The Story of the Malakand Field Force | Page 5

boundary, it is
customary for both claimants to walk round the boundary he claims,
with a Koran in his hand, swearing that all the time he is walking on his
own land. To meet the difficulty of a false oath, while he is walking
over his neighbor's land, he puts a little dust from his own field into his
shoes. As both sides are acquainted with the trick, the dismal farce of
swearing is usually soon abandoned, in favor of an appeal to force.
All are held in the grip of miserable superstition. The power of the
ziarat, or sacred tomb, is wonderful. Sick children are carried on the
backs of buffaloes, sometimes sixty or seventy miles, to be deposited in
front of such a shrine, after which they are carried back--if they survive
the journey--in the same way. It is painful even to think of what the
wretched child suffers in being thus jolted over the cattle tracks. But
the tribesmen consider the treatment much more efficacious than any
infidel prescription. To go to a ziarat and put a stick in the ground is
sufficient to ensure the fulfillment of a wish. To sit swinging a stone or
coloured glass ball, suspended by a string from a tree, and tied there by
some fakir, is a sure method of securing a fine male heir. To make a
cow give good milk, a little should be plastered on some favorite stone

near the tomb of a holy man. These are but a few instances; but they
may suffice to reveal a state of mental development at which
civilisation hardly knows whether to laugh or weep.
Their superstition exposes them to the rapacity and tyranny of a
numerous priesthood--"Mullahs," "Sahibzadas," "Akhundzadas,"
"Fakirs," --and a host of wandering Talib-ul-ilms, who correspond with
the theological students in Turkey, and live free at the expense of the
people. More than this, they enjoy a sort of "droit du seigneur," and no
man's wife or daughter is safe from them. Of some of their manners and
morals it is impossible to write. As Macaulay has said of Wycherley's
plays, "they are protected against the critics as a skunk is protected
against the hunters." They are "safe, because they are too filthy to
handle, and too noisome even to approach."
Yet the life even of these barbarous people is not without moments
when the lover of the picturesque might sympathise with their hopes
and fears. In the cool of the evening, when the sun has sunk behind the
mountains of Afghanistan, and the valleys are filled with a delicious
twilight, the elders of the village lead the way to the chenar trees by the
water's side, and there, while the men are cleaning their rifles, or
smoking their hookas, and the women are making rude ornaments from
beads, and cloves, and nuts, the Mullah drones the evening prayer. Few
white men have seen, and returned to tell the tale. But we may imagine
the conversation passing from the prices of arms and cattle, the
prospects of the harvest, or the village gossip, to the great Power, that
lies to the southward, and comes nearer year by year. Perhaps some
former Sepoy, of Beluchis or Pathans, will recount his adventures in
the bazaars of Peshawar, or tell of the white officers he has followed
and fought for in the past. He will speak of their careless bravery and
their strange sports; of the far-reaching power of the Government, that
never forgets to send his pension regularly as the months pass by; and
he may even predict to the listening circle the day when their valleys
will be involved in the comprehensive grasp of that great machine, and
judges, collectors and commissioners shall ride to sessions at Ambeyla,
or value the land tax on the soil of Nawagai. Then the Mullah will raise
his voice and remind them of other days when the sons of the prophet

drove the infidel from the plains of India, and ruled at Delhi, as wide an
Empire as the Kafir holds to-day: when the true religion strode proudly
through the earth and scorned to lie hidden and neglected among the
hills: when mighty princes ruled in Bagdad, and all men knew that
there was one God, and Mahomet was His prophet. And the young men
hearing these things will grip their Martinis, and pray to Allah, that one
day He will bring some Sahib--best prize of all--across their line of
sight at seven hundred yards so that, at least, they may strike a blow for
insulted and threatened Islam.
The general aspect of the country and character of its inhabitants have
thus been briefly described. At this stage it is not necessary or desirable
to descend to detail. As the account proceeds the reader