The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1880-10-07
A MYSTERIOUS PEOPLE.
The kafirs---A Race Of unknown
Or1gin---A Are They Decended from
Ono of Alexander's COlOniess

Orisin---Are They Defended from
Ono of Alexanders Colonies?
London Telegraph.
Among the results that had beer
hoped for from the Afghan war was al
accurate knowledge Of Kafrstan, the
land of mystery, which lies within the
late kingdom of the ameers. Military
! operations, however, have not brought
us within reach of "the black-clad peo-
pie" as the Kafirs are called, or brought
any of them into our camp, SO the
campaign bids fair to end leaving this
truly wonderful country quite unex-
plored. Dardistan, close by, is also a
place of marvels, and its folk lore
would add to Grimm and Andersen Il
chapter about bear-kings and the Har-
ginn such as would rival any of the
legends of the Hartz mountains or
Thuringia. Katirstan is even more in
teresting than its neighbors, for it is not
only in its fabled myths that this cloud
land is so delightfully."- mysterious, but
in every detail ofits life and manners,
the looks, dress, food, religion, and Gus
toms of the country that inhabit it.
Who are the Kafirs, and where is their
country? If the question was as ied an
Afghan or Cabul he would probably
answer that they were intidel dogs who
live ''to the north" of his city, and their
women and children are of such sur
passing beauty that the agents of rich
| citizens are always on a lookout for a
purchase. The size of their country
no one knows exactly, but 'the love
herb grows there-a valuable
plant, indeed, for whoever pos
sesses it can command the affection of
any one he. pleases-and gold of a
very pale color, but pure gold never,
theless, is found in their fields with the
maize. They eat little grain, however,
for the Kafirs live on cheese and curds,
meat and fruit, chiefly the last, which
grow wild all over their hills, and their
orchards arc wonderful. They have no
earth in their country to spare, so the
"black-clad'' built their houses of cakes
Of cow-dung and sand mixed together;
but water they have in abundance,
since every hill is divided from the
next by stream, which the people
cross by swinging bridges made of creep
ers. They kill every Mussulman they
find within their border, and drink his
blood; indeed, some of the katirs are
cannibals. Such in effect would prob
ably be the total amount Of all Afghan's
knowledge of this large body of his fel-
low-countrymen, for Kafiristan, partly
from its sinister traditions and the
memory of its traditional blood feud
with Islam, and partly from the un-
doubted vindictiveness of the people
toward Mohammedans, is sealed book
to the east. A tribe Of momtaineers,
known as the Nimeha Moslems, who,
to suit circumstances and to accOmmo-
date themselves to local fashion in rc-
ligion, are only true believers on the
Mohammedan side of the frontier, and
spit at the name Of Allah on the Ka6r
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 not
be able to hold any intercourse with
the utter 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
Katir of Afghanistan should be COM
plete mystery. Who are they? Some
say they are Arabs, while others be-
lieve them to be Greeks. Now remem-
bering how Alexander sowed colonies
along the roadside as he went to, and
returned from India, is such a theory
untenable, especially as some of the
Mohammedan tribes, once Kafirs, claim
European descent. The Kafrs them
selves-the Siah Posh, or ;'black-clad,"
from their wearing black sheep-skin
coats with the hairy side outward -
cannot, 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 Cheerfully accepting for them
selves any lineage that happened
to be suggested, Arab, Hebrew,
or HELENE. Their language-Kalasha--
would, it might have been supposed,
have given clue, but here again a diff
ficulty arises, for the Kafirs in commu-
nicating with their neighbors use a
mongrel tongue, of which the vocabu-
larry, as far as it is yet compiled, deties
any important pathological differences
being drawn by it, through its admix-
ture of several dialects--Persian, Push
too, Hindi, and Sanskrit,-in varying
proportions, with large percentage of
words and idioms to which no eastern
vernacular offers any analogy. From
time to time Oriental scholars have
given their attention to this ethnolog-
ical mystery, and notably Burnes,
Wolfe, Vigne, and Bellew, without any
conclusive results; but DR.. Leitner, of
Lahore, has now contributed further
installment of a vocabular compiled
from the lips of Kafrs-two of them
being prisoners captured by the Man
arajah Of Cashmere in the war with the
tribes beyond the Indus, in 1S66-which
promises to lay the foundation to some
thing like sound knowledge of the lin
guistic eccentricities peculiar to these
unknown folk. He himself, however,
has not as yet any pronounced opinion
upon their origin.
The people, as we have said, hate the
Mohammedans with Il SURPRISING fer
vor, not only from traditionary feuds,
but because to this day the Afgs ans
and others carry on systematic bri-
gandage, upon their frontiers, for the pur-
pose of stealing their women and child
rem, who are then sold to the wealthy
men of Kabul or Badakshan, Swat, Ba-
joure apd Chitrat. On the other hand,
they are said to be kindly disposed to-
ward Hindus, and quite ready to ac-
cept Englishmen as friends. Native
travellers who have visited them have
come away delighted with their genial
hospitality, and struck with their activ-
ity of temperament, intelligence, and
singularly high standard of morality
and ethics. That the Kafrs are brave
needs no telling, for they have retained
their isolated independence in spite of
every effort of every conqueror from
Timur downward, and the list Of their
prosecutors has been well-nigh continu-
Gus for several centuries, every Mo