PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2443, 9 January 1901, Page 67

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

•THE AMIR OF AFGHANISTAN: HIS DAILY LIFE.

A new monthly review, published by the old publishing house of John Murray, has just made its appearance. Its price is half a crown. It makes no pretensions to originality in selection of articles, nor does it lay itself out to attract subscribers by pictorial embellishments; so whether it will live or not is a question ; but as most publishing houses have their own magazines, I suppose they are issued even at a direct loss in anticipation of an indirect gam in the trade they bring in connection with the publications issued by the houses the reviews or magazines are issued by. The articles in this new monthly didn't eeem specially interesting to me, excepting one headed, "Details of My Daily Life," written by no less a personage than Abdur Rahman, the Amir of Afghanistan. In reality, it is a chapter from hi S autobiography which the firm of Murray is about to issue. Coming from one in so high a position, it strikes me as being an extraordinary compound of egoism, egotism, superstition, and childlike simplicity ; and at the same time, of shrewdness, and appreciation of foreign politics as far as they concern Afghanistan. - From his childbood, he tells us, his life has been quite a contrast to the habits of living indulged in by nearly all other Asiatic monarchs and chiefs ;. and we who know ■his life, know that that is quite true if his life be contrasted with, say, our Indian Prinoes. Judged by his own statements, he lives in an extremely simple manner, and must keep iiis officials in a particularly lively state. He is evidently a firm deliever in the Divine right of Kings, a theory which isn't quite dead in England. His love for work is inspired by God, he writes, and it is the desire of his life to look after the flock of human beings whom God lias entrusted to him. God wished to relieve Afghanistan from foreign aggression and internal disturbances, and placed the Amir in Ms responsible position, and caused him to be absorbed in thoughts of the welfare of the nation, and inspired him to be devoted to the progress of his people, and to -1)6 ready to sacrifice life itself for their welfare- and for the true faiti of the Holy Prophet Mahomed— these are his words jhanged into the third person. He is a firm believer in dreams, as the following will show: "The more I see of the people oJ other nations a"'l religions running 4f i?t in the pursuit of progress, . the less I can rest and sleep. I dream of nothing but the backward condition of my country, and how to defend it, seeing that this poor goat, Afghanistan, is. a victim at which a lion from one side and a terrible bear from the other side are staring, and ready to swallow at the first opportunity afforded them. My courtiers know, for example, that year's before the question of making out the boundaries of Afghanistan was mooted, I had dreamed a dream that was published at that time and circulated throughout the country. Briefly, the purport was, that before my death I shou.d finish and complete making a strong wall all round Afghanistan, for its safety and protection. This dream was interpreted by astronomers to mean that the boundaries of Afghanistan should bs so marked out by me that an end would be put to the everlasting forward "policy of my neighbours, who used to keep on creeping nearer and nearer every year. Many other dreams of mine, like this, all of which I told to my courtiers, j have come true, and they have seen -that the boundaries have been marked out, and I am still alive, to the sorrow of those who seem so anxious to put an end to me, as they circulate false reports about my death once a week. I did not think a man died so many times as they have killed me in my imagination.

He has no fixed time for work, he goes on from evening till morning, and morning till evening. He eats when he is hungry, and is often so enerossed in his writing that he has to ask " Did I eat my dinner today?" Bed and chair are one and the same, if this Oriental is to >be believed. When exhausted with work, a reader reads one of the books of the day, and as ie, the 'Amir, is falling off, a story-teller takes the jplace of the reader. \ In this way, says Abdur Rahman, I get a daily lesson in progress and learning, and one remembers better what ie told and read aloud. There is another advantage, he adds : "In sleeping through the droning noise of the storyteller's recitations" — he has to keep on spinning until the Amir wakes — "one gets accustomed to noise, and I can sleep soundly on the battlefield and under similar circumstances." Rather a novel use to put an entertainer to !

Though extremely simple in his habits, there is a great amount of ceremonial to be gone through when he rides out or even goes from one building to another. The •whole of his household retinue, quite an imposing number, judging from the lists given, form a cavalade. The Amir rides in the centre, surrounded by his courtiers, officials, special servants, page boys, etc. These completely surround him and engage him in conversation : these form the inner circle. The next circle is made up from the second class of personal servants — tailors, hubble-bubble carriers, dispensers, etc. A third circle is formed of infantry of the bodyguard riding in front and behind. Outside of these again is the bodyguard of cavalry, and last comes the artillery arranged according to circumstances. Knowing the character of his countrymen, he gives no chances. "I am always ready as a soldier on the march to a battle, in such a manner that I could start without any delay in case of emergency," — he remembers the experiences of his youth. "The (pockets of my coats and trousers are always filled with loaded revolvers, and one or two loaves of bread for one day's food ; this bread is changed every dp^. Several £UUB and swords are always lying by the._

side of -my bed or the ohair on which I am seated, withm reach of my hand, and saddled horses are always kept ready in front of my offices, not only for myself, but for all my courtiers and personal attendants, at the door of my durbar room.' I have also ordered that a considerable number of gold coins should be sewn into the saddles of my horses, when required for a journey, and on both sides of the saddles are two revolvers. I think it is necessary in such a warlike country that the sovereign and especially a sovereign who is, a soldier himself, should always be as prepared for emergencies as a soldier on the field of battle. Though my country is perhaps more peaceful and safer now than many other countries, still, one can never be too cautious and too well prepared." One is tempted to say: " Uneasy lies the head that wears a * crown," after reading the Amir's preparation for flight or to face the assassin.

He is very religious, and strives to make his subjects religious, too. If he hasn't passed an Act of Uniformity, he has come close to it. There are directors of religion throughout the country who advise the people to attend the mosque five times a day for their prayers, and to keep fasts in the month of Ramadam ; and if people do not listen to the advice of the directors, they — the directors — administer a certain number of lashes, because, says the Amir, a nation which is not religious becomes demoralised, and falls into ruin and decay, and misbehaviour makes people unhappy in this world and in the next.

His ■wives — he names seven — get from 3000 to 8000 rupees a month pocket-money, none of this, of course, being spent in household expenses. But being so busy he hasn't any time to spend in his harem. He used to visit it twice a week, but as he got more and more pre-occupied with the affairs of State, these visits were cut down to twice a month ; and latterly he has only found time to visit his wives and children two or three times a y«ar. His wives, however, considerately visit him about once a month for a few hours.

He has no little conceit of Afghan cooking, for he writes : " I have frequently heard Europeans say to me that they enjoy food cooked in the native method better than the European dishes. I cannot see what is in their 'heart, but I am very pleased if they really mean it, and do not say it merely out of compliment to me, their host ; but as I generally see that they eat far more of our Afghan cookery than that of European dishes, I think it is clear they speak the truth, because no man would eat very much of anything that he disliked just to pay a compliment." His two eldest sons, Habibullah and Nasrullah, are allowed 20,000 rupees a month, and their wives, have allowances also. He has also other sons, but these two will probably 'have a tussle for the succession. If I remember rightly, the Amir has been endeavouring to get the Indian Government to guarantee the succession to his second son. but so far has not succeeded. The elder won't give up his claim without a struggle, one would imagine ; and then there is the exiled Amir over the Russian border, who will probably have a finger in the pie when the present Amir disappears.

The article is worth reading, and so will the autobiography itself, be when it appears ; but for some reason- I cannot explain, very few books published by Murray reach here ; and yet they are of the highest order, so perhaps I'll- not get the opportumv of telling you what the complete life is like.