Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-11-12
a Mysterious People.

operations, however, have not brought.
us within reach of 1.-THE black clad PEG.
ple." as the Katirs are called, or
brought any of them into our camp, so
the campaign bids fair to end, leaving
this truly wonderful country quite un
explored. Dardistan, close by, is also a
place of marvels, and its folk lore would
add to Grimm and Anderson chapter
about bear kings and the Harginn such
as would rival any of the legends of the
Hartz Mountains or Thuringia. Kafr-
stan is even more interesting than its
neighbor, for it is not only in its fables
and myths that this cloud land is so
delightfully."- mysterious, but in every
detail of the life and manners, the looks,
dress, food, religion and customs of the
people that inhabit it. Who are the
Kafirs and where is their country If
the questions we're asked of an Afghan
of Cabul, he would probably answer
that they are infidel dogs who live Ito
the north" of his city, and that their
women and children are of such sur.
passing beauty that the agents of rich
citizens are always on the lookout for
purchase. The size of their country
no one knows exactly, but the love
herb" grows there-a valuable plant
indeed, for whoever possesses it can
command the affection of any he pleases
and gold of very pale color, but
pure gold nevertheless, is found in
their fields with the maize. They eat
little grain, however, for the Kafirs
live on cheese and curds, meat and
fruits, chiefly on the last, which grow
wild all over their hills, and their or.
chards are wonderful. They have NO
earth in their country to spare. so the
black clad" build their houses of
cakes of COW dung and sand mixed to-
gether; but water they have in abun-
dance, since every hill is divided from
the next by stream, which the people
cross by swinging bridges made Of
creepers. They kill every Mussulman
they find within their border, and
drink his blood; indeed, some of the
katirs are cannibals. Such in effect
would probably be the total amount of
an Afghan's knowledge of this large
body of his fellow countrymen, for
katirstan, partly from its sinister tradi
tons and the memory of its traditional
blood feud with Islam, and partly from
the undoubted vindictiveness of the
people toward Mohammedans, is q
sealed book to the East. A tribe of
mountaineers, known as the Nemeha
Moslems, who, to suit circumstances
and to accommodate themselves to local
fashion in religion, are only true be-
levers on the Mohammedan side of the
frontier, and spit at the name of Allah
on the Kafir side, act as a means of
communication between the BLACK
clad" and their neighbors, and were it
not for them it is probable that the
Kafirs would never be able to hold any
intercourse with the outer world at all.
If the East itself is so ignorant of
this remarkable race. and if their next
neighbors and reputed kinsmen, the
Dards, really know nothing about them,
it is not surprising that in the West the
Kafir of Afghanistan should be COM
plete mystery. Who are theyp Some
say they are Arabs, while others be-
lieve them to be Greeks. Nor, remem-
bering how Alexander sowed colonies
along the roadside as he went to and
returned from India, is such theory
untensble, especially as some of the
Mohammedan tribes, once Kafirs, claim
European descent. The Kafirs them
selves-the Siah Posh, or "black clad"
from their wearing black sheepskin
coats with the hairy side outward-can
not or will not explain their own origin,
for the few who have been caught at
intervals by inquisitive Englishmen
have only made matters worse by cheer
fully accepting for themselves any lin
cage that happened to be suggested
Arab, Hebrew or HELENE. Their Ian
guage--Kalasha-would, it might have
been supposed, have given clue; but
here again difficulty arises, for the
katirs in communicating with their
neighbors use mongrel tongue, of
which the vocabulary. as far as it is yet
compiled, defies any important philo-
logical differences being drawn from it,
through its admixture of several dia-
lects- Persian. Pushtoo, Hindi and
Sanskrit--in varying proportions, with
a large percentage of words and idioms
to which no Eastern vernacular offers
any analogy. From time to time
Oriental scholars have given their at.
tention to this chronological mystery,
and notably Burnes, Wolfe, Vigne and
Bellew, though without any conclusive
results; but DR.. Leitner, of Lahore,
has now contributed further install
ment of a vocabulary compiled from
the lips of Katirs-two of them being
prisoners captured by the Maharsjah
of Cashmere in his war with the tribes
beyond the Indus, in 1866 - which
promises to lay the foundation of some
thing like q sound knowledge of the
linguistic eccentrlcities peculiar to
these unknown folk. He himself, how
ever, has not as yet any pronounced
opinion upon their origin.
The people, as we have said, hate the
Mohammedans with surprising fer
vor, not only from Evolutionary feuds,
but because to this day the Afghans
and others carry on a systematic brig
andage upon their frontiers, for the
purpose of stealing their women and
children, who are then sold to the
wealthy men of Cabul or Badakshan,
Swat, Bajour and Chitral. On the
other hand, they are kindly disposed
toward Hindus, and are quite ready to
accept the Engiishmen as frieads. Ma