The Story of the Malakand Field Force | Page 3

and several sorts of pheasants, are to be obtained
on the hills.
Among the wild animals of the region the hunter may pursue the black
or brown mountain bear, an occasional leopard, markhor, and several
varieties of wild goat, sheep and antelope. The smaller quadrupeds
include hares and red foxes, not unlike the British breed, only with
much brighter coats, and several kinds of rats, some of which are very
curious and rare. Destitute of beauty but not without use, the scaly
ant-eater is frequently seen; but the most common of all the beasts is an
odious species of large lizard, nearly three feet long, which resembles a
flabby-skinned crocodile and feeds on carrion. Domestic fowls, goats,
sheep and oxen, with the inevitable vulture, and an occasional eagle,
complete the fauna.
Over all is a bright blue sky and powerful sun. Such is the scenery of
the theatre of war.
The inhabitants of these wild but wealthy valleys are of many tribes,
but of similar character and condition. The abundant crops which a

warm sun and copious rains raise from a fertile soil, support a
numerous population in a state of warlike leisure. Except at the times of
sowing and of harvest, a continual state of feud and strife prevails
throughout the land. Tribe wars with tribe. The people of one valley
fight with those of the next. To the quarrels of communities are added
the combats of individuals. Khan assails khan, each supported by his
retainers. Every tribesman has a blood feud with his neighbor. Every
man's hand is against the other, and all against the stranger.
Nor are these struggles conducted with the weapons which usually
belong to the races of such development. To the ferocity of the Zulu are
added the craft of the Redskin and the marksmanship of the Boer. The
world is presented with that grim spectacle, "the strength of civilisation
without its mercy." At a thousand yards the traveller falls wounded by
the well-aimed bullet of a breech-loading rifle. His assailant,
approaching, hacks him to death with the ferocity of a South-Sea
Islander. The weapons of the nineteenth century are in the hands of the
savages of the Stone Age.
Every influence, every motive, that provokes the spirit of murder
among men, impels these mountaineers to deeds of treachery and
violence. The strong aboriginal propensity to kill, inherit in all human
beings, has in these valleys been preserved in unexampled strength and
vigour. That religion, which above all others was founded and
propagated by the sword--the tenets and principles of which are instinct
with incentives to slaughter and which in three continents has produced
fighting breeds of men--stimulates a wild and merciless fanaticism. The
love of plunder, always a characteristic of hill tribes, is fostered by the
spectacle of opulence and luxury which, to their eyes, the cities and
plains of the south display. A code of honour not less punctilious than
that of old Spain, is supported by vendettas as implacable as those of
Corsica.
In such a state of society, all property is held directly by main force.
Every man is a soldier. Either he is the retainer of some khan--the man-
at-arms of some feudal baron as it were--or he is a unit in the armed
force of his village--the burgher of mediaeval history. In such

surroundings we may without difficulty trace the rise and fall of an
ambitious Pathan. At first he toils with zeal and thrift as an agriculturist
on that plot of ground which his family have held since they expelled
some former owner. He accumulates in secret a sum of money. With
this he buys a rifle from some daring thief, who has risked his life to
snatch it from a frontier guard-house. He becomes a man to be feared.
Then he builds a tower to his house and overawes those around him in
the village. Gradually they submit to his authority. He might now rule
the village; but he aspires still higher. He persuades or compels his
neighbors to join him in an attack on the castle of a local khan. The
attack succeeds. The khan flies or is killed; the castle captured. The
retainers make terms with the conqueror. The land tenure is feudal. In
return for their acres they follow their new chief to war. Were he to
treat them worse than the other khans treated their servants, they would
sell their strong arms elsewhere. He treats them well. Others resort to
him. He buys more rifles. He conquers two or three neighboring khans.
He has now become a power.
Many, perhaps all, states have been founded in a similar way, and it is
by such steps that civilisation painfully stumbles through her earlier
stages. But in these valleys the warlike nature of the people and