A STRIKING RACE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 106, 26 June 1911, Page 2

A STRIKING RACE.

As tho train toils slowly aloMb the thousand miles .from Horn bay tb the north-west frontier station of i’ebhawar and nears its terminus, one becomes aware of a type of native entering tiie train very different, from the mild Hindu (writes C. Field in the “Missionary, Review of the World”). Stalwart, bearded men, often over six feet high, clothed for winter in “postpens” (rough sheepskins worn with the hair outward), stalking up and down the platforms as if they and not the English were the lords of the land. The. country they inhabit and the language they speak correspond to their rough exterior.

Afghanistan, for the most part, consists of a mass of mountains destitute of vegetation, as there is no rain often for months together. The villages arc constantly at feud with one another, and each village contains a tower with one door high up, to which access can only he had by a ladder, which is drawn up when the inmates are safe within.

Tho Afghans call themselves “Rani Israel” (the children of Israel), and in their own traditions trace their descent to Saul, the- first King of Israel. They are remarkably Jewish in physiognomy and have certain customs, such as the sending away of a scapegoat or calf into the wilderness after the mullahs have laid their hands on its head.

There language, Pushtu, betrays no traces of a Semitic origin. It is almost incredibly harsh and has been compared to the rattling of stones in a kettle.

It is an interesting experience to sit in one of the shops in the nfain bazaar of Peshawar on a Friday, and to watch the thousands of Pathanß who swarm in from the villages. When two friends meet they embrace, each with his head looking over the other’s shoulder. In the Peshawar bazaar may be often scon weird-looking figures from Bokhara. Those are the Haps or pilgrim's to Mecca, who go round the shops soliciting alms to fulfil their pro ns purpose. Here you sec a reciter with a crowd around him sounding the praises of Mohammed, there a mullah inciting bis audience to be diligent in the duties of prayer, fasting, alms', ablutions and pilgrimage, the live ■ pillars of Islam. The Pathans, though never really contented, are much Pcttoi off under the English ride than that of the t'ikh which preceded it. Members of the wildest hill tribes enlist in the English army, and their savagery is repressed, if not eradicated, by drill and discipline. When they have done their term of service and return as pensioners to their homes, they arc often useful as interpreters between tiie Government and tiieir own tribe.