PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 69

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER. Again we have an instance showing the unsettled state of the Indian frontier, for a cable informs us of the massacre of some Sepoys by some of the frontier tribes. I am reading " At the Court of the Amir," a narrative written by Dr Gray, who was for some time surgeon to the late Amir, and he gives a graphic description of the uncivilised methods of the East. His journey to Kabul took place in 1889, and though the changes since then have been great, yet time and again we have had unpleasant proofs that the native nature is much the same. As regards the Afghans, he quotes the proverb, " Trust a cobra, but never an Afghan " ; and there is another proverb referring to the Pathans — " A snake, a Shenwari, and a scorpion have never a heart to tame." Lord Roberts, you will remember, had much the same opinion of the Pathan. These frontiersmen are quarrelsome, inveterate thieves, and good fighters, qualities which make them a source of anxiety. When the doctor went through the Khyber peace prevailed, and the Pass was negotiated uith nothing but a guard of two native cavalrymen and a permit granted by the Frontier Political Officer. The Khyber Pathans then (and still, I believe) had an agreement to keep the pass open on two days in the week for the passage of travellers and merchants. For this they got (and still do, I assume) a subsidy. I daresay they find it pays better to pocket the subsidy rather than to rob those bent on business or adventure. The Afghan rulers had (and have) very rough and ready ways of dealing out justice or exacting obedience. The late Amir had some trouble with a Pathan tribe, but he found means of subjugating it, and as a memento of the struggle he constructed atower of bkulls just outside Kabul — a grim, pictuersque reminder of his determination not to put up with any nonsense. In another place Dr Gray saw a great iron cage fixed on the top of a mart. It contained the bones of a highwayman ! The Amir had been troubled with highway robberies, so, as a deterrent, he imprisoned a robber in the cage, and allowed him to starve to death there.