requires the combination of these elements. Throughout the text, we remind students of
the decision making required to select appropriate designs, which then help to determine
the most appropriate statistical analysis. These elements of research methods and statistics
are set within the context of multiple examples of both proposed and real studies, which
allow students to better understand the entire process. The last chapter helps pull together
all that the students have learned by providing a summary of the major questions one

23
should answer when designing and carrying out research.

To students: Many features of this text are designed to support your learning. Rather than
simply expecting you to remember what you learned in previous chapters, we provide a
“Review of Key Concepts” at key points throughout the text. We also have a strong focus
on ethics. We introduce you to some of the basic ethical issues in Chapter 1, and then
follow up with “Ethics Tips” in subsequent chapters so that you can understand the need to
think critically about ethics throughout the research process. Moreover, we integrate
questions and practice opportunities at key points within the chapters to help you engage
with and learn the material. And we provide answers to these practice questions in the
appendix so that you can immediately check your level of understanding and skill and
decide whether you need to revisit material. Finally, at the end of each chapter, you will
find resources that allow you to further test how well you understand the material.

We hope you will find this textbook useful, and maybe even a little bit enjoyable. Our goal
is to spark your interest in conducting research and increase your ability to critically analyze
research.

24
New to This Edition
We used the first edition in our own research methods and analysis courses for several years
and with great success. Our students appreciated the conversational tone of the writing, the
practice opportunities, and the applications of key concepts. Other professors who adopted
or reviewed the first edition commented positively about the writing style and organization,
and the integration of current research. Many mentioned that they found the final “putting
it all together” chapter to be a unique and important feature of the text. In writing this
second edition, we aimed to build on and strengthen those aspects that students and
professors found most useful.

The second edition includes new and more diverse examples from the current research
literature. As with the first edition, we refer to research on academic honesty throughout
the textbook and provide an APA-style research paper and published manuscript on this
topic in the appendix. For this edition, we added recent examples from the research
literature in criminal justice, politics, education, and counseling.

Each chapter of the second edition ends with “The Big Picture” to help students take a step
back and consider the larger implications of what was covered in the chapter. In chapters
that refer to statistical analyses, we included flow charts and tables in this section to guide
students’ decisions about choosing the most appropriate analysis. In this way, we pulled
some of what was helpful in the final “putting it all together” chapter and provided it to
students earlier and throughout the book.

The second edition has an updated and more user-friendly companion website. Students
and professors can find videos, web resources, and practice datasets on the companion
website, including three datasets from actual studies the authors conducted with students.
Students will find flash cards and web quizzes to help them solidify their knowledge, and
instructors will find resources including in-class activities, lecture slides, homework
assignments, answers to end of chapter statistics exercises, and test banks. Visit
edge.sagepub.com/adams2e

25
New Student Study Guide and IBM® SPSS® Workbook
The Student Study Guide and IBM® SPSS® Workbook is a new companion text for the second
edition. Students can use the study guide as a self-guided tool to reinforce and apply
concepts from the textbook, it can be used as an in-class or in-lab workbook, or professors
may wish to assign exercises as homework. We pilot tested the study guide in our research
methods and analysis course and students reported the exercises to be invaluable. We found
students were much more prepared for class and asked better questions.

The study guide includes review questions that help students solidify and distinguish key
terms as well as application exercises that encourage students to make meaningful
connections and require critical thinking and active engagement with the material.
Additionally, most chapters of the study guide include a “Your Research” exercise so that
students can apply key terms and concepts to their own research projects.

Step-by-step directions for IBM® SPSS® data analysis and interpretation are included in
relevant chapters. We also provide guidelines and examples for writing up results in APA
style. Practice exercises are provided to help students gain competence using the program as
well as interpreting and writing up results. We have used this IBM® SPSS® workbook in our
research methods and analysis course for over 12 years, and students tell us that they cannot
imagine getting through the course without it. Many students keep the workbook for use as
a reference book in future classes and research projects.

26
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our students, who were the inspiration for this book. To all of our
former, current, and future students, we appreciate what you have taught and will continue
to teach us about how to better present concepts and skills associated with the research
process.

We are particularly grateful to two students, Sandi Coon and Tabbie Smith, who read
through our entire first draft and gave incredibly useful feedback. They helped remind us
that students need examples and repetition when learning new material. Sandi also drew
many of the cartoons in the book, and we are grateful for her creativity and artistic skill.
Thanks also go to Virginia Ferguson, Phil Hong, Celeste Prose, and Nicole Carter for
helping to format tables and graphs.

We were fortunate to have reviewers who took the time to provide thorough and
constructive feedback for our first and second editions. We took their feedback seriously as
we worked on our revisions, and the final version of the book is much improved because of
the incorporation of their thoughtful suggestions.

Finally, we extend special thanks to the editorial staff at SAGE, especially Vicki Knight, the
editor of the first edition of this book who helped us get this book off the ground, and Leah
Fargotstein, our current editor who helped us make improvements for our second edition
and encouraged us to add the Student Study Guide and IBM® SPSS® Workbook. It is obvious
to us that this book would be little more than an idea without their encouragement,
prompt response to our questions, and knowledgeable guidance throughout the process of
writing the text and companion materials.

27
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
SAGE wishes to acknowledge the valuable contributions of the following reviewers.

Anne-Marie Armstrong, Colorado Technical University

Eliane M. Boucher, Providence College
Malaika Brown, Citrus College
Derrick M. Bryan, Morehouse College
Isabelle Chang, Temple University
Wendie N. Choudary, University at Albany
Diane L. Cooper, University of Georgia
Erin M. Fekete, Ph.D., University of Indianapolis
John D. Foshay, Central Connecticut State University
Charles Fountaine, University of Minnesota Duluth
Paula M. Frew, Emory University
David Han, University of Texas at San Antonio
John M. Hazy, Youngstown State University
Erin Henshaw, Denison University
C. Ryan Kinlaw, Marist College
Karin Lindstrom Bremer, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Joshua C. Watson, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

We extend special thanks to Qingwen Dong of University of the Pacific for the skillful
technical proofreading to ensure precision in the text.

28
About the Authors

Kathrynn (Kathy) A. Adams

earned her PhD in general experimental psychology from the University of Alabama
in 1977. She was a Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology at Guilford College
when she retired in 2017 after 37 years of teaching. Her professional interests include
gender issues, relationships, and teaching pedagogy. She worked with the Preparing
Future Faculty Program for 20 years and helped establish the Early College at
Guilford, a nationally ranked high school. In her spare time, she spends as much time
as possible outdoors, practices yoga, and bakes chocolate desserts.
Eva K. Lawrence
earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in
2002. She is a Professor of Psychology at Guilford College, where she has taught
since 2003. Her research interests include environmental psychology and computer-
mediated communication. Eva enjoys walking, yoga, and bike riding, and she loves to
listen to live music.

29
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 Due west of our camp, standing out very distinctly on the plain, at
twenty miles off, is the Koh Khojah. It is an isolated black block with
a flattened summit. Major Lovett, who has visited it, tells me it is
about four hundred feet above the level of the plain, and of a hard
crystalline black rock resembling basalt. The rock is divided into two
main portions by a central gorge, and there are many ruins of mud
and stone on its summit, and also a large reservoir excavated in the
rock. The lower slopes are covered with banks of hard compact clay.
Until four years ago this hill was surrounded by a reed-grown swamp
of muddy and saline water, two or three feet deep, and was
approached from the shore by passages cut through the reeds,
either on foot or on the native tútín propelled by a pole. It now
stands in the midst of a desiccated marsh many miles from the
nearest water. This is owing to the droughts that have prevailed in
this country during the past three or four years, and the consequent
drying up of the marshes formed by the overflowings of the two
lagoons formed by the commingling of the waters of the several
rivers that converge to this point, as will be more fully described
further on.
Koh Khojah is also called Kohi Zál or Zor and Kohi Rustam, and
from ancient times has afforded an asylum for retreat to the princes
of the country when pressed by an enemy. Malik Fata, Kayáni, when
pressed by Nadír, is said to have abandoned his capital, Calá Fata,
and to have taken refuge in this stronghold, where he held out
seven years against his troops, who were ultimately obliged to retire
through pressure of famine.
Banjár is a flourishing village of about four hundred houses. It
originally belonged to the Kayáni tribe, but during the past half
century has been in the possession of the Sárbandi, and now only
contains four or five families of the original tribe. In the possession
of one of these families, we were informed, there is a very ancient
scroll or tumár, in a language not now known in the country. It is
supposed to be a record of the ancient history of the people at the
time when they were fire-worshippers. It is said to be held in great
estimation, and is not to be purchased for gold; its existence indeed
is denied by the reputed owners for fear of their being deprived of it,
as they were of some valuable records in this unknown language by
Prince Kamrán of Herat, when he invaded the country in the early
part of the present century. He is said also to have carried off some
illuminated tablets, and an ancient copy of the Curán and other
Arabic manuscripts.
During our stay here the weather was more or less cloudy, and a
strong north-west wind blew with unabated force. It is the most
prevalent wind in this region, and during the hot season blows
without intermission for four months, and is, from this circumstance,
called bádi sado biat, or “wind of a hundred and twenty (days).” It
usually commences about the nan roz, or vernal equinox, and
continues to the end of the harvest, or about the 20th July. To the
prevalence of this wind is attributed the absence of trees from the
plain country, and this is easily understood, unless, as in the gardens
about some of the villages, the trees be protected by walls or other
means of shelter, for the violence of the wind is of itself sufficient to
wither the blossoms and destroy fructification.
In our experience of it the wind was a cold cutting blast, with the
force of a moderate gale. It commenced on the day of our arrival at
Nasírabad, on the 7th instant, and continued daily till we crossed the
Sistan border into Lásh territory, six days later. It generally
commenced soon after sunrise, subsided somewhat at midday, and
gradually recovered its force after sunset. It owes its cause,
apparently, to the rarefaction of the atmosphere by the rays of a hot
sun playing upon the vast sandy region to the south, and its
coldness at this season is derived from the snowy mountains of
Ghor, whence it proceeds. In the hot season it raises clouds of sand,
that obscure the sky and prove extremely injurious to the eyes.
From Banjár we got a very good view of the Nihbandán range of
hills bounding Sistan on the west. It is marked about midway by a
deep valley or glen, which conveys its drainage after rains into the
lake north-west of Koh Khojah. Towards the north the range appears
continuous with the Farráh mountains, and towards the south with
those of Sarhadd. The elevation of Banjár is about 1580 feet above
the sea.
11th March.—Banjár to Bolay, seven miles, and halt a day. These
villages are hardly five miles apart by the direct route, but our path
turned from north to east and then due north again, in order to
avoid the deep mud of the flooded fields, which are here irrigated by
a number of considerable canals. Within the first three miles from
Banjár we forded two, with the water up to the saddle-flaps, and
crossed three others by rustic bridges. Beyond these we crossed, in
an easterly direction, a strip of wind-scooped sand, similar to that
already described on the march to Nasírabad, and a little farther on
passed the village of Dih Afghan to our right. It is a strong little fort,
surrounded by hut settlements of the Tokhi Ghilzais and other
Afghans. The fort itself is now garrisoned by Persian sarbáz. Across
the plain, at about three miles to its west, is the fortified village of
Shytávak. It formerly belonged to the Kayánis, but has for the past
half century been in the possession of the Sárbandis. In the opposite
direction, away to the east and south-east, is seen a vast mass of
ruins, that cover several square miles of country. We could learn
nothing more regarding them than that they are in the vicinity of
Casimabad and Iskil.
From Dih Afghan our route turned north, and at a couple of miles
brought us to Bolay, which consists of two open villages close to
each other. We passed these, and camped on a bit of hard, flat,
wind-swept, and bare ground, a few hundred yards farther on. At a
few miles across the plain to the eastward are the extensive ruins of
Záhidán. They extend as far as the eye can reach towards the north-
east, and are said to be continuous with those of Doshák, about nine
miles from the Helmand.
These ruins, with those of Pulkí, Nádálí, and Pesháwarán, are the
most extensive in Sistan, and mark the sites of populous cities, the
like of which are not to be found at this present day in all this region
between the Indus and the Tigris. Their melancholy solitudes now
merely exist as the silent memorials of the destruction wrought by
that “Scourge of God” Tamerlane. This Tátár invader, whose real
name was Tymúr, is said to have been wounded in the ankle by an
arrow at the siege of Doshák, from the effects of which he became
permanently lame. Hence the epithet lang added to his name—
Tymúr lang, or “Tymúr the lame,” our Tamerlane.
According to local tradition, the Tátár was so enraged at the
opposition he experienced here, that he destroyed every city in the
province, massacred its people wholesale, and reduced the whole
country to a desolate waste; and it has never since regained its
former prosperity.
Kinneir, in his “Memoir of the Persian Empire,” supposes the
ancient Zarany of Ptolemy to be the same as Doshák, or more
properly Dahshák, as I was informed by a native, from the ten
branches of the canal which were at this spot taken from off the
Helmand.
Zarany, or Doshák, was the residence of Yácúb bin Leth, the
founder of the Sufári dynasty of Sistan, who made it the capital of
his kingdom about 868 a.d. It was ultimately sacked and destroyed
by Tamerlane in 1384 a.d., and has ever since remained a desolate
waste of ruins, amongst which stands the modern town of Jalálabad,
which at the commencement of the present century was the seat of
the Kayáni chief Bahrám Khán. It is now in the possession of the
Sárbandi, Bahrám’s son and successor, Jaláluddín, having been
finally driven out of Sistan in 1839 by Muhammad Kezá Khán, their
chief, whose seat was Sihkoha.
We halted a day at Bolay, owing to some difficulty and delay on
the part of the Persian governor of Sistan in providing camels for our
party. During our stay here the north wind blew with unabated force,
and swept the ground around our camp as clean as a board. I
observed that the hard clay soil was striated in long lines from north
to south by the persistent action of this wind, and we found some
plants curiously affected in their growth by the same cause.
 Some wormwood, saltworts, and a species of zizyphus, here called
kuvár, were all growing prostrate on the ground, with their stems
and twigs projecting only in the direction of the wind. The thorny
branches of the zizyphus formed long slender trails recumbent on
the ground, and here and there formed fresh attachments by little
shoots striking root into the soil. These plants are very sparsely
scattered, and only rise six inches or so above the surface, whilst not
a single bush or tree is to be seen on the plain.
Koh Khojah and the Nihbandán range are seen very distinctly to
the west of our position. The first stands out boldly on the open
plain, and the other bounds the prospect beyond it. The horizon
towards the north is marked for many miles east and west by a
continuous line of black columns of smoke curling up into the air,
and forming a vast stratum of dense obscurity. The explanation of
this great conflagration is that the natives at this season annually set
fire to the reeds and rushes belting the borders of the pools or
lagoons, in order to make way for the fresh shoots on which their
cattle pasture.
From Bolay we marched twenty-eight miles in a northerly
direction, and camped amidst the ruins of Silyán, which form but a
small portion of the vast extent of ruins collectively styled
Pesháwarán.
Our route, at first across a bare, hard, wind-swept flat, afterwards
led across a rough, wind-scourged, sandy tract, evidently a deposit
from floods, on which was a thin jangal of tamarisk and saltworts.
Farther on, passing the ruins of a village called Kohak, we came to a
thick belt of tall tamarisk jangal, and following it for half-an-hour, at
about the tenth mile turned to the left into it to a large canal, now
dry, where we halted for breakfast The bushes in this jangal are
marked at about eighteen inches from the ground by a line of drift
and shreds of dry scum of confervæ and similar water-weeds caught
in the branches, and all directed from north to south, and indicating
a rush of waters draining in that course.
 The canal, which we were told had been dry for four years past, is
called Rúdi Jahánábád, or “the river of Jahánábád.” It runs from
Jahánábád on the Helmand midway between Kohak and Jalálabad,
to the Koh Khojah. We found some pits of yellow putrid water in its
bed. They were apparently used for watering cattle, as there were
drinking troughs formed of loosely laid bricks attached to each. In
the dry mud of the canal we found some large mussel shells, and its
banks were overgrown with tall reeds.
Proceeding from this, and leaving behind us the village of Rindan
to the right and that of Calá Nan to the left, the last habitations on
this border of Sistan, we at four miles came to the Naizár, which
forms the boundary between Sistan and Hokát.
The Naizár, as the name implies, is a belt of reeds and rushes. It
extends for many miles east and west, and connects the pool or
lagoon of the Helmand with that of the Farráh Rúd by a strip of
swamp. During the past four years this swamp has been dry. Where
we crossed it the belt is about six miles wide; its reeds had been cut
and burnt to the stumps, and its soil was desiccated, and marked by
beaten tracks over the stubble.
Previous to its desiccation this swampy tract used to be crossed by
the natives on foot or on horseback, or on the tútín rafts already
described, by passages cut through the dense growth of reeds.
Usually the swamp was covered to the depth of a foot or so with a
thick muddy water, undrinkably saline; but in flood seasons its height
rose to three or four feet and inundated the country to the south. In
some parts where we crossed the Naizár the reeds had not been cut
or burnt, and they rose to a height of ten or twelve feet in
impenetrable patches. Away to the right of our path tall pillars of
smoke rising from the burning reeds filled the sky with dense clouds
of obscurity. Vast herds of horned cattle, described as of a superior
breed, are fed on the young shoots that sprout from the burnt-down
reeds.
Beyond the Naizár we entered on a wide waste of solitude, a very
embodiment of desolation and despair. The surface was everywhere
thrown into small tumuli of soft spongy soil, here and there white as
snow with saline efflorescence, and strewed all over with red bricks
belonging to old graves, many of which were sufficiently preserved
to be readily traceable. Going across this weird tract in a north-
westerly direction, we presently came to the wilderness of ruins
known as Pesháwarán, and marching amongst them for five or six
miles, camped near a cluster called Silyán, with the fort of
Pesháwarán bearing due west at about three miles. Beyond the fort
is seen a solitary, low, round-backed hill called Kohi Ghúch, in which
sulphur is said to be found. To the south of this hill is the lake or
lagoon of the Farráh Rúd, which empties into it on the east side of
the hill, whilst the Harút Rúd empties into it on the west side of it.
The Naizár, which we crossed midway on this day’s march, extends
up to this lake along the southern border of the Pesháwarán ruins.
In the opposite direction, towards the east, it extends up to the lake
or lagoon of the Helmand, which is described as much larger than
that of the Farráh Rúd, being about twenty miles long by twelve
broad. It is formed by the convergence at one spot of the rivers
Helmand, Khosh, and Khuspás. In flood seasons this lake overflows
and joins that of the Farráh Rúd, over the Naizár belt we crossed,
and fills the whole of the reed-grown swamp down to Koh Khojah. If
in excessive flood, the waters then flow into the Sarshela, which is a
channel along the western border of the ancient lacustrine basin,
and thus find a passage to the Zirrah marsh, a deep hollow away to
the south of Sistan. Such floods rarely occur now-a-days, and all this
southern tract has been dry as long as the memory of man goes
back.
We halted a day at this place, and took the opportunity to visit the
fort of Pesháwarán and the other principal ruins around. It is quite
beyond my power to describe these ruins, which cover many square
miles of country, and are known by different names for the different
groups, such as Silyán, Dih Malán, Kol Márút, &c. Suffice it to say,
that the readily distinguishable mosques and colleges, and the
Arabic inscriptions traceable on the façades of some of the principal
buildings, clearly refer their date to the period of the Arab conquest,
and further, as is evidenced by the domes and arches forming the
roofs of the houses, that then as now the country was devoid of
timber fit for building purposes. The most remarkable characteristic
of these ruins is their vast extent and excellent preservation. The
material and style of architecture are both equally good, and in
some parts are so little damaged that they could be easily restored
with an ordinary outlay of capital and labour. Passing amongst the
ruins are the traces of several canals, and one of these, which has
recently been restored by the chief of Hokát, now brings a stream of
good water up to the Silyán ruins for the irrigation of some land in
the vicinity, which it is proposed to cultivate so soon as the country
recovers from its present state of anarchy and discord.
The great extent of these ruins, which cover an area of about six
miles by eight, leads to the suspicion that they are not the remains
of one and the same city existing in its entirety throughout their
extent, but rather the out-growths of successive cities rising on the
ruins of their predecessors upon the same spot. We were unable,
however, to trace any differences in the appearances of the several
groups to bear out such a suspicion. On the contrary, they so exactly
resemble each other that any one group may be taken as
representative of the others. In this view these ruins do certainly
represent a most flourishing period in the history of this country.
The ruins of Pesháwarán resemble in point of architecture those of
Záhidán and Calá Fata, but differ from those of Kaikobád, which are
evidently of much older date, though amongst them are found some
structures dating from the Arab period.
On crossing the Naizár we passed out of Sistan, or the district
known by that name, in the restricted application of the term current
at the present day. Its limits have been already mentioned, and I
may here state that it is about sixty miles broad from north to south,
and about one hundred long from east to west. Within this area the
general aspect of the country is a wide undulating plain of a light
sandy soil, singularly bare of trees, except on the borders of the two
lagoons, which are fringed with forests of the tamarisk, whilst the
swamp connecting them is crowded with a dense growth of tall
reeds.
Surrounded as it is by desert wastes, this district of Sistan
presents a very populous and highly cultivated area. Its territory is
divided between four distinct tribes, who are now under the rule of
the Persian possessors of the country since their occupation of it
seven years ago. Previous to 1865, when this district formed an
integral portion of the Afghan kingdom, these several tribes were
constantly warring against each other, and encroaching upon the
lands of the weaker party.
The tribes above alluded to are the Sistani, Sárbandi, Shahrki, and
Baloch. They are distributed very unequally over about sixty villages,
averaging 250 houses each, and their dates of settlement in the
country also differ very considerably.
The most ancient inhabitants, and apparently the original
possessors of the country, are included in the Sistani tribe, which at
the present day consists of aboriginals and representatives of
various tribes, who have been thrown together and incorporated
here by successive waves of conquest and revolution during many
centuries. Much obscurity hangs over the original Sistani; but their
ruling family have long been known, under the appellation of Kayáni,
as the hereditary princes of the country, and are supposed to trace
their descent to the ancient kings of the period when the seat of
government of the Persian empire was in Sistan. Tradition is at
variance on this point, as I was informed by an intelligent native of
the country. According to the commonly accepted account, the
Kayáni family are the lineal descendants of Kaikobád, the founder of
the Kayáni dynasty in the romantic age of Zál and his son Rustam, of
whose birth and principal exploits Sistan was the theatre. Other
accounts assign their descent to Yácúb bin Leth, the potter of Sistan,
who, turning the times to his own advantage, usurped the
government of Sistan, and in 868 a.d. founded the Sufári dynasty,
which was finally extinguished in the person of Kulif, when Mahmúd
of Ghazni conquered the country towards the close of the tenth
century. Be this as it may, the Kayánis were the dominant family in
Sistan up to the commencement of the present century, and their
chiefs figure prominently in the history of Khorassan during the first
half of the preceding century, memorable for the decline and fall of
the Persian empire of the Suffairs, the invasion and devastation of
their country by the Afghans under Mír Mahmúd, the son of Mír
Wais, Ghilzai, and the rise of the conqueror, Nadír Sháh, whose
death in 1747 was followed by a redistribution of the map of Central
Asia between the Cajars in Persia, the Uzbaks in Bukhára, and the
Afghans in Khorassan.
It was during the revolution attending the revolt of the Ghilzais
and Abdalis, and the establishment of Kandahar as an independent
principality, under their leader Mír Wais, Ghilzai, in 1810, that the
Kayáni chiefs of Sistan, who had heretofore held their lands and
titles under firmans from the Persian kings, first threw off their
allegiance to the throne of Persia. During the successive invasions of
Persia through Sistan in 1720-21, under Mír Mahmúd, the son and
successor of Mír Wais, the Kayáni chief Malik Asadullah was the
independent ruler of Sistan, and he accorded the invading Afghans
an unopposed passage through his territory.
About this period a cousin of the Sistan chief above named, one
Malik Mahmúd, profiting by the confusion of the times, issued from
his desert-girt home, and quickly seized the adjoining district of
Khorassan. Having secured Gháyn and Tabbas and Herat, the
successful adventurer next captured Mashhad and subdued Nishabor
and Sabzwár, at the very time that his Afghan namesake and rival
was prosecuting his successes against the Persian capital.
The unprecedented success of the Afghans now roused the
jealousy of the Kayáni, who, fearful of their ascendancy, hurried to
Ispahán to support his lawful sovereign against the invader. His
loyalty, however, was not proof against the ready concessions of the
Afghan; and Malik Mahmúd being acknowledged by Mír Mahmúd in
the independent possession of his conquests, hastened back to
Mashhad and assumed the crown and title of the Kayáni. His
enjoyment of the purple was neither long continued nor peaceful;
for he was presently opposed by the rising soldier Nadír Culi, and,
after successive contests, was finally captured by him and executed,
together with a younger brother named Muhammad Ali, at Nishabor
in 1727. On this, Nadír reinstated the former chief, Malik Asadullah,
in the government of Sistan, and with him sent back Mahmúd’s
family and belongings to their homes.
Asadullah shortly after died, and was succeeded by his son Malik
Husen. He soon followed the example of his neighbours, and
revolted. Nadír then appointed his own nephew, Ali Culi, governor of
Sistan, and he proceeded with a strong force to subdue the
refractory chief. On his approach, Malik Husen and his brothers, Fath
Ali and Lutf Ali, took refuge in the island-fort of Koh Khojah, and
there held out against Nadír’s troops for several years. They were
finally conciliated, and took service under Nadír, but not until their
country had been devastated, and their own power thoroughly
broken by the importation from Persia of the Sárbandi and Shahrki
tribes as feudal colonists.
On the death of Husen, his son, Malik Sulemán, succeeded to the
chiefship of the Kayáni family, but his authority was of a doubtful
nature, and limited to the north-eastern portion only of the district.
On the partition of the empire following on Nadír’s death in 1747,
Sistan was incorporated in the Durrani monarchy founded by Sháh
Ahmad, and Malik Sulemán was recognised as its hereditary chief,
and his position strengthened by a matrimonial alliance with the new
king, the Afghan sovereign taking his daughter to wife.
The alliance does not appear to have brought any material
advantage to the position or authority of the Kayáni family, and in
the intestine struggles constantly waged between them and the new
settlers they gradually succumbed to their superior force. Sulemán
was succeeded by his son, Malik Bahrám, at Jalálabad. He was so
pressed by the Sárbandi and Shahrki, that he called in the aid of
’Alam Khán, Nahroe Baloch, whom with his following he settled at
Kimak, Burj ’Alam, &c., as a check upon the encroachments of his
enemies. This measure appears to have given offence to Sháh
Tymúr, the son and successor of Sháh Ahmad; for on his accession
to the throne of Afghanistan in 1773, he deposed the Kayáni, Malik
Bahrám, and in his place appointed the Shahrki chief, Mír Bey,
governor of Sistan. This chief was killed four years later in one of the
many faction fights that seemingly form a part of ordinary life in
Sistan, and Bahrám was then restored to the chiefship and
government of Sistan, in subordination to the Afghan governor of
the adjoining district of Lásh or Hokát.
This arrangement did not work well, and the Shahrki soon rose in
revolt against Bahrám’s authority, and Tymúr in consequence sent a
force of Afghans under Barkhurdár Khán, Achakzai, to reduce them,
a task he performed very effectually, as has been before mentioned,
by the victories of Kandúrak and Mykhána. After this, weakened as
they already were by the encroachments of their enemies, the
Kayáni influence rapidly declined, and was at length reduced to a
nullity by the family dissensions that led to the estrangement of
Bahrám from his son and successor, Jaláluddín. Malik Jaláluddín was
the last of the Kayáni family who exercised any authority in Sistan.
He appears to have been a very dissolute character, and was in 1838
expelled the country by the Sárbandi chief Muhammad Razá.
Kamrán, the Herat prince, reinstated him in the following year, but
he was again driven out, and for a while found an asylum with the
chief of Ghazn. Hence he returned some years later to Sistan in
beggared circumstances, and died in obscurity, leaving a son named
Nasír Khán, and his son Azím Khán is now in the service of the
Persian governor of the country. Malik Jaláluddín had a brother
named Hamza Khán. He left three sons—namely, Abbas now residing
in Jalálabad, Gulzár in Bahrámabad, and Malik Khán in some other
village. These are the representatives of the ancient Kayáni family,
and, viewing their present condition, one may truly exclaim, “How
the great have fallen!” Their immediate relations hardly number
twenty families, and the whole tribe does not exceed a hundred
families, who are scattered about the district, mostly in very poor
circumstances.
 The rest of the Sistan tribe were formerly the serfs or subjects of
the Kayáni, and they now hold the same position under the other
dominant tribes of the country. They are styled generally dihcán, or
peasant, and comprise representatives of various tribes, such as
Tátárs, Mughals, Turks, Uzbaks, Kurds, Tajiks, converted Gabars, and
Persians. They are principally employed in agriculture, cattle-
herding, fishing and fowling, and the various handicrafts, and are a
very poor and simple people. They are said to be deficient in
courage and energy, and in respect to their military qualities, are
held in little estimation by the other tribes amongst whom they are
distributed as vassals. Those of them we saw in our progress
through the country appeared an inferior race physically, and had
sallow unhealthy complexions.
The Sárbandi and Shahrki are described as divisions of the Nahnai
tribe, and their settlement in Sistan dates only from the time of
Nadír Sháh, by whose orders they were transported hither from
Burujurd near Hamadán. The Sárbandi are reckoned at ten thousand
families in Sistan, and the Shahrki at an equal number, scattered
over Sistan, Ghazn, Kirmán, and Lár.
The Sárbandi were at first settled at Sihkoha, Warmál, Chiling, and
other villages on the south of the hámún, under their chief Mír
Cambar. He was succeeded by his son Mír Kóchak, and he by his son
Muhammad Razá, in whose time the tribe doubled their possessions
by encroachments upon the lands of the Kayáni. Mír Khán succeeded
his father, Muhammad Razá, and was in turn succeeded by his eldest
son, of the same name, about the year 1836. This Muhammad Razá
drove Malik Jaláluddín, Kayáni, out of Sistan, and becoming
independent at Sihkoha, was recognised as the most influential of
the local chiefs in the country.
These were Ali Khán of Chakansúr, son of Khán Jahán Khán,
Sanjarání Baloch, a dependant of Kandahar, Háshim Khán, Shahrki,
at Dashtak, and Dost Muhammad Khán, Nahroe Baloch, at Burj
’Alam, both dependants of Herat.
 In the beginning of 1844, after the evacuation of Afghanistan by
the British, Kuhndil Khán, the chief of Kandahar, returned to his
principality from his retreat at Tehran, and on his way through Sistan
received the submission of the Sárbandi, Shahrki, and Nahroe chiefs
above mentioned. In the following year he annexed the Garmsel as
far as Rúdbár to Kandahar, and was in treaty with Muhammad Razá
for a more perfect establishment of relations. The negotiations were
prolonged for a couple of years, and then fell through owing to the
death of that chief in 1848.
Kuhndil was at this time diverted from his projects against Sistan
by the menacing attitude of Yár Muhammad at Herat, and in the
meantime Muhammad Razá was succeeded at Sihkoha by his son
Lutf Ali as a dependent of Yár Muhammad, who supported him with
a contingent of Herat troops and Afghan officers posted at Sihkoha,
Dashtak, Burj ’Alam, Kimak, and other places.
The deceased chief’s brother Ali Khán, who was in the service of
Kuhndil at Kandahar, in the following year set out for Sistan to oust
his nephew, and furnished by Kuhndil with an army of six thousand
men under the command of his brother Muhrdil for the purpose. The
army was joined by the Nahroe and Sanjarání Baloch chiefs with
their respective contingents at the Rúdbár frontier; Sihkoha was
captured, Lutf Ali seized and deprived of sight, and his uncle, Ali
Khán, established in the government of Sistan on the part of Kuhndil
Khán, who then deputed his son Sultán Ali to the Persian court to
secure the Sháh’s approval and support.
Yár Muhammad, finding the country thus taken from him, set out
from Herat to attack Ali Khán; but on arrival at Lásh was suddenly
taken seriously ill, and died on the way back to his capital in 1851.
In the confusion following on this event, Ali Khán threw off his
dependence on Kandahar, and sent an envoy to the court of Persia
with a tender of allegiance. His messenger was well received, and
returned with presents and the Persian flags as an emblem of his
allegiance. Ali Khán hoisted the flag on his fort at Sihkoha, and then
sent his sons as hostages to Mashhad in 1853. A few years later,
after the siege of Herat by the Persians, Ali Khán proceeded to
Tehran, where he met with a distinguished reception, and his loyalty
was further secured by a matrimonial alliance with the royal family, a
daughter of the Prince Bahrám, the Sháh’s cousin, being given to
him in marriage.
In the spring of 1858, he returned to Sistan with his Persian bride
and a military escort; but the new regime introduced by him, and
the interference of his Persian companions in the internal affairs of
the country, soon led to a general revulsion of feeling against him
and his foreign supporters; and a plot, headed by Táj Muhammad,
the brother of the deposed Lutf Ali, was formed to get rid of him and
his myrmidons. The Sistani were raised in revolt, and, in a night
attack upon Sihkoha, Ali Khán was surprised and slain by his nephew
Táj Muhammad. His Persian supporters were then driven out of the
country, and Táj Muhammad assumed the government as an
independent chief in 1858. The Persian Government was restrained
by treaty engagements from carrying out their purposed measures
of retribution; and Táj Muhammad on his part expressing regret for
the mishap that befell the Persian princess (she was slightly
wounded in the head in her attempts to protect her husband), and
pleading excuses in justification of his conduct against his uncle, was
pardoned. Subsequently, through the medium of Mír Alam Khán, the
Persian governor of Ghazn, he was conciliated and won over to the
Persian interest; and in 1862, when the late Amir Dost Muhammad
Khán advanced against Herat, he, fearful of losing his independence,
and preferring allegiance to a distant master than to one close at
hand, appealed to the Persian Government for protection, as a
Persian subject, against the Afghan, and deputed his brother Kuhndil
to the Persian court in earnest of his professions.
In the following year, Dost Muhammad, having restored Herat to
his kingdom, died there on the 9th of June in a ripe old age, and
was succeeded by the appointed heir, the present Amir Sher Ali
Khán. He hastened to Kabul to take up the reins of government; but
ere he reached the capital commenced those plots and divisions that
presently involved the country in a long-foreseen anarchy and
bloodshed.
At this juncture Táj Muhammad’s envoy to Tehran returned to
Sistan, accompanied by some of the principal Persian officers who,
on a former occasion, had come to the country with the late Ali
Khán. The chief of these, Sartip Sálih Muhammad, not finding the
Sistani quite so amenable as he had wished for, suddenly broke off
his relations with them, and hastily retired from the country to
Ghazn, vowing condign vengeance on the part of the Persian
Government.
The Sárbandi chiefs, now fearful of the consequences, deputed
one Sohráb Bey, a trusty agent, to the Kandahar governor,
deprecating his neglect of Sistan affairs, and, as a part of
Afghanistan, seeking protection against the encroachments of Persia.
This was in 1864, at a time when the new Amir had his hands full of
more important and more pressing troubles that threatened the very
existence of his throne, and the affairs of Sistan were consequently
left to adjust themselves as best they could; but an envoy, Ahmad
Khán, Kákarr, was sent with the returning agent to reassure the
people and learn the true state of affairs.
Táj Muhammad, now finding that there was no hope of support
from Kandahar, again deputed his brother Kuhudil to Tehran. He was
here detained as a hostage; and a Persian army invaded Sistan, and
took possession of the country in the name of the Sháh in 1865. In
the spring of 1867 Táj Muhammad was deposed and sent prisoner to
Tehran, and Mír ’Alam Khán of Gháyn was appointed Persian
governor of the district, with the title of Hashmat-ul-Mulk.
With the deportation of Táj Muhammad ended the influence of the
Sárbandi in Sistan. Under the Persian rule the power of the local
chiefs has become centred in Sharíf Khán, the Nahroe Baloch, who
has risen from an insignificant position entirely by his Persian
connection.
 The Shahrki tribe, who were brought into Sistan at the same time
as the Sárbandi, were first settled under their chief, Mír Chákar, at
Dashtak, Pulkí, Wásilán, and other villages on the Hámún. Mír
Chákar was succeeded by his son Mír Beg, and he by his son Mír
Háshim, in whose time their possessions were considerably
increased by encroachments on the lands of the rapidly declining
Kayáni. Mír Háshim was succeeded by his son Mír Mahdi, and he by
his brother Mír Muhammad ’Ali, who is now a hostage at Tehran. The
tribe occupy twelve or fourteen villages, and number about three
thousand families in Sistan.
By some accounts, the Shahrki are said to be a section of the
Muhammad Hassani or Mammassání division of the Brahoe tribe;
and according to local tradition, they were driven out of Sistan by
the invasion of Tymúr, and sought refuge in the adjoining province of
Kirmán. Tymúr’s son and successor, Sháh Rúkh, collected their
scattered families, and located them at Búrújard, near Rúm, in
Persia, where they were known by the name of Sháh Rukhi or
Shahrki. From this they were resettled in Sistan and the adjoining
districts of Kirmán and Lár by Nadír Sháh, at the same time that he
transported the Sárbandi from the same locality near Hamadán to
Sistan. The Sárbandi are supposed to be the descendants of the
ancient Persians or Gabars (or Guebres), and in Persia occupied the
lands adjoining those given to the Shahrki. Their name is said to be
derived from that of the locality occupied by them.
Such, in brief, is a history of the several tribes now occupying
Sistan. Their rival interests, and their constant struggles for
ascendancy one over the other, sufficiently account for the anarchy
and confusion that have characterised the normal condition of this
country during the past century, or, in other words, since the death
of Sháh Ahmad, Durrani. The decline of the government,
commencing in the reign of his successor, Sháh Tymúr, and ending in
its overthrow in the succeeding reign of Sháh Zamán, and the
subsequent transference of the rule from the Saddozais to the
Bárakzais in the time of Sháh Mahmúd, was not without its influence
on the political condition of Sistan; and we find that the province,
which was incorporated as an integral part of the empire established
by the founder of the Durrani monarchy, gradually, on the decline of
the paramount power, lapsed from its allegiance, and, perforce of
the local circumstances at the time determining, became divided into
more or less independent chiefships, which, for the furtherance of
their individual interests, attached themselves as dependencies of
the nearest provincial governments, of Kandahar on the one side
and Herat on the other. And such continued to be the political
relations of the country until the Persian occupation of Herat in
1856. After the ensuing Persian war, and the evacuation of Herat
territory by the Persians, the Sistan chiefs continued more or less
under the influence of Persian intrigue, a course in which they were
encouraged by M. Khanikoff’s mission in the spring of 1859; and the
result of their dealings with the Persian court, as already detailed,
ended in their invasion and annexation of the country in 1865.
Of the ancient history of Sistan we have no connected record.
Such notices of the country as are met with in the pages of various
authors are very few, scant in detail, and separated by wide intervals
of time. Malcolm’s “History of Persia” contains a full account of the
early Persian dynasties, and the country of Sistan, or Zabulistan, as
it was also called, is frequently mentioned as the theatre of their
military exploits.
For the Persians the country has a peculiar interest, as being the
birthplace and home of their legendary hero, the renowned Rustam,
son of Zál, the fifth in descent from the Persian Jamshed by a
princess of Sistan. Zál, says the authority above quoted, married
Rúdábah, daughter of Mehráb, king of Kabul, and of the race of
Zohák. Their offspring, Rustam, was cut out of her side when
stupefied by drugs, according to the secret imparted to Zál by the
Griffin of Elburz. The romance of this hero’s life is as varied as it is
improbable, and affords an untiring theme of delight to the Persian
story-teller and his auditors. His fame is the subject of song in every
village, and there is hardly a hill in the country that does not possess
a spot sanctified by tradition as the scene of some of his many
exploits and feats against dragons, demons, or genii, and other such
figures of fancy.
Later mention of this country is found in the pages of the
historians of Alexander’s Asiatic conquests, under the name of
Drangia, so designated from its principal river, the Drangius, now
called Helmand or Hermand, whose course Alexander followed in his
progress eastward, probably through the Garmsel. On the return
march of the Macedonian army from India in 325 B.C., this country
was traversed by the force under the command of Craterus.
The Rev. J. Williams, in his “Life of Alexander the Great,” following
the account by Arrian, states that whilst Alexander himself took the
route parallel to the littoral, and the fleet voyaging under command
of Nearchus, which led across the desert of Gedrosia, the modern
Makrán, to Carmania or Kirmán, Craterus had already proceeded
“with the elephants, the heavy baggage, the feeble, the old, and the
wounded, and with three brigades of the phalanx,” towards the
same destination, through the fertile countries of the Arachosi and
Drangæ.
In this march it is probable that Craterus followed the ancient
caravan route between India and Persia, which led from Dehra Gházi
Khán on the Indus, to Kirmán and the Persian Gulf by the Tal
Chhotiyálí road to Peshín and Kandahar, and thence by the valley of
the Helmand to Sistan, and onwards by the Nihbandán road to
Kirmán. At this period the country must have been in a much more
flourishing and populous condition than it is now.
The rule of the Greek satraps was followed, 226 a.d., by the
dynasty of the house of Sassan, which commenced with the reign of
Ardshir Bábakán. Under the Shapori sovereigns of this family, Sistan
appears to have been a flourishing seat of the Zoroastrians, since
most of the coins now found in the country belong to this period.
The Sassan dynasty fell before the rising power of the Arabs, and
ended with the death of Yezdijird, the last sovereign of that house,
who, fleeing to Sistan before the conquering Arabs, ultimately
escaped to Marv, where he was murdered, 651 a.d., by a miller with
whom he had taken refuge. During the two centuries of Arab rule,
Sistan appears to have attained to the highest state of prosperity,
and to have enjoyed a stable and just government, as is evidenced
by the character and vast extent of the ruins pertaining to that
period.
About the middle of the ninth century the Arab rule in Sistan was
replaced by that of the Sufári dynasty, of native origin. According to
Malcolm, to whose excellent History I am indebted for most of my
information on this interesting country, the founder of this dynasty,
Yácúb bin Leth or Lais, belonged to a family of potters of Sistan. In
youth he abandoned the peaceful calling of his ancestors for the
more exciting life of a robber, and in 851 a.d. took service with one
Sálih bin Nasr, who had usurped the government of Sistan. Proving a
man of parts, he was appointed by Sálih’s successor, Dirham bin
Nasr, to the command of his army, and soon made use of his
position to usurp the government for himself, establishing his capital
at Doshák. In 868 he added Herat, Kirmán, and Shiraz to his
possessions, and a couple of years later extended them to Kabul in
one direction, and Nishabor in the other. He was succeeded by his
brother, Amir bin Leth, who was made prisoner by the Tátár Ismáil
Sámání, and sent to Baghdad, where he was executed in 901. With
him fell the Sufári dynasty, but his descendants continued to hold
Sistan till it was taken from Kulif, the last prince of the Leth family,
by Mahmúd of Ghazni, towards the close of the century.
In Mahmúd’s time, Sistan, as described by Ibn Haukal, was a most
flourishing country, and the lower course of the Helmand as far as
Búst presented an uninterrupted succession of populous cities, whilst
the country as far as Zirrah was intersected by numerous great
canals that rendered the land proverbially fertile. At this period, too,
Sistan was noted for the existence of a gold-mine, which, after
yielding a rich store of the precious metal for many years, was
suddenly swallowed up and its site obliterated by an earthquake.
Tradition points to no particular spot as the locality of this mine, and
at this distance of time, with our scant knowledge of the country, it
is useless to speculate on the subject, particularly if we bear in mind
the fact that the limits of Sistan in the time of Mahmúd, were far
more extensive than they are at the present day.
At that period, now eight centuries ago, Sistan comprised all that
extensive region drained by the several rivers that converged and
emptied their waters into the hámún or “lake basin” of Sistan and its
accessory the marsh of Zirrah. According to Ibn Haukal, who wrote
in the reign of Mahmúd, this extensive region was known under the
names of Zabulistan and Sijistan or Sistan, and comprised the whole
of the southern portion of the present kingdom of Afghanistan, or all
that portion not included within the limits of Kabulistan. It included
the districts of Ghazni, Síbí, Shál, Mastung, and Peshín to the east
and south, and those of Zamíndáwar, Ghor, Gháyn, and Nih on the
north and west.
The term Sijistan or Sistan applied commonly to the whole of the
region thus bounded, and Zabulistan was restricted to its northern
parts, whilst the southern were also known by the name of Nímroz,
and included the modern Sistan, which represents but a trivial
portion of the area included in the Sakistan of the Greeks and the
Sagestan or Sijistan of the Arabs. Further, the whole Sijistan country
is included in the more extensive region of Khorassan, which
comprises all that elevated mountain tract bounded by the valley of
the Indus on the east, and that of the Oxus on the north, the salt
desert of Kirmán and Yazd on the west, and the sea of Omán on the
south.
At the present day it is difficult to define the precise limits of
Sistan. The old name of Sagestan or Sijistan it appears applied to
the great basin of the hydrographic system that centred in the
ancient lakes, and which is represented by the plains of Kandahar
and the valleys connected with it through their drainage. It extends
eastward to the vicinity of Ghazni, and southward to the plain of
Shorawak; whilst to the northward it includes the valleys of the
Argandáb and Upper Helmand, called Zamíndáwar, and farther
westward those of the Farráh river and the Harút Rúd or Adraskand,
which drains the Sabzwár, or, as it is commonly written, Ispzár
district.
The modern name of Sistan is applied only to the actual bed of
the former lake that at some remote prehistoric period occupied the
south-west portion of Afghanistan, and is besides limited par
excellence only to a small portion of its area in the immediate
vicinity of the present lakes or lagoons formed by the
disemboguement of the several rivers converging to this point.
Of this limited area, called hámún, the boundaries have already
been described. The more extended area of the great lacustrine
basin is clearly marked by a bold coast-line of desert cliffs. Those on
the north and east borders are formed by the prolongation westward
of the Kandahar steppes, and on the south and south-east by the
cliffs and bluffs of the great sandy desert of Balochistan, whilst to
the south and west its borders are formed by the hill-skirts of the
Sarhadd and Bandán mountains respectively.
The coasts thus indicated present a very irregular outline, ranging
from two hundred to four hundred feet above the level of the
lacustrine basin, and towards the west and north form long estuaries
represented by the valleys of the Helmand, Khásh, Farráh, and Harút
rivers. The basin itself extends upwards of two hundred miles from
north to south, that is, from the Farráh mountains to those of
Sarhadd, and presents a remarkable variation in the level of its
surface. Its northern portion, occupied by the two lagoons formed by
the convergence in it of the several rivers draining thereto and the
intervening and surrounding swamps, is separated from the southern
and much lower portion by a tract of elevated waste land, which
presents a coast-line similar to that bounding the whole basin, but of
much inferior elevation.
Where we saw this coast-line, in the vicinity of Burj Alam, it
evidently formed the boundary of a long-deserted delta of the
Helmand, the present hámún, and stretched across the plain from
east to west, presenting an irregular front of clay banks and bluffs
from sixty to eighty feet high. Towards the west the land sinks to a
wide channel called Sarshela, or “head ravine.” It runs north and
south from the hámún near Koh Khojah to the Godi Zirrah, or “Zirrah
hollow,” which occupies the southern portion of the lacustrine
district.
In seasons of excessive flood, when the lagoons and surrounding
swamps are overfilled, the superfluous waters find a passage
through the Sarshela to the Godi Zirrah, the lowest hollow of which
is, except in seasons of drought, occupied by a swamp similar to
that of the Koh Khojah. We did not visit the Zirrah hollow, and
consequently did not see the swamp said to exist there. We were
informed, however, that, like the swamps in the northern portion of
the basin, it had been dried up owing to the drought of the last four
years.
The desiccation of these swamps and the reduced size of the
existing lagoons may point to the manner in which the original lake
diminished in size and gradually dried up, the main cause in both
cases being a diminished volume in the streams terminating at this
point. In the general aspect of the country we observed no
indications of any cataclysm by which the waters were drained off
from this basin. The deposits brought down by the Helmand and
other rivers entering at the north of the lake raised its bed in this
direction, and displaced the waters farther south; and it is not
difficult to understand how they might have been entirely dissipated
by the process of evaporation, for they appear to have been spread
over the surface in a shallow sea, without the aid of other causes
that have obtained during the historic period.
Were the Helmand and other rivers allowed to empty into the
hámún the full volume of their floods, they would again cover the
whole basin with an uninterrupted sheet of water bordered by
swamps, as is now the case in a small portion only of its northern
part, but subject to variation in extent and depth by the effects of
evaporation and other causes.
It is probable that the basin has never been thus submerged
during the period that the region draining into it has been an
inhabited country. The ruins now existing on the surface of the
lacustrine bed are evidence in support, whilst the enormous
quantities withdrawn for purposes of irrigation, and the vastly
increased surface thus exposed to evaporation, aided by the drying
effects of the north-west wind, which prevails here for nearly half
the year, are of themselves sufficient causes to explain the limited
area of the present lagoons and marshes. These owe their continued
existence to the hot-weather floods, otherwise the rivers are mostly
exhausted by evaporation and diversions for irrigation before they
reach the hámún, which, after all, can only be viewed as the
receptacle for the hot-weather floods, for during several months of
the year the rivers, with the exception of the Helmand, are
completely exhausted by the causes indicated long before they reach
the hámún. Even the Helmand, since the Persian occupation of the
country, has been diverted from its course at Kohak, and carried off
in the Mádariáb channel to irrigate the country south of the Koh
Khojah, as has been before mentioned.
To return, however, to the history of the country. On the downfall
of the dynasty of Mahmúd of Ghazni, Sistan, in common with the
rest of Khorassan, fell under the sway of the Afghan princes of Ghor,
and under their empire maintained its former prosperity, until the
Mughal invasion under Janghiz Khán in 1222, when it was laid waste
by his destructive hordes of Tátárs. The country had scarcely
recovered from the shock of this invasion, when (a.d. 1383) Tymúr
the Tátár swept over it with his ruthless hosts, and reduced it to a
state of utter ruin and desolation. His son, Sháh Rúkh, attempted to
restore its prosperity, but effected no more than the settlement of a
few thousand Persian colonists on its devastated lands. About
eighty-five years after Tymúr’s invasion, Sistan fell under the power
of his descendant, Sultán Husen, Bykara, whose capital was at
Herat; but it appears to have been still a neglected country,
abandoned to the robber tribes thrown together here by the
convulsions of the age.
On the establishment of the Saffavi dynasty in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, Sistan became settled, and to some extent
recovered its prosperity and population gradually under native chiefs
descended from the ancient ruling family, and holding their patents
from the Persian kings of the Saffavi dynasty. But on the destruction
of this dynasty at the hands of the Afghans of Kandahar, it once
more became the sport of the conqueror; and in 1737 was reduced
to its present state of ruin and desolation by Nadír Sháh, the Afshár
robber, the usurper of the Persian throne, the invader of India, and
the author of the massacre and plunder of Delhi in 1739.
After the death of this great conqueror in 1747, the vast empire he
had brought together under his sovereignty, from the Jumna to the
Tigris, rapidly fell asunder, and, after many vicissitudes of fortune
under the conflicting aspirations and interests of a host of claimants,
was ultimately partitioned between the Cajars in Persia, the Uzbaks
in Bukhára, and the Durranis in Khorassan. The division was a
natural one, geographically, politically, and ethnologically; the
elevated plateaux and desert wastes of Persia for the Irani, the
fertile plains and wide steppes of Turkistan for the Uzbak Tátár, and
the mountain fastnesses and tablelands of Khorassan for the Afghan.
Each in his own limits was the rightful lord of the soil, and each was
separated from the other by natural geographical boundaries, which
came to be recognised also as the political limits of the three new
nationalities of Central Asia.
Thus Persia, with its Shia population and organised form of
government, was separated from Afghanistan and its Sunni
population, with their patriarchal form of government, by the long
strip of desert extending from Kirmán in the south to Mashhad in the
north, and forming a belt of division between the highlands of Irani
Khorassan and the more extensive region of that name known by
the national appellations of Afghanistan and Balochistan, whilst each
was separated respectively from the slave-hunting Turkmans of
Khiva and the priest-ridden Sunni bigots of Bukhára by the saline
deserts of Sarrakhs and Marv on the one side, and the Afghan states
of Bulkh and the river Oxus on the other.
 In this division of Nadír’s empire, Sistan, as much from natural
geographical position as from political necessity, became
incorporated with the new kingdom of Afghanistan, and it has since
continued to form an integral part of the Durrani monarchy until its
recent annexation and occupation by the Persians.
The climate of Sistan is decidedly insalubrious, and unfavourable
alike to the healthy growth and comfort of both man and beast. The
seasons are characterised by extremes of heat and cold in the
summer and winter. Sand-storms, extremely injurious to the
eyesight, are of frequent occurrence in the spring months; whilst in
the autumn a hot steamy vapour, rising from the evaporation of the
summer floods, pervades the atmosphere, and to the plague of
gnats and musquitoes adds the pestilence of malarious fevers.
Sheep and cows thrive upon the rank pastures bordering the
marshes; but horses and buffaloes cannot live in the country for
several months of the year, owing to the worry of myriads of gnats
and stinging flies.
The natives of the country are of inferior physical development,
and the common people remarkable for their repulsive features and
personal untidiness. Most of the people we saw about the villages
had unhealthy sallow complexions; and I observed a marked
prevalence of chlorotic anœmia from chronic disease of the spleen.
The common diseases of the country are fevers, ophthalmic
affections, rheumatism, and small-pox. The principal employments of
the people are agriculture and breeding cattle. Some families are
occupied solely as hunters, fowlers, and fishermen, and others live
exclusively by handicrafts, as weavers, cobblers, potters, &c. During
the cold season immense numbers of wild-fowl, swans (here called
cú or ghú), and pelicans are trapped and shot for their feathers and
fat, which fetch a high price in the Kandahar market.
The language current in Sistan is a mixed dialect of Persian, in
which are found many Pushto, Baloch, and Turki words; but amongst
themselves the several tribes speak their own mother tongues, as
the Afghans Pushto, the Baloch Balockki, the Sárbandi and Persians
Persian, and so on. Our short stay in this country and the
unfavourable conditions of our relations with the people, prevented
our learning much concerning their manners and customs or their
language and its affinities.
Some native words applied to localities from some distinguishing
characteristic appear to belong to an ancient stock, and afford a field
for speculation to the philologist. Such are Biring Hissár, or “the fort
on a mound” (Arabic, hissár = fort, and Sistani, biring = mound);
Biring Kaftár, or “the mound of hyænas” (Persian, kaftár = hyæna);
Daki Tír, or “the arrow (straight) ridge” (Sistan, dak = ridge, and
Persian, tír = arrow, and, metaphorically, straight); Daki Dela, or
“the cyperus reed-ridge,” (Pushto, dela = cyperus grass); Chakná
Súr, or “the fort of birds” (Brahoe, chak = bird; ná, sign of genitive;
and Arabic súr = a fort), so named probably from its situation at the
spot where wild-fowls and swans have from time immemorial been
yearly snared and hunted; Sih Koha, or “the three hills” (Persian, sih
= three, and koh = hill); Chilling or Shilling, (the place of) “bursting”
or “overflowing,” probably from its situation where the hámún or
lake overflows and bursts its barriers (Brahoe, chilling = bursting,
and shilling = overflowing); Gódor “the hollow” (Persian, god = lap
or hollow), &c. Other suggestive words, the names of villages in
Sistan, are Bolay, Warmál, Banjár, Iskil, Khadang, Kechyán, Laff,
Kimak, Shitak, Pulkí, Jazínak, Tiflak, Ishkinak, Sadkí, &c. Many
villages are named after their founders, and generally they are found
to occupy the sites of more ancient towns. These modern names in
many cases serve to fix the dates of the new settlements or the
restoration of old ruins.
For example, the present Jahánábád, built on the site of Biring
Hissár, is named after Khán Jahán, Sanjarání Baloch, who restored
the ruins of the old fort and repeopled the town at the
commencement of the present century. Similarly Burj ’Alam, the
“tower” or “citadel” built by ’Alam Khán, Nahroe Baloch, also about
the commencement of the present century; Jalálabad, amongst the
ruins of Doshák, named after Jaláluddín, Kayáni; Bahrámabad,
named after Malik Bahrám, the Kayáni chief during the last quarter
of the preceding century; Sharíf Khán, the village built by Sharíf
Khán, Nahroe Baloch; Nasírabad, the town of Nasír Khán, Kayáni;
Burj Sarband, the citadel or castle of the Sárbandi; Burj Afghan, the
castle of the Afghans. Záhidán retains the name of the ruins
amongst which it is situated. The name means “monks,” and is the
Persian plural of the Arabic záhid, a monk; perhaps in the Arab
period it contained a monastery or Muhammadan college, and hence
the name.
The study of these local names is full of interest, and not without
advantageous results. I believe if the inquiry were fully followed up,
it would confirm the statements of history, and prove that the
present population are, with the exception of the Kayáni and their
Sistani subjects, only immigrants since the period of Nadír’s
usurpation of the throne of Persia; and further, the inquiry, by
tracing the genealogy and traditionary accounts of the chiefs after
whom the villages are named, would enable us to form a tolerably
correct idea of the progress of the population of the country since
the period of its devastation by the Tátárs under Tymúr, and serve as
a guide to the illustration of its local history and politics.
 CHAPTER IX.
15th March.—Silyán to Lásh, eighteen miles, and halt two days.
Our baggage proceeded by the direct route northward across the
ruin-covered plain. The road is three or four miles shorter than that
followed by ourselves, and passes the shrine of Saggid Icbál, the
lofty dome of which overtops the surrounding ruins, and is a
prominent object in the midst of their desolation.
We ourselves made a detour to the westward, and visited the
ruins of Kol Márút, where we were told we should find an inscription
to the following effect, viz.—

“Kol Márút khúshá ba sari ráh o guzar.

’Abash zamzam o khákhash hama zar.
Agar khwáhi jamáli Kába daryábi biram be masjidi Kol Márút ba
wacti sahar.
Chaf chaf chafri chafúr, chapi dasti chop haft khumi zar.”

Which, translated into English, runs thus—“Welcome Kol Márút on

the very high road and passage. Its water is that of Zamzam (a
celebrated well at Mecca), and its earth is all gold. If you desire to
enjoy the beauty of the Kába (the square temple at Mecca), go to
the mosque of Kol Márút at day-dawn. Chaf chaf chafri chafúr (cant
words), on the left of the left hand are seven jars of gold.” On arrival
at the ruins, however, nobody could point out the inscription; and
after wandering amongst the buildings for some time in a fruitless
search of it, we proceeded on our way rather disappointed at our
failure, and confirmed in a suspicion that the inscription and the
wealth enigmatically alluded to were alike mere myths.
The mosque of Kol Márút is a large building, and still retains some
very fairly preserved plaster moulding on the façades of its portal.
The designs are in Arabesque, and worked into sentences from the
Curán in the ancient Cufic character. Adjoining the mosque are some
quadrangular buildings, said to be the remains of colleges. The
cloisters were easily traceable; and in one of the vaulted chambers
we found, in a recess of the wall, imprinted on the plaster, a masonic
design of crossed triangles and stars.
After clearing the ruins we struck on the high road between Hokát
and Sistan, and following it in a north-east direction for four or five
miles, at half-way came to Khyrabad, where we alighted for
breakfast in some ruins hard by.
Khyrabad—the abode of welfare and goodness—is a sad
contradiction to the import of its name, for a more dreary, poor, and
unhappy place we have not seen in this country. It is the first
inhabited spot we have come to since crossing the Sistan boundary
at Naizár, and is merely a dilapidated castle containing twenty or
thirty houses of Popalzai Afghans. Outside the walls, within gunshot
range, are a few fields of corn, irrigated from the small water-cut
from the Farráh river, which flows a couple of miles to the north-
west of the fort. Around it the plain is thickly dotted with tall ruins,
which, on the opposite side of the river, are massed together in the
form of a considerable town. These ruins are called Kogháh, and are
situated at the foot of a low hill called Koh Ghúch, on which we were
told there are the ruins of numberless smelting furnaces and heaps
of iron slag. The hill overlooks the pool or hámún of the Farráh river
from the north.
The ruins around Khyrabad have a very peculiar appearance. Each
house is detached from the others, and stands apart by itself, and all
are built on exactly the same model. We examined several of them,
and finally took refuge in one of them for breakfast from the keen
blasts of the north wind, which swept over the plain with
considerable force. Each house consists of two lofty walls
strengthened by buttresses, and running north and south parallel to
each other at a width of about twenty feet. The front faces the
south, and is open; the rear faces the north, and is closed by a high
wall connecting the parallel side ones. In its upper half, towards the
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