The Semi-weekly leader., 1922-11-11
Anachronistic Struggle Between
Bandit HiIImen and Peace
full PIainsmen Persists.
TRIBES ARE Widest OF WILD
lmdia's Northwest Borderland ls a
Racial Crazy Quilt--Mountaineers
Never Completely subdued by
Afghan or Brlton.

Washington, D. c. Dispatches
from India, detailing the havoc
wrought by raids along the Afghan
border, may indicate to those who
have Travelled in the East merely that
India's annual frontier war" Is on.
But, as pointed out in a bulletin from
the Washington ID. O. headquarters
of the National Geographic society
dealing with the northwest Indian
frontier, troubles In the East might
easily mean a great deal more this
year.
with the Near East, central Asia
and India seething with unrest" says
the bulletin, "any mud-walled Afghan
village, with It's battlemented towers
might become another Serajevo.
HIIiman VS.. PIainsman.
"From Armenia to Waziristan,
where ever-wiId mountains, destitute
of crops, frown down on rich valleys
and wide, fertile plains, there persists
the anachronistic struggle between
the freedom-loving bandolero of the
mountain Businesses and the peace
loving plainsman. Steadfast stand
the frontiers which separate the re-
gions where law and order are q help
from those where they are a him
drance.
'The tribes which inhabit the
tumble Of land between the Indus and
the Afghan boundary are a wild lot.
Malaria has left Its mark on many,
but the f1ttest have survived. Climate
and famine, knife and jezail have dis
posed of the weaklings. Neither At
CHAN nor Briton has ever been able
completely to subdue the freedom
loving mountaineers who inhabit this
rabbit-hutch of warlike clans which
have been used pro and con according
to where the best fighting was prom
ised and the best pay offered.
"These are the Independent tribes,
each with its own William Tell. And
If their independence is noticeable
from beyond the breastworks Of their
beloved hills, their local independence
is just as marked. For every man
who has fallen before the invader
many another has fallen in the inter
minable inter-tribal blood-feuds
"One might call the region the land
Of Pushto and postin, for Pushto is
the language which binds most Of the
tribes together even more closely than
their Mohammedan religion.
%The Pathans claim descent from
k1a Lost fy.fInoc 0( oo1 yhn
ried captive into Media by Nebuchad-
nezzar. That makes them close rela-
tives Of the Durani Afghans, whose dy-
nasty still rules Afghanistan. But
there are Pathans and Pathans, and
locally at least they are called by
other names.
GhiIzal Makes Fine Figure.
"The man who wins deepest admi-
ration is the Ghilzai, upon whose car
avans the frontier trade depends.
Once their dynasty ruled Persia. Now
they weave the shuttle Of trade back
and forth between central Asia and
the Indian plains, bring rg the rich
rugs Of Bokhara and Persian pussy
cats past the stern walls of Fort JAM
rud to the Kabuli bazaar in Peshawar.
Tricky as gypsy in horse-trading, full
of contempt for the Hindu and of fell
low feeling for the Sikh, warriors by
courage, robbers by nature, traders by
profession, the Ghilzais are a manly
lot whose early forbears of Turkish
origin lived in the central Asian
lands whence they bring down the
dried fruits Of Murghab and the
Zerafshan. Tramping along with his
heavy-necked camels, his powerful
chest barred to sun and wind, the Chill
zai is fine figure Of man, one who,
dropped among the fiat-faced peoples