han with trans-border
territory of Largha Sheranis and Ustaranas.]

Pathans predominate in the Daman and Jats in the Kachchhi. The
Bhittannis in the north of the district are an interesting little tribe.
The hill section lies outside our administrative border, but like the
Largha Sheranis in the south are under the political control of the
Deputy Commissioner. A good metalled road, on which there is a _tonga_
service, runs northwards from Dera Ismail Khan to Bannu.

[Sidenote: Area, 1641 sq. m.
Cultd area,
818 sq. m.
Pop. 250,086.
Land Rev.
Rs. 304,004
= L20,267.]

[Illustration: Fig. 129.]

~Bannu.~--The small Bannu district occupies a basin surrounded by hills
and drained by the Kurram and its affluent, the Tochi. It is cut off
from the Indus by the Isakhel _tahsil_ of Mianwali and by a horn of the
Dera Ismail Khan district. Bannu is now connected with Kalabagh in
Mianwali by a narrow gauge railway. An extension of this line from Laki
to Tank in the Dera Ismail Khan district has been sanctioned. There are
two _tahsils_, Bannu and Marwat. The cultivated area is about one-half
of the total area. About 30 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by
irrigation from small canals taking out of the streams. Most of the
irrigation is in the Bannu _tahsil_. The greater part of Marwat is a dry
sandy tract yielding in favourable seasons large crops of gram. But the
harvests on unirrigated land are precarious, for the annual rainfall is
only about 12 inches. The irrigated land in Bannu is heavily manured and
is often double-cropped. Wheat accounts for nearly half of the whole
crops of the district. The Marwats are a frank manly race of good
physique. The Bannuchis are hard-working, but centuries of plodding toil
on a wet soil has spoiled their bodily development, and had its share in
imparting to their character qualities the reverse of admirable. The
Deputy Commissioner has also political charge of some 17,884 tribesmen
living across the border. There are good metalled roads to Dera Ismail
Khan and Kohat, and also one on the Tochi route.

[Sidenote: Area, 2973 sq. m.
Cultd area,
512 sq. m.
Pop. 222,690.
Land Rev.
Rs. 275,462
= L18,364.]

~Kohat~ is a large district, but most of it is unfit for tillage and
only one-sixth is actually cultivated. The chief crops are wheat, 44,
and _bajra_, 26 p.c. The district stretches east and west for 100 miles
from Khushalgarh on the Indus to Thal at the mouth of the Kurram valley.