The San Francisco call., 1898-04-10

NSSANNN ~--N And the women come out to cut up what re- Just roll to your rife and blow out your An go to your Gawd like soldier"
 " HUS the omniscient Kipling in
 his advice to a young British
 soldier. It is not pleasant ad-
 vice, certainly, but those who
 understand the manner in which
 the wild hill tribes of Northern India mutilate their dead enemies will realize its soundness. It is a long es- tablshed Mohammedan custom, al- most a part of their religion, to infiict every possible indignity on the body of q foe, and the women who perform this hideOus task would be little likely to hesitate because the soldier was still living.
 The English speaking world has re- gently been furnished with vivid pie ture of the difficulties attendant upon a campaign in Afghanistan, where the troops, in the face of a determined enemy, have to make their way through precipitous defles and over almost inaccessible crags. Lieutenant w. L. Spencer Churchill, a scion of the great Marlborough family, has just published a book which has taken Lon don by storm He details his experi- ence with the Malakand expeditionary force, and the picture which he drews is by no means a reassuring one for the British taxpayer, who will eventually have to foot India's little bill for cam paign warfare.
 It is really holy war, Islam against 1oa;r sacred banner, tn, Afridis commit deeds of fanatical heroism which excite the admiration even of their enemies. Churchill tells us how. in the midst of a hot engagement, a Mollah or priest would suddenly appear on the pin nacle of some beetling crag, his long white hair flowing behind him, the holy flag grasped in his hand, encouraging g his followers, both by gesture and voice to renew their heroic efforts. The appearance Of the Mollah always acted like a talisman on the superstitious Afridis, and he SC med. indeed, to bear a charmed life, for, though the bullets whistled around him, he was never touched.
 The impossibility of abandoning the wounded makes fighting. for the Eng fish troops. a very difficult matter. The Afghans give no quarter; they have their own code of honor. but it is not the code of the civilized world. To the ferocity of a Zulu they add the craft of a Redskin and the markmanship of a Boer. The world is presented with the grim spectacle, the strength of civil ization without its mercy"
 It seems strange to read of such bar barrie warfare in these advanced days, but, as a matter of fact, the strife is al ways going on. It is one of the legacies of trouble which Great Britains mag nificent possessions in India have brought her. Afghanistan itself, which now forms the only boundary between Russia in Asia and England in India, is merely a collection of unruly hill tribes, wild mountaineers whom no government can tame. Even the Ameer of Afghanistan has no power to keep them in check, though his rule is ab solutely despOtic, and he enforces order by the sword only. The country has never been subdued by any monarch; the hardy hill tribes who inhabit the fastnesses of the Hindu Rush and the -Himalaya ranges will pay tribute to no one, though they are always ready to rob and murder whenever opportunity occurs.
 The very name of the State is of quite modern origin, and is due to the Per sians who made a show of conquer ing the land in 173S. The Persian rule, however, did not last long. and the country returned to it's own unsettled condition, nominally ruled by whoever could seize the throne, might being al- ways right, and law and justice mo- where.
 This constant state of activity and