The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-10-01 00:00:00

A FORMER
.IMMISMT
.TO. CABUL

That ilitiCar-- Th.alTriland--Khali-, -MO-ad- -cave been
selected as the rendezvous of a column which may have to
advance into Edell will not seem strange to those who
remember the course taken by the Mission to Candahar in
1857. Entering the Afghan territory at this point, Lorna-
clen's party advanced up the beautiful Kirwan valley, and
over the range beyond, till at the villas. of Shailthabad
they struck the military road that connects Ghazni with
the capital. On that occesion the escort required when
paging from Kobel to Thul, through territory nominally
British, with two guns, a troop of cavalry. and three
companies of infantry. The Woriris, a numerous and
very powerful tribe, had then only just come under British
rule, and bad not even felt the principles of orderly
government They Sr. still one of the most lawless cote 1
munition upon the Indian frontier, but the taint official
report on their conduet announces that "their conduct is
from year to year visibly improving." Nevertheless, they
continue to enjoy by stealth their old tribal feuds, for the
M•haud and Darwesh nevi Waxbill are still the hest of
enemies. Nor when in 1877 the Ameer of Cabal suddenly
reinforced his garrisons in the Karam valley and in Khasi
were there wanting turbulent spirits to anticipate the
disturbance that might be pending by private hostilities.
That action of the Arnow has never yet been explained,
nor is it known why within the last year or so his High-
ness should have come to display so remarkable •
partiality f. re thie border tribe. The head men of the
Weeris are now periodically summoned to Cebu', whence
they return bearing handsome presents from Shoes All
Khan. Perhaps the astute hill men knew more than they
chose to tell, but the appearance of General Roberts with
his Snider rifles will, in • few days, explain to them that '
their secret was not so well kept alter AIL Tim Snider
rifle is • thing of terror to the *ail-armed mountaineers. •
and save under exceptionable circumsthnres they will not '
face that arm. But as the bulk of the tribe remain, to all
appearance, friendly, there is no reason for referring '
further to this dislike. It is more pleased to resell the
fact that the one thing the Oriental free lance likes, next
to aiir plunder I. muter pay. Should a demonstration
among the fortified villages that nestle in the orchards
and cornfields of the Koran valley be called foe. the
Wasiris will be in great requisition as scouts and
akinulthers, and even &moue them wild-eat races of the
frontier the "Sicker ha tubul"--Government pay-is pro-
verbially punctual. For although they are essentially
fight* matt the Wasiri. are penny wise, and while
drisadd even by their rough neighbour, for their ferucsous
bravery, they are envied for the mum, of wealth which
. they poems and cleverly keep ti themselves in their
' fatuous breed of hones It is distinguished by a peculiar
curve and twist of the oar, and remarkeble =lone the
horses of India for Pa wiry, hardy frame and MA tamper.
Among themselves they savor Moe their steeds, but ride
them harehoofed and often barebacked up and down their
do., roue bills as if they were maialite centaur.. So
highly do they prise the exclusive possession of the breed
that they will never sell • mare, but • market is held
periodically at Thul for the sale of harms.
The Mission of 18/1Z made many strange experiences,
which, as they may he in store for the other Mission that
is preparing to-day, are full of present interest. Starting
fr ,m Thul, they found themselves traversing • ravine
eeore.l valley, covered with the frarcent "k00k...," in
which innumerable sounders of wild pia found pleasant
+overt, The mart • cutthroat bend of brigands.
i..,,0-iied the tourney by performing extraordinary feats
o(lio
.roanship in pursuit of the startled swine. Next
rir -.... bad to be forded, and as the current was
then (in )Li;e.jo 7.17 rapid, the wild horsemen had plenty
of opportunity to ~..!istlay their skill and courage in
piloting the baggage of lc: stranger, accross. Per twenty
mil.s of difficult and rocky roi.:.! n° inhabitants or animal
life, hardly any vegetation was meollntered. but &Percale
ing Boghssi the travellers found • hamill of Iced am, in
which every male went fully armed, and it is thus
literally true that while one man ploughs another stands
on the watch rifle la hand. The Torts of &whoa are all
thieve., and when a male child is born, the
ceremony consists In putting the infant burglal;&&4l46l
1:111
a hole in a wall, while his relatives exhort him to be •
thief" heart and hand," as his father and grandfther were
before them. • multi:respite, used for breaking holes
through the mud wells of neighbours' houses with
larcenous intent, is • part of the regular furniture of •
Tons hone.: it is looked upon as • household chattel. Past
of the regular outfit a young couple should set up in life
with. From Floghsai to Saddah, thirteen milm, a succes-
sion of corn fields and orchards occupied the banks of
, the Korean, but the loopholled huti peeping out amens
' the fruit trees told her own strange tail of the life that
ia ea usual in this Arcsida.
When aiming the fort the Mission was received with
prompted arms by five competitor of a red-coated regi-
ment, whilst • mints of twenty-one guns was fired from
a brass battery, and then a baud of original inatruments
struck up in honour of the amnion the British National
Anthem I It was original also. The fort of Karam is
described as of large extent, posesesing eight buttons,
each surmounted by a round tower, and the whole sur-
rounded with a moat crowed by drawbridges with
covered ways. no scenery here is superb, and in the
magnificent forests that cloths the hills large and small
game, from tigers to pheasants, abound, while the river
flowing below was found to be literally stocked with foe
mahneer. Many linglish trees—the hawthorn, rICIIIIOn,
oak, eel, tiorseehaitnut—grow here aide by ads with the
ceder and olive, fig and mulberry. Hare the Minion we,
halted for four der', not to enjoy the natural beauties of
the spot, boat to Ova alma for certain murderers' banditti,
who bad occupied the road with the object of iaterceertini
the trendier*, to more of• As they Wooed to do WI the
)(lesion had to altar Its route so is to avoid the obstruction,
and while they marched out by the alternative path. the
red-coated regiment marched of in high glee to chastise
the obstructive., the bend plating out the warriors to
scrimmage and plunder to the tam of " Rule Brltennlia*
The remarkable reperreirs of the musicians provoked in.
(miry, and it was then discovered that the leader of the
band was a deserter from a native regiment at Peshawur,
who had taken service with the chief of Karma, but who
had forgotten alibis tunes except the two spec. Mad above.
and • few bars of " The giii I hit behind me.. . This was
smelly gime at 'tattoo."
Firma the fart the travellers Mamma through the
volley, here frem eighteen to twenty miles in width, and
seceded with orchards sad onnaelda interspersed es
Et., willateutastleduallthars...•o4 ea amal also, inhabited
' a. im;7l6l.74k=""'"ffitli

was at Habib KM; picturesquely situated at the foot of
the Site Ram peak of the Sufaid Hod Tommie its bar
this superb mountain is densely covered with a growth of
oak and olive, above which in • broad dark cincture run
belts of pine and cedar, while over all springs .1, the great
snowcapped peak, The Wage is otherwise reniarkable
as containing • large Hindu Population, who engage in an
extensive Dade between the cities of India and
Afghanistan. During the halt rumours got afloat that
the Jail tribe had mustered in force on the other side of
the bill and meantni is chief. much to the delight of the
Toris on this side, who hoped that their hereditary foes
' might by creating a diaturbance incur official wrath, and
that they themselves might he able to step in, after the
chastisement of the authorities had sufficiently weakened
and cowed the JtjiA, to indict private aengeence upon
them. Such far-seeing malignity would have been
remarkable among oth-r roe., but the Jail and Tod
nourish so deadly a hatred of each other that no member
of either tribe dares to errs the hill that separates them!
The Lire's, however, apprehended no danger, and,
marching through the splendid Alpine scenery, were
concerned only w•th the beauty of the landw.ap. when
' suddenly the outinoon yell of • pipe, followed by
the sounds of • drum—the war music of the Jalis —burst
upon their era. Immediately afterwards upon thew eight
• horst • bend of fifty men, brandishing wildly
the fornild•
able Afghan knives they carried and chanting • war song. •
As U to nick, • murderous attack upon the Mission, they
leapt forward to within • few yards, but the wicortdasbed
forward, interposing themselves between use uplifted
fOrranil the Jalis quietly allowed the cavalcade to
yna' uamoleeted. The next Instant two black beam,
startled from their lair by the noise, came out upon the
path, and ODO of the party fired. The bears were doomed
slaw:Law; bu.t the ••420
the shot, .oriteol•Zi4 tun t.tett.d.owil their
tOODt• resulted in • cal BP follower v;io had ll,gxedvage aebind
being hacked to piece. Though the atrocious art was
oommitted in full sight of the baggage wort. prniahment
Dan inirosailile, for the fahe leapt away over and anosee
the rorks with th• slyed of Ificoksys, and disappeergal
from sight as soddenly r they hal come. Another
illuetratlon of the exceptional savagery of the tribe in
afforded by the nature of their huta. mess are square
structure. of stone and mud, erected on log platforms and
profusely loophole& Tea warm, is from beneath, by •
trap-door and rope ladder, which is drawn up when the
tame*u ie heard. When neighbouring families are at
feud, they keep such • vigilant eye on their "shooting
boxes" that not unfrequently they ate shut up mutually
for weeks torethrr..

Towarls the Mission they continued obstinately hostile,
and at Ali Khml a tragedy seemed hourly imminent. The
.lay long
pitched in the midst of a laji village, and
all long knots of the wild-looking savages danced
and ye round their tents and escort, in the hope that
the guards would he provoked into giving offeoce by the
insult, and taunts they never ceased to pour out upon
them On every eminence in the neighbourhood circle*
of Jain were revolving widell, to the music of the pipes
and drums, flourishing their knives and yelling in
encouragement or responm to each other. In the camp
itself a wore serious order of performance obtained, for
there the lajis, armed to the teeth, tramped in
columns round and round the tent*, chanting a strange
nag meg. No breach of the peantoccurred, how-
ever, and next morning the Mistion prepared to continue
It, journey towards Rokian. All night ominous drums
had been eounding, and it now appeared that they had
been summoning the tribes to a general muster, and not
without success, for an army of sdam Jails, under the
leadership of an Akundrada (" wisehorn,- a tenu applied
only to those roost revered for piety or learning), had
amenable] to dispute the peerage of the defiles. A council
was held, and it was decided to Send for succour to the
Kuram Fort and to Cabul, but for the latter journey no
one would volunteer. The short cut to the capital would
have taken a good horseman four days, while the popula-
tion arm eminently dangerous, and the mountain passes,
from the heavy snow still lying frequently impracticable.
Negotiation, were, therefore, opened, the .faps receiving
all overtures with fierce yells and frantic leaping's, whiles
chosen body continued to intone their abominably
impressive war cnant. But eventually they calmed down.
The spokesman of the Mission appealed to the savage
maniacs honour—their honour as Afghans, their honour
ae Afghan gentlemen—and the appeal was irresistable,
for it is • remarkable psychological feet that them people,
hardly human, know no oath so potent as that on their
"honour." Fifty of them had thought nothing • few days
before of setting upon a single unanneal and inoffensive
load-carrier, of their own creed and race, and hacking him
to pieces with their knives; but they let the Minion pees
unscathed upon the argument that their "honour"
rognind it. But though they did not murderthe travellers,
, they caned them as they defiled past, Ins low, rolling
wormer of imprecations. It WA, fortunate, perhaps, for
I them that they allowed honourable feelings to triumph,
for • mile further on the Mission fell in with an Afghan
chief of GlaiLuis, who hail at his call 10,0110 cut-throat,
as bad as the lajis, with whom they were, of course,
at deadly fuel. How hard, then, it must have
I seemed to the Jaji mind when, six weeks later • Csbul
I army suddenly descended upon them and, in punishment
I for their rude behaviour to the friends of the Arneer,
billeted itself upon the villages of the honourahle folk for
' three month', made the" wimborn " person collect three
thomand rupees as a fine, and carried away with it back
to Cabul all their mules and rattle, acd many of the JAB
youths and maidens. From Rokian to Haze., through a
noble game country, as the numerous horns ef ibex and
markbor testified, and so on by the" Defile of the Thou-
sand Trees" to the outpost of Kant Sing, the boundary
between the Jai land Chilled territories. From here to Hama
or Ur-ha Muraha, forage and food were for the fleet time
warm, but U. horses ate freely the wild wormwood which
was growing in profusion on all sides, whin an orchid
with thick &stay leaves, that was found in abundance
among the wormer° A, was eagerly sought for by the
escort and camp followers as forming a favourite dish.
Re
they too, they encountered a company of name& so
vim • in the world's ways that refused money in
exchange for fodder.
And thus, making new experiences WI they went, the
Mission pawed on over "The Camera Seek" into the
valley of 'mem, where the stream sparkled with the
bright hues of the porphyry, hornblende, and sycnite
that formed Balled, and the village of Khushi, or "All
Delights," lies embosomed in green meadows and orchards.
'Melee to Hirarak, along a plateau bright with wild
!lowers, red and yellow Wipe, and orchids of several
kind.; and from there by a succession of corn crops and
fruit groves for twenty miles—a district of extrannlinary
plenty and thickly populated—to Tangi Werdah, and
down through the Ta defile, to Haider Khail—a
notorious, even in Afghanistan, for the audacity and skill
of it. robber fem, Nett Sears, where the jerboa, "the
two-footed moum" of the Persian., mis men in abund-
ance but never caught ; and then by the gorge of. "The
Lion's Mouth," and pvt the tomb of the Sultan Mannino!,
to Ghazni of fame in history. The fortress which was
blown up Iv Lord Keane in KO had been rebuilt,
a formidable-looking place with a citadel at the
north angle in a commanding situation, and containing
some LOW how*, From llhozni the route Lay across a
dreary treeless expanse of plain to Yargbatti, notable for
the number of the subtemnean aqueducts by which the
people irrigate their fields, and the number of bloody
, quarrels that arise on questionu of use and proprietorship,
and then Mukkur, where the fa ries of the district have
their capital, • certain pool overhung by a group of seven
whispentig ;Astoria trees, and in which sonic large, lazy
trout sacred to "the little people" bask out a careless life.
Over a green plain, along w I ich caravans were winding to
Gholien, the site of the alaughter of the Ghilmis by Nadir
Shah, who piled the skulls up into a pyramidam highas
the hills that spring from the plain ; and thence to
Momin Kella and Sir-i-Asp, where an escort of honour
from the (laves-nor of Khilat-i-Ghilzai net the Mission and
conducted it in pomp into the city. At the entrance
stood first the garrison presenting arms, a won-
derful regiment of tatterdemalions, officered apparently
by mountebank.. Ti first officer wore an ordinary
forage cap with a blue tail-coat, the brass anchor buttons
on which were evidence that it had once men service on a
man-of-war. The next had a scarlet shell jacket, with
white trousers—end a tall black hat. The third swaggered
In an undress military frock-coat, with • bushy fox-far
rap, which had evidently miscarried in its destination,
for it mtut have been meant for the mate of a Greenland
wham!. The fourth officer, who seemed the chief in
authority. was modestly attired in white calico, but in the
English fashion, having on his head, • genre al's cocked
hat, from which protruded defiantly • huge bunch of
white feathers. Besides theme there wan a band, consist.
. ins of some ten or a dozen performers, outrageously
dressed in all defiance of the canons of colour, in yellow
trousers with larieht green stripes down the lege and
scarlet drummers jackets and shakos. "They looked."
says Dr. Bellew, "more like • troop of harlequins than
military, and it was with difficulty In preserved a due
decorum." And them in laughter ended the journey of the
Mission of Ism. For the rest of the way to Candahar was
! an official.promenade, without incident or adventure. The
"Mission of ICE may any day receive it, order to start
' from the same point, with the same destination in view.
Will it find the Jain of Afghanistan to be men of
' honour," and will the record close in pleasant mirth I