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KAFIRISTAN
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KAFIRISTAN , a See also:province of See also:Afghanistan. Very little of this See also:country was known with accuracy and nothing at first See also:hand until See also:General See also:Sir W. (then See also:Colonel) See also:Lockhart headed a See also:mission to examine the passes of the See also:Hindu Kush range in 1885-1886. He penetrated into the upper See also:part of the Bashgal valley, but after a few days he found himself compelled to return to See also:Chitral. Previously See also:Major See also:Tanner, R.A., had sought to enter Kafiristan from See also:Jalalabad, but sudden severe illness cut See also:short his enterprise. M'Nair, the famous explorer of the See also:Indian Survey See also:department, believed that he had actually visited this little-known See also:land during an adventurous See also:journey which he made from See also:India and through Chitral in disguise; but the See also:internal See also:evidence of his reports shows that he mistook the Kalash See also:district of Chitral, with its debased and idolatrous See also:population, for the true Kafiristan of his hopes. In 1889 Mr G. S. See also:Robertson (afterwards Sir See also:George Robertson, K.C.S.I.) was sent on a mission to Kafiristan. He only remained a few days, but a See also:year later he revisited the country, staying amongst the Kafirs for nearly a year. Although his movements were hampered, his presence in the country being regarded with suspicion, he was able to study the See also:people, and, in spite of intertribal See also:jealousy, to meet members of many of the tribes. The facts observed and the See also:information collected by him during his sojourn in eastern Kafiristan, and during short expeditions to the inner valleys, are the most See also:trust-worthy See also:foundations of our knowledge of this interesting country. Kafiristan, which literally means " the land of the infidel," is the name given to a See also:tract of country enclosed between Chitral and Afghan territory. It was formerly peopled by See also:pagan mountaineers, who maintained a See also:wild See also:independence until 1895, when they were finally subdued by Abdur Rahman, the See also:amir of See also:Kabul, who also compelled them to accept the See also:religion of See also:Islam. The territory thus See also:ill named is included between 34° 3o' and 36° N., and from about 700 to 710 30' E. As the western and See also:northern boundaries are imperfectly known, its See also:size cannot he estimated with any certainty. Its greatest extent is from See also:east to See also:west at 35° 10' N.; its greatest breadth is probably about 71° E. The See also:total See also:area approximates to 5000 sq. m. Along the N. the boundary is the province of See also:Badakshan, on the N.E. the Lutkho valley of Chitral. Chitral and See also:lower Chitral enclose it to the E., and the See also:Kunar valley on the S.E. Afghanistan proper supplies the S. limit. The ranges above the Nijrao and Pansher valleys of Afghanistan See also:wall it in upon the W. The northern frontier is split by the narrow Minjan valley of Badakshan, which seems to rise in the very See also:heart of Kafiristan. Speaking generally, the country consists of an irregular See also:series of See also:main valleys, for the most part deep, narrow and tortuous, into which a varying number of still deeper, narrower and more See also:twisted valleys, ravines and glens pour their torrent See also:water. The See also:mountain ranges of Metamorphic See also:rock, which See also:separate the main drainage valleys, are all of considerable See also:altitude, rugged and difficult, with the outline of a choppy See also:sea petrified. During the See also:winter months, when the See also:snow lies deep, Kafiristan becomes a number of isolated communities, with few if any means of intercommunication. In the whole land there is probably nothing in the shape of a See also:plain. Much of the silent, gigantic country warms the heart as well as captivates the See also:eye with Its grandeur and varied beauty; much of it is the See also:bare See also:skeleton of the See also:world wasted by countless centuries of storms and See also:frost, and profoundly See also:melancholy in its sempiternal ruin. Every variety of mountain scenery can be found : silent peaks and hard, naked ridges, snowfields and glaciers; mighty See also:pine forests, wooded slopes and grazing grounds; or wild See also:vine and See also:pomegranate thickets bordering sparkling streams. At See also:low elevations the See also: Immense See also:numbers of red-legged partridges live in the lower valleys, as well as pigeons and doves. Gorgeously plumaged pheasants are plentiful. Of wild animals the See also:chief are the See also:markhor (a See also:goat) and the oorial (a See also:sheep). In the winter the former are recklessly slaughtered by hunters, being either brought to See also:bay by trained hounds, or trapped in pits, or caught floundering in the snow-drifts ; but in the summer immense herds move on the higher slopes. The See also:ibex is very rare. Bears and leopards are fairly See also:common, as well as the smaller hill creatures. All the northern passes leading into Badakshan or into the Minjan valley of Badakshan seem to be over 15,000 ft. in altitude. Of passes and these the chief are the Mandal, the Kamah (these two Roads. alone have been explored by a See also:European traveller), the Kti, the Kulam and the Ramgal passes. Those to the east, the Chitral passes, are somewhat lower, ranging from 12,000 to 14,000 ft., e.g. the Zidig, the Shui, the Shawal and the Parpit, while the Patkun, which crosses one of the dwindled spurs near the Kunar See also:river, is only 8400 ft. high. Between neighbouring valleys the very numerous communicating footways must rarely be lower than 10,000, while they sometimes exceed 14,000 ft. The western passes are unknown. All these toilsome paths are so faintly indicated, even when See also:free from snow, that to See also:adventure them without a See also:local See also:guide is usually unsafe. Yet the See also:light-framed See also:cattle of these jagged mountains can be forced over many of the worst passes. Ordinarily the herding tracks, near the See also:crest of the ridges and high above the See also: Next comes the noisier Manangal water, from the Shawal pass, which enters the main stream at Lutdeh or Bragamatal, the chief See also:settlement of the Bashgal See also:branch of the Katir tribe. By-and-by the main stream becomes, at the See also:hamlet of Sunra, a raging, shrieking torrent in a dark narrow valley, its run obstructed by See also:giant boulders and See also:great See also:tree-trunks. Racing past Bagalgrom, the chief village of the Madugal Kafirs, the river clamours See also:round the great See also:spur which, 1800 ft. higher up, gives space for the terraces and houses of Kamdesh, the headquarters of the Kam people. The next important affluent is the river which drains the Pittigal valley, its passes and branches. Also on the See also:left See also:bank, and still lower down, is the joining-place of the Gourdesh valley waters. Finally it ends in the Kunar lust above Arundu and Birkot. The See also:middle part of Kafiristan, including the valleys occupied by the Presun, Kti, Ashkun and See also:Wai tribes, is drained by a river variously called the Pech, the Kamah, and the Presun or Viron River. It has been only partially explored. Fed by the fountains and snows of the upper Presun valley, it is joined at the village of Shtevgrom by the torrent from the Kamah pass. Thence it moves quietly past meadowland, formerly set apart as See also:holy ground, watering on its way all the Presun villages. Below the last of them, with an abrupt See also:bend, it hurries into the unexplored and rockbound Tsaru country, where it absorbs on the right hand the Kti and the Ashkun and on the left the Wai rivers, finally losing itself in the Kunar, close to Chigar-Serai. Concerning the Alingar or Kao, which carries the drainage of western Kafiristan into the Kabul at Laghman, there are no trustworthy details. It is formed from the waters of all the valleys inhabited by the Ramgal Kafirs, and by that small branch of the Katirs known as the Kalam tribe. The See also:climate varies with the altitude, but in the summer-See also:time it is hot at all elevations. In the higher valleys the winter is rigorous. Climate. Snow falls heavily everywhere over 4000 ft. above the sea-level. During the winter of 1890-1891 at Kamdesh (elevation 6ioo ft.) the thermometer never See also:fell below 17° F. In many of the valleys the See also:absence of wind is remarkable. Consequently a great See also:deal of See also:cold can be See also:borne without discomfort. The Kunar valley, which is wet and windy in winter, but where snow, if it falls, melts quickly, gives a much greater sensation of cold than the still Kafiristan valleys of much lower actual temperature. A deficiency of See also:rain necessitates the employment of a somewhat elaborate See also:system of See also:irrigation, which in its turn is dependent upon the snowfall. The See also:present inhabitants are probably mainly descended from the broken tribes of eastern Afghanistan, who, refusing to accept TheKafirs. Islam (in the loth See also:century), were driven away by the fervid swordsmen of See also:Mahomet. Descending upon the feeble inhabitants of the trackless slopes and perilous valleys of See also:modern Kafiristan, themselves, most likely, refugees of an earlier date, they subjugated and enslaved them and partially amalgamated with them. These See also:ancient peoples seem to be represented by the Presun tribe, by the slaves and by fragments of lost peoples, now known as the Jazhis and the Aroms. The old See also:division of the tribes into the Siah-Posh, or the See also:black-robed Kafirs, and the Safed-Posh, or the white-robed, was neither scientific nor convenient, for while the Siah-Posh have much in common in See also:dress, See also:language, customs and See also:appearance, the Safed-Posh divisions were not more dissimilar from the Siah-Posh than they were from one another. Perhaps the best division at present possible is into (i) Siah-Posh, (2) Waigulis, and (3) Presungalis or Viron folk. The black-robed Kafirs consist of one very large, widely spread tribe, the Katirs, and four much smaller communities, the Kam, the Madugalis, the Kashtan or Kashtoz, and the Gourdesh. Numerically, it is probable that the Katirs The Slahare more important than all the remaining tribes put Posh. together. They inhabit several valleys, each community being See also:independent of the others, but all acknowledging the same origin and a general relationship. The Katirs fall readily into the following See also:groups: (a) Those of the Bashgal valley, also called Kamoz and Lutdehchis, who occupy eleven villages between Badawan and Sunra, the border hamlet of the Madugal country, namely, Ptsigrom, Pshui or Pshowar, Apsai, Shidgal, Bragamatal (Lutdeh), Bajindra, Badamuk, Oulagal, Chabu, Baprok and Purstam; (b) the Kti or Katwar Kafirs, who live in two settlements in the Kti valley; (c) the Kulam people, who have four villages in the valley of the same name; (d) the Ramgalis, or Gabariks, who are the most numerous, and possess the western part on the Afghan border. Of the remaining tribes of the Siah-Posh, the chief is the Kam or Kamtoz, who inhabit the Bashgal valley, from the Madugal boundary to the Kunar valley, and its lateral branches in seven chief settlements, namely, Urmir, Kambrom or Kamdesh, Mergrom, Kamu, Sarat, Pittigal and Bazgal. The next Siah-Posh tribe in importance is the Muman or Madugal Kafirs, who have three villages in the short tract between the Katirs and the Kam in the Bashgal valley. The last Siah-Posh' tribe is the Kashtan or Kashtoz, who in 1891 were all located in one greatly overcrowded village, their outlying settlement having been plundered by the Afghan tribes of the Kunar valley. One See also:colony of Siah-Posh Kafirs lives in the Gourdesh valley; but they differ from all the other tribes, and are believed to be descended, in great part, from the ancient people called the Aroms. Our exact knowledge of the Waigulis is scanty. They seem to be related in language and origin with a people fierce, shy and isolated, called the Ashkun, who are quite unknown. The Wai The speak a See also:tongue altogether different from that spoken by Wai the Siah-Posh and by the Presungalis. The names of gu their ten chief villages are Runchi, Nishi, Jamma, Amzhi, Chimion, Kegili, Akun or Akum, Mildesh, Bargal and Prainta. Of these Amzhi and Nishi are the best known, The Presungalis, also called Viron, live in a high valley. In all respects they differ from other Kafirs, in none more than in their unwarlike disposition. See also:Simple, timid, stolid-featured The and rather clumsy, they are remarkable for their in-Presungalis. dustry and See also:powers of endurance. They probably repre- sent some of the earliest immigrants. Six large well-built villages are occupied by them—Shtevgrom, Pontzgrom, Diogrom, Kstigigrom, Satsumgrom and Paskigrom. The slaves are fairly numerous. Their origin is probably partly from the very ancient inhabitants and partly from See also:war prisoners. Coarse in feature and dark in tint, they cannot be The Slaves. distinguished from the lowest class of freemen, while their dress is indistinctive. They are of two classes—See also:household slaves, who are treated not unkindly; and See also:artisan slaves, who are the skilled handicraftsmen—carvers, blacksmiths, bootmakers and so forth; many of the musicians are also slaves. They live in a particular portion of a village, and were considered to a certain extent unclean, and might not approach closely to certain sacred spots. All slaves seem to See also:wear the Siah-Posh dress, even when they own as masters the feeble Presungal folk.
Little respect is shown to See also:women, except in particular cases to a few of advanced years. Usually they are mistresses and slaves, saleable chattels and See also: They cannot inherit or possess See also:property. There are certainly three See also:tongues spoken, besides many dialects, that used by the Siah-Posh being of course the most common; and although it has many dialects, the employers of one seem Language. to understand all the others. It is a Prakritic language. Of the remaining two, the Wai and the Presun have no similarity; they are also unlike the Siah-Posh. Kafirs themselves maintain that very See also:young See also:children from any valley can acquire the Wai speech, but that only those See also:born in the Presungal can ever converse in that language, even roughly. To European ears it is disconcertingly difficult, and it is perhaps impossible to learn. Before their See also:conquest by Abdur Rahman all the Kafirs were heavy doors fastened by a sliding wooden See also:pin, are common. idolaters of a rather low type. There were lingering traces of Religion. ancestor-See also:worship, and perhaps of See also:fire-worship also. The gods were numerous; tribal, See also:family, household deities had to be propitiated, and mischievous See also:spirits and fairies haunted forests, rivers, vales and great stones. Imra was the Creator, and all the other supernatural powers were subordinate to him. Of the inferior gods, Moni seemed to be the most ancient; but Gish, the war-See also:god, was by far the most popular. It was his worship, doubt-less, which kept the Kafirs so See also:long independent. In See also:life as a See also:hero, and after See also:death as a god, he symbolized hatred to the religion of Mahomet. Every village revered his See also:shrine; some possessed two. Imra, Gish and Moni were honoured with separate little temples, as was usually Dizani goddess; but three or four of the others would See also:share one between them, each looking out of a small separate square window. The worshipped See also:object was either a large fragment of See also: Melancholy afflicted only the sick and the bereaved. Religious traditions, miracles and anecdotes were puerile, and pointed no social See also:lesson or any religious See also:law. See also:Music, dancing and songs of praise were acceptable to the gods, and every village (grom) had its dancing See also:platform and dancing See also:house (grom ma), furnished with a simple See also:altar. No prayers were offered, only invocations, exhortative or remonstrant. The great See also:majority of the tribes were made up of clans. A See also:person's importance was derived chiefly from the wealth of his Trlbal family and the number of male adults which it contained. t)riba lza- The power of a family, as shown by the number and See also:lion. quality of its fighting men as well as by the strength of its followers, was the See also:index of that family's See also:influence. Weak clans and detached families, or poor but free households, carried their independence modestly. The lowest See also:clan above the slaves sought service with their wealthier tribesmen as henchmen and armed shepherds. By intricate ceremonial, associated with complicated duties, social and religious, which extended over two years, punctuated at intervals by prodigious compulsory banquets, See also:rich men could become elders or ,fast. Still further outlay and ostentation enabled the few who could sustain the cost to See also:rank still higher as chief or Mir. Theoretically, all the important and outside affairs of the tribe were managed by the jest in See also:council; actually they were controlled by two or three of the most respected of that class. Very serious questions which inflamed the minds of the people would be debated in informal parliaments of the whole tribe. Kafirs have a remarkable fondness for discussing in See also:conclave. Orators, consequently, are influential. The internal business of a tribe was managed by an elected See also:magistrate with twelve assistants. It was their See also:duty to see that the customs of the people were respected; that the proper seasons for gathering fruit were rigidly observed. They regulated the irrigation of the See also:fields, moderating the incessant quarrels which originated in the competition for the water; and they kept the channels in See also:good repair. Their chief, helped by contributions in kind from all householders, entertained tribal guests. He also saw that the weekly Kafir See also:Sabbath, from the See also:sowing to the carrying of the crops, was carefully observed, the fires kept burning, and the dancers collected and encouraged. Opposition to these See also:annual magistrates or infraction of tribal See also:laws was punished by fines, which were the perquisites and the See also:payment of those officials. Serious offences against the whole people were judged by the community itself; the sentences ranged as high as See also:expulsion from the settlement, accompanied with the burning of the See also:culprit's house and the spoliation of his goods. In such cases, the family and the clan refusing to intervene, the offender at once became cowed into submission. Habitations are generally strong, and built largely of wood. They are frequently two or more storeys high, often with an open See also:gallery at the See also:top. Wealthy owners were fond of elaborate See also:carving in simple designs and devices. A See also:room is square, with a smoke-hole when possible; small windows, with shutters and bolts, and The nature of the ground, its defensible See also:character, the See also:necessity of not encroaching upon the scanty arable land, and such nooses and considerations, determine the See also:design of the villages. Speci- villages. mens of many varieties may be discovered. There is the shockingly overcrowded oblong kind, fort-shaped, three storeys high, and on a river's bank, which is pierced by an underground way leading to the water. Here all rooms look on to the large central courtyard; outwards are few or no windows. There is also the tiny hamlet of a few piled-up hovels perched on the flattish top of some huge rock, inaccessible when the See also:ladder connecting it with the neighbouring hill-See also:side or leading to the ground is withdrawn. Some villages on mounds are defended at the See also:base by a circular wall strengthened with an entanglement of branches. Others cling to the See also:knife-edged back of some difficult spur. Many are hidden away up side ravines. A few boldly rely upon the numbers of their fighting men, and are unprotected See also:save by See also:watch-towers. While frequently very picturesque at a distance, all are dirty and grimed with smoke; bones and horns of slaughtered animals See also:litter the ground. The ground See also:floor of a house is usually a winter See also:stable for cows and the latrine, as well as the manure See also:store for the household; the middle part contains the family treasures; on the top is the living-place. In cold valleys, such as the Presungal, the houses are often clustered upon a hillock, and penetrate into the See also:soil to the See also:depth of two or more apartments. Notched poles are the universal ladders and stairways. In height Kafirs See also:average about 5 ft. 6 in. They are lean; always in hard See also:condition; active jumpers, untiring walkers, See also:expert mountaineers; exceptionally they are tall and heavy. With character. chests fairly deep, and See also:muscular, springy legs, there is "ties. some lightness and want of power about the See also:shoulder muscles, the arms and the hand-grasp. In complexion they are purely Eastern. Some tribes, notably the Wai, are fairer than others, but the average See also:colour is that of the natives of the See also:Punjab. Albinos, or red-haired people, number less than 1% of the population. As a rule, the features are well-shaped, especially the nose. The glance is wild and bold, with the wide-lidded, restless gaze of the See also:hawk; or the exact converse—a shifty, furtive peer under lowered brows. This look is rather common amongst the wealthier families and the most famous tribesmen. The shape of a See also:man's head not uncommonly indicates his social rank. Several have the brows of thinkers and men of affairs. The degraded forms are the See also:bird-of-See also:prey type—low, hairy foreheads, hooked noses with receding See also:chin, or the thickened, coarse features of the darker slave class. Intellectually they are of good average power. Their moral characteristics are passionate covetousness, and jealousy so intense that it smothers prudence. Before finally destroying, it constantly endangered their wildly cherished independence. Revenge, especially on neighbouring Kafirs, is obtained at any See also:price. Kafirs are subtle, crafty, See also:quick in danger and resolute, as might be expected of people who have been plunderers and assassins for centuries, whose lives were the forfeit of a fault in unflinchingness or of a moment's vacillation. Stealthy daring, bor of wary and healthy nerves and the training of generations, almost transformed into an See also:instinct, is the See also:national characteristic. Ghastly shadows, they flitted in the precincts of hostile villages far distant from their own valleys, living upon the poorest See also:food carried in a fetid goatskin bag; ever ready to stab in the darkness or to wriggle through apertures, to slay as they slept men, women and babies. Then, with clothing for See also:prize, and human ears as a See also:trophy, they sped, watchful as See also:hares, for their far-away hills, avenger Pathans racing furiously in their track. Kafirs, most faithful to one another, never abandoned a comrade. If he were killed, they sought to carry away his head for funeral observances. As traders, though cunning enough, they are no match for the Afghan. They were more successful as brigands and blackmailers than as skilled thieves. In See also:night See also:robbery and in pilfering they showed little ingenuity. Truth was considered innately dangerous; but a Kafir is far more trustworthy than his See also:Mahommedan neighbours. Although hospitality is generally viewed as a hopeful investment, it can be calculated on, and is unstinted. Kafirs are capable of strong friendship. They are not cruel, being kind to children and to animals, and protective to the weak and the old. Family ties and the claim of blood even See also:triumph over jealousy and covetousness. The national attire of the men is a badly-cured goatskin, confined at the See also:waist by a See also:leather See also:belt studded with. nails, supporting the I-hilted See also:dagger, strong but clumsy, of slave maufacture, See also:mess, sheathed in wood covered with See also:iron or See also:brass, and often weapons, prettily ornamented. Women are dressed in a long, Utensils &s. very dark See also:tunic of See also:wool, ample below the shoulders, and edged with red. This is fastened at the bosom by an iron pin, a See also:thorn, or a fibula; it is gathered round the See also:body by a See also:woven See also:band, an See also:inch wide, knotted in front to dangle down in tassels. On this See also:girdle is carried a fantastically handled knife in a leather covering. The woman's tunic is sometimes worn by men. As worn by women its shape is something between a long See also:frock-coat and an See also:Inverness cape. Its See also:hue and the blackness of the hairy goatskin give the name of Siah-Posh, " black-robed," to the majority of the clans. The other tribes wear such articles of See also:cotton attire as they can obtain by See also:barter, by See also:theft, or by killing beyond the border, for only woollen See also:cloth is made in the country. Of See also:late years long See also:robes from Chitral and Badakshan have been imported by the wealthy, as well as the material for loose cotton See also:trousers and wide shirts. Clothing, always hard to obtain, is See also:precious property. Formerly little girls, the children of slaves, or else poor relations, used to be sold in See also:exchange for clothes and See also:ammunition. Mahommedans eagerly bought the children, which enabled them in one transaction to acquire a See also:female slave and to convert an infidel. Men go bare-headed, which wrinkles them prematurely, or they wear Chitral caps. Certain priests, and others of like degree, wind a See also:strip of cotton cloth round their brows. Siah-Posh women wear curious horned caps or a small square white head-dress upon informal occasions. See also:Females of other tribes bind their heads with turbans ornamented with shells and other finery. Excellent snow gaiters are made of goat's See also:hair for both sexes, and of woollen material for women. Boots, strongly sewn, of soft red leather cannot be used in the snow or when it is wet, because they are imperfectly tanned. For the ceremonial dances all manner of See also:gay-coloured articles of attire, made of cheap See also:silk, cotton See also:velvet, and sham cloth-of-See also:gold, are displayed, and false See also:jewelry and See also:tawdry ornaments; but they are not manufactured in the country, but brought from See also:Peshawar by pedlars. Woollen blankets and goat's-hair mats See also:cover the bedsteads—four-legged wooden frames laced across with See also:string or leather thongs. Low square stools, i8 in. broad, made upon the same principle as the bedsteads, are See also:peculiar to the Kafirs and their See also:half-breed neighbours of the border. Iron See also:tripod tables, singularly See also:Greek in design, are fashioned in Waigul. A See also:warrior's weapons are a matchlock (rarely a flintlock), a See also:bow and arrows, a See also:spear and the dagger which he never puts aside See also:day or night. The axes, often carried, are light and weak, and chiefly indicate rank. Clubs, care-fully ornamented by carving, are of little use in a quarrel; their purpose is that of a walking-stick. As they are somewhat long, these walking-clubs have been often supposed to be leaping-poles. Swords are rarely seen, and See also:shields, carried purely for ostentation, seldom. Soft stone is quarried to make large utensils, and great grim chests of wood become See also:grain boxes or coffins indifferently. Prettily carved kiwis with handles, or with dummy spouts, hold See also:milk, butter, water or small quantities of flour. Wine, grain, everything else, is stored or carried in goatskin bags. Musical See also:instruments are represented by See also:reed flageolets, small drums, See also:primitive fiddles, and a kind of See also:harp. Isolated and at the outskirts of every village is a house used by women when menstruating and for lying-in. Children are named Peculiar as soon as born. The See also:infant is given to the See also:mother to Customs. suckle, while a See also:wise woman rapidly recites the family ancestral names; the name pronounced at the instant the baby begins to feed is that by which it is thereafter known. Everybody has a See also:double name, the See also:father's being prefixed to that given at See also:birth. Very often the two are the same. There is a See also:special day for the first head-shaving. No hair is allowed on a male's See also:scalp, except from a a-in. circle at the back of the head, whence long locks hang down straight. See also:Puberty is attained ceremoniously by boys. Girls simply See also:change a See also:fillet for a cotton cap when nature proclaims womanhood. See also:Marriage is merely the See also:purchase of a wife through intermediaries, accompanied by feasting. See also:Divorce is often merely a See also:sale or the sending away of a wife to slave for her parents in shame. See also:Sex,.al morality is low. Public See also:opinion applauds gal- lantry, and looks upon See also:adultery as hospitality, provided it is not discovered by the See also:husband. If found out, in ftagrante delicto, there is a fiscal See also:fine in cows. There is much See also:collusion to get this See also:penalty paid in poor households. Funeral See also:rites are most elaborate, according to the rank and warrior fame of the deceased, if a male, and to the wealth and See also:standing of the family, if a woman. Children are simply carried to the See also:cemetery in a blanket, followed by a string of women lamenting. A really great man is mourned over for days with orations, dancing, wine-drinking and food See also:distribution. See also:Gun-firing gives See also:notice of the procession. After two or three days the See also:corpse is placed in the See also:coffin at a secluded spot, and the observances are continued with a See also:straw figure lashed upon a See also:bed, to be danced about, lamented over, and harangued as before. During See also:regular intervals for business and refreshment old women wail genealogies. A yeah later, with some- what similar See also:ritual, a wooden statue is inaugurated preliminary to erection on the roadside or in the village See also:Valhalla. The dead are not buried, but deposited in great boxes collected in an assigned place. Finery is placed with the body, as well as vessels holding water and food. Several corpses may be heaped in one receptacle, which is, rarely, ornamented with flags; its lid is kept from warping by heavy stones. The wooden statues or See also:effigies are at times sacrificed to when there is sickness, and at one of the many annual festivals food is set before them. Among the Presungal there are none of these images. Blood-feuds within a tribe do not exist. The slayer of his See also:fellow, even by See also:accident, has to pay a heavy See also:compensation or else become an outcast. Several hamlets and at least one village are peopled by families who had thus been driven forth from the community. The stigma attaches itself to children and their marriage connexions. Its outward See also:symbol is an inability to look in the See also:face any of the dead person's family. This avoidance is ceremonial. In private and after dark all may be good See also:friends after a decorous See also:interval. The compensation is seldom paid, although payment carries with it much enhancement of family dignity. All the laws to punish theft, See also:assault, adultery and other injury are based on a system of compensation whenever possible, and of enlisting the whole,ii the community in all acts of See also:punishment. Kafirs have true conceptions of See also:justice. There is no death penalty; a fighting male is too valuable a property of the whole tribe to be so wasted. War begins honourably with proper notice, as a rule, but the See also:murder of an unsuspecting traveller may be the first intimation. Bullets or arrow-heads sent to a tribe or village is the correct announcement of hostilities. The slaying of a tribes-man need not in all cases cause a war. Sometimes it may be avoided by the sinning tribe handing over a male to be killed by the injured relations. See also:Ambush, See also:early See also:morning attacks by large numbers, and stealthy killing parties of two or three are the favourite See also:tactics. See also:Peace is made by the sacrifice of cows handed over by the weaker tribe to be offered up to a special god of the stronger. When both sides have shown equal force and address, the same number of animals are exchanged. Field-work falls exclusively to the women. It is poor. The ploughs are light and very shallow. A woman, who only looks as if she were yoked with the ox, keeps the beast in the furrows, while a second holds the handle. All the operations of See also:agriculture are done primitively. Grazing and See also:dairy-farming are the real trade of the Kafirs, the surplus produce being exchanged on the frontier or sold for Kabul rupees. Herders watch their charges fully armed against marauders. See also:History.—The history of Kafiristan has always been of the floating legendary sort. At the present day there are men living in Chitral and on other parts of the Kafiristan frontier who are prepared to testify as eye-witnesses to marvels observed, and also heard, by them, not only in the more remote valleys but even in the Afghan borderland itself. It is not surprising therefore that the earlier records are to a great extent See also:fairy tales of a more or less imaginative kind and chiefly of value to those interested in folk-See also:lore. Sir See also: Many 'of the princelings of the little Hindu-Kush states at the present day See also:pride them-selves on a similar origin, maintaining the founders of their See also:race to be Alexander, " the two-horned," and a princess sent down miraculously from See also:heaven to wed him. See also:Benedict Goes, travelling from Peshawar to Kabul in 1603, heard of a place called Capperstam, where no Mahommedan might enter on See also:pain of death. Hindu traders were allowed to visit the country, but not the temples. Benedict Goes tasted the Kafir wine, and from all that he heard suspected that the Kafirs might be Christians. Nothing more is heard of the Kafirs until 1788, when See also:Rennell's Memoir of a See also:Map of Hindostan was published. Twenty-six years later See also:Elphinstone's Caubal was published. During the See also:British occupation of Kabul in 1839-1840 a deputation of Kafirs journeyed there to invite a visit to their country from the Christians whom they assumed to be their kindred. But the Afghans See also:grew furiously jealous, and the deputation was sent coldly away. After Sir George Robertson's sojourn in the country and the visit of several Kafirs to India with him in 1892 an increasing intimacy continued, especially with the people of the eastern valleys, until 1895, when by the terms of an agreement entered into between the See also:government of India and the ruler of Afghanistan the whole of the Kafir territory came nominally under the sway of Kabul. The amir Abdur Rahman at once set about enforcing his authority, and the See also:curtain, partially lifted, fell again heavily and in darkness. Nothing but rumours reached the outside world, rumours of successful invasions, of the wholesale See also:deportation of boys to Kabul for instruction in the religion of Islam, of rebellions, of terrible repressions. Finally even rumour ceased. A powerful See also:Asiatic ruler has the means of ensuring a silence which is See also:absolute, and nothing is ever known from Kabul except what the amir wishes to be known. Probably larger numbers of the growing boys and young men of Kafiristan are fanatical Mahommedans, fanatical with the zeal of the See also:recent convert, while the older people and the majority of the population cherish their ancient customs in See also:secret and their degraded religion in fear and trembling—waiting dumbly for a sign. See Sir G. S. Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush (See also:London, 1896). (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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