Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-08-21
WILD sowARs OF AFoHANIsrAN.
Scraps from tho Diary Of 'Cyciist Thomas
stevens-Exoiting Experiences.

Scraps from tho Diary Of 'Cyciiat Thomas
stevens-Exciting Experiences.
Like all Orlentals, these wild sowars
are, above all things, fatalists. They
pin their faith implicitly on Kismet, and
time and again, as we recline on the
carpet which the head man Of the viii
lage spread for us out in the open, they
reminded me, with impressive gesture;
"Sahib, il has been our Kismit to brave
and overcome the dangers Of the dasht-i-
nauRid together" Queer specimens Of
humanity are these wild sownrs Of south
east Khorassan. A person attempting
to analyze their character finds himself
confronted and bewildered by the most
contradictory traits. One minute you
are impressed with a charming naivete
Of speech and manner that induces you
to classify them with little children in
whom there is no guile, only to be rudely
awakened from your illusion the next
minute by detecting them intriguing
darKly agains. your purse, or discussing
some deep-laid scheme to make you be-
lieve they are rendering you services OF
incalculable value.
Hint that you are aware Of their evil
intrigues, and the next minute finds
them off their horses, kneeling toward
Mecca, repeatedly touching their fore
heads to the ground, while their deep
fetched signs Of 1Allahi" seem TO be sim
cere as the prayers Of dying man.
Brimful Of guile as are these fellows, 1t
is the guile of children, after ALL No
European Is ever deceived by their theat-
rical and transparent tricks. Even while
praying, heads are ever and anon turned
and eyes rolled to ascertain whether
these hypocritical proceedings are pro
ducing the desired effect Of removing
your supposed suspicious concerning
their honesty. Although ] found the
ameer's sowars of some service In guild
ing me across the desert, simply because
they knew more of it than did, as a
general thing they were found far more
picturesque than useful and their pres
presence was generally more aggravating
than consoling.
On the evening Of the first day, as we
crossed the frontier into Afghanistan, l
happened to be wheeling leisurely along
some distance ahead OF three sowars,
who, as usual, were riding lazily along
together, commenting on the amount of
backsheesh they were likely to receive at
the end of the journey, and forming
fresh schemes for making me think that
| should never get across the desert alive
without their valuable assistance, be-
came suddenly conscious of their fog
ging their tagged steeds into gallop to
overtake me. Soon, with no small
amount Of shouting and gathering of
arms, they rode up, and with solemn
countenance motioned me to stop.
Judging from the expression Of deep
concern which they had all three as
sumed, one would think we werA on the
brink Of some great danger. Burr
rather" (brother), said the one who
usually acted as spokesman, with much
solemnity, as they came up and dis
mounted. -Burr-rather, this is Afghan
istan." swell, what of it?" / replied,
well aware by their manner that they
were up to some new dodge TO try and
scare me into thinking myself deeply in
debted to their protecting presence. For
answer, they all three drew their fingers
tragically across their throats, and de-
hberately proceeded to load up their
whole imposing armament, which, upto
now, they had neglected to load. Be
tween them they carried two double
barrened shot-guns, six ancient horse
pistols, and three curved Persian swords,
beside sundry knives and daggers.
While engaged in loading up the fire.
arms and examining the respective
edges of the latter, they were constantly
cycling me in the most ridiculous man
ner to see il I was duly impressed by the
proceedings
Seeing, suppose, that viewed the
ludicrous performance with more amuse-
ment than satisfaction, and thinking
that, perhaps, / didn't quite comprehend
the sittIation, the leader Of the sowars re-
peated his former information of "Burr-
rather this is Afghanistan," referring to
his comrades for confirmation. "Oh,
Afghanistan," assented the other two
worthless, tapping their weapons signifi-
cantly, and repeating the highly inter-
esting pantomime of cutting their own
threats. Around us for many league
the level plain, studded with clumps of
wild thyme that made the warm atmos-
phere quite oppressively heavy with its
perfume, stretched away to the east,
north and south; the calm hush of the
desert was unbroken by single sound,
and the solitude was unrelieved by the
sight Of single living creature beside
ourselves. The sowars stopping and
putting their weapons in fighting order
with such ostentation, the moment we
had crossed the imaginary boundary
line on the inhabited desert was the out
come of another of those brilliant ideas
that had found its way into their
precious heads while scheming and plot
ting together as usual in the rear.
That night we slept on the desert with
out shelter of any kind, without food or
water for the sowars' horses, and we
supped off bread and cold gusht-i-goos-
tang (goat meat we hal brought along
1t was the full of the moon april 1917, a
most lovely evening in the clear atmos-
nhere of the desert and the situation