Across the Border; or, Pathân and Biloch ... Illustrated by J. L. Kipling ... With a map, etc

Front matter

ACROSS THE BORDER or. PATHAN AND BILOCH ACEOSS THE BOEDEE OR PATHAN AND BILOCH BY EDWARD E. OLIVEE, M.Inst.C.E, M.E.A.S., &c. ILLUSTRATED BY J. L. KIPLING, C.I.E., &<_., &c. WITH A MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF ALL THE TRIBES AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRIES LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited 1890 All Rights Reserved Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay. CONTENTS. PAOE Retrospect and Prospect 1 CHAP. I.— SlND AND THE LOWER INDUS . . 13 II. — Bilochistan and the Biloches 18 III. — Reliqtjes of Biloch History 27 IV. — Three Legends of the Sind Border 35 V. — Two Sides of the Sulaimans 46 VI. — The " Fhairshon and McTavish " 54 VII. — Sulaiman and Sind Saints 63 VIII. — The Powindah and the Pat 75 IX. — Solomon's Throne and the Gumal 87 X. — Afghan Traditions 96 XI. — The Frontier Switzerland 103 XII.— The Price of Blood 112 XIII.— The Dawar or Tochi Valley CONTENTS.

VI CHAP. I-AOE XIV. — Bannu and the Bannuchi 126 XV. — Border Ecclesiology — A Short Discourse on the Pathan Church • 134 XVI. — The Base op the Sufed Koh 141 XVII.— The Khattaks 149 XVIII. — Pathan Highlands and Highlanders 159 XIX. — A Pathan Surprise 167 XX. — Kohat and the Frontier Force 172 XXI. — Afridis and the Kohat Pass 183 XXII.— An Afridi Feud 191 XXIII. — The Khaiber and the Khaiberis 195 XXIV.— The Kabul Position 206 XXV. — The Peshawur Valley of the Past 214 XXVI — The Peshawur Pathan of the Present 223 XXVII. — FitzHardy's Murderer — A Domestic Borderer 232 XXVIII.— Pathan Wives 237 XXIX.— The Mohmands 245 XXX.— Tribal Jirgahs 252 XXXI. — The Children of Joseph 258 XXXII.— Swat, Panjkora, and Bajawar 266 XXXIII. — Buneyr and the Buneyrwals 274 XXXIV.— A Border Pope CONTENTS.

VII CHAP. PAGE XXXV. — Apostles of Insurrection 286 XXXVI. — Border Romance — A Pathan Romeo and Juliet 292 XXXVII.— Pathan Poetry 302 XXXVIII.— The Black Mountain 311 XXXIX.— A Bit of Yaghestan 320 XL.— The Hazara Valley 330 INDEX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE "From Kandahar." The leading camel of the Kdfila. From a photograph taken at Chaman : 2 "To Kandahar." Tunnelling for the railway through the Khojak. From a photograph taken at Chaman 11 " The best trade on the stony hills of Bilochistan." From a photograph ... 19 Laghari Biloches. From photographs taken at Fort Munroe 28 Sassui and Panhu. From a Punjabi lithograph 40 Sohni swimming the Indus. From a Punjabi lithograph 42 "One of the donkeys that made the Peshin Road." From a photograph . . 52 An Uchakzai Pathan (Peshin Valley). From a photograph 60 Shams-i-Tabrez, of Multan.

Chapter I. Sind And The Lower Indus

Of the 1,000 miles of this North-West frontier, extending from Karachi to Kashmir, from the Arabian Sea to the glaciers of Nanga Parbat, the first 300 border the province of Sind. A length of which it may be said that though the physical conditions do not differ materially — except perhaps occasionally for the worse — from those prevailing in the Derajat division of the Punjab : the Border tribes, our intercourse with them, our familiarity with their country, and the strategical conditions affecting it, belong to an entirely distinct category. Roughly speaking, along the whole of this, and about 100 miles of the Dera Ghazi Khan district, our neighbours are all Biloches of various tribes, beyond again all Afghans or their connections. Besides the difference in race between these two, their natural and political organizations have little in common, and our relations with them are managed on two different systems.

In the Biloch, we have to deal with a strong tendency to the aristocratic and monarchical form of government under acknowledged chiefs ; in the Afghans, with decided republicans, recognizing little more than the petty head-men of petty clans. Through Persia and Khelat, which Biloch capital is within fifty miles of the Sind plains, is perhaps our most vulnerable point, for an invading army could by this route, reach India with infi nitely less difficulty than by any through Afghanistan or the Hindu Kush. But on the other hand, we are most advantageously situated to defend it. From Karachi as a base, unassailable so lon«- as England is mistress of the seas, we have, in addition to the great highway of the Indus, railway communication running from all parts of India to the front beyond the passes, to an almost impregnable position on the Khwaja Amran range, and within easy striking distance of Kandahar.

By our friendly arrangements with the Khan of Khelat, and the occupation of Quetta, commanding on the north and west all the direct routes from Kandahar to the Punjab, and on the south the passes leading into Sind, a position has been established that would render aggression from that direction practically impossible. The Peshin plateau, moreover, is of considerable extent ; and our cantonments there, capable of extension at any time. The climate is well suited to Europeans, and with easy railway communication to India, will soon become more popular with the native army. The Khan of Khelat was perhaps not more anxious for us to go there, than the Bukhara and Khivan Amirs to welcome the Russian ; but he has now thoroughly allied himself with us, and he is undoubtedly far more firmly established as the acknowledged head of the Biloch State than he could ever have been without us, if indeed he had been able to hold his own at all.

For constant feuds and complete anarchy, has been sub stituted peace and tranquillity. Except a few insignificant raids by Marris and Bughtis on the Upper Sind frontier, the people have settled down to accept our presence, and as their prosperity increases — for our advent has brought substantial benefits in the shape of hard cash — to look on our coming as the best fortune that could have befallen them. From Karachi to Quetta is only 600 miles, or by the Bolan 550, the tunnel through the Kojak will shortly be finished, the materials are ready to carry the line on from the SfND AND THE LOWER INDUS. 15 other side of the range to Kandahar, and it only remains to insist on the construction of this bit of railway, some seventy miles, to measure the distance from Karachi to Kandahar, or a suitable position on the Helmund by hours, and those hours might be made as few as from Bombay to Delhi.

The whole of Bilochistan has been thoroughly explored, and to some extent surveyed, up to the Persian frontier. Much information about the tribes and the less known routes was acquired by Sir Robt. Sandeman's mission to Southern Bilochistan. The Persian survey of Sir Oliver St. John, has been connected with the Indian system, though something may still be desirable in the way of maps. Our surveyors have advanced much beyond this ; even the wild Marri and Bughti hills, in fact, pretty well the whole of what is shown on modern maps as Sewestan, is being gradually brought under systematic survey. The districts of Hurnai, Thai Chotiali, and Vitakri, have been examined in almost every direction, and the " Route Book " of the Sewestan country will son be as complete as of any other part of India.

Before crossing the rugged hills that separate the almost more rugged Biloch from the Delta and lower valley of the Indus, it is but fair to halt and take in a general view of this, the most westerly and probably the warmest little bit of our Indian Border. A hotter sort of Egypt, but physically and politically suggesting many resemblances in common ; a country literally made by another, and a greater, Nile. So much of it as is not a delta, at one time or other formed a channel, a bank or an island, of the Indus, whose waters, according to history and tradition, seem to have travelled over the whole of it, backwards and forwards from Kachh to Karachi ; its very name a Sanskrit term signifying water. Even now a vast waste of silt, sand, or arid rock, with occasional intervals of rich cultivation, due to a net-work of canals, water-courses, and old creeks ; its towns and villages mainly houses of sun-dried bricks, or huts of wattle ; its only mountains, a succession of bare, comparatively low ridges locally known as the Kirthar — which rise occasionally to 7,000 feet — and Hala ranges, and the Pabb hills, separating it on the West from Balochistan.

For the rest, 150 feet is a lofty hill to break the universal flatness. On the east, sand ; plains of sand, deserts of sand, hills of sand, rolling waves of them. And through the whole length the mighty Indus, the leading feature of the picture ; that collecting together the five rivers of the Punjab, all the hill streams of the Sulaimans, the Sufed Koh, and a great length of the Himalaya, rolls down a turbid stream, at once the great fertilizer of the country, the highway for the transit of its merchandize, and for long, the only means of communication for its inhabitants. A land of dust-storms, of extremes of heat and cold ; a summer where for weeks together the thermometer never falls below 100°, and a winter where it often sinks below freezing point. That enjoys the minimum of rain and the maximum of heat.

With little of grandeur and not much variety of scenery ; even the great " sweet-water sea " being essentially a monotonous river. From the low, flat, and often insalubrious mud banks of the coast, to the dusty plains of Shikiarpur, "the gate of Khorasan," there is little in the way of woodland, groves, or gardens, while of forests there are none. There are creeks, that perhaps occasionally rise to the dignity of lakelets, but these exceptions savour more of the waters of the Styx, than of the abode of naiads or of nymphs, and what there is of the picturesque depends mainly on bold outline, and the scenic effects of changing light. Except the camels on its salt plains, the buffaloes in its marshes, and venomous snakes everywhere, it has few animals of any consequence, though it is naturally stronger in birds and fishes.

And though a classic ground by association with almost every invader of Hin dustan — Greeks, Arabs, Mughals, Persians, Afghans, and Biloches — SIND AND THE LOWER INDUS. 17 they seem to have left behind them no monuments or records of their presence. Perhaps there was no bit of it lasting enough to make such records possible in a country like this Sind. Of living records however, in the shape of naturalized tribes, there are many — Arabs, Afghans, Biloches, and even Africans, who together make up a considerable proportion of the population. The Sindi proper, a somewhat mongrel Hindu, converted under the Khalifs to Islam, does not occupy a very high place in the scale of oriental peoples. If his detractors give him a worse name than he deserves ; even his admirers put his merits as a somewhat negative quantity.

Inoffensive, kindly if not cleanly, and indifferent honest ; what between a long succession of invasions, the Border people who constantly harried him, and the Hindu dealers and go-betweens who impoverished him, he probably had but a poor chance of exhibiting much of sweetness or of light, and the prosperity of both the people and the country dates from the time of British occupation. It has not been possible for this occupation to change the climate, or to alter the natural features of the country, but it has done almost everything else for Sind. The development of a system of irrigation, by canals drawn from the Indus and its tributaries, has served to make that river do almost what the Nile does for Egypt. A flotilla of steamships, and subsequently a railway through the centre of the country, which by the completion of the Sukker Bridge now provides uninterrupted communication with the entire Indian railway system, has gone far to make it the highway for the bulk of the trade of the Pun jab and North- Western frontier.

While the small fishing village, wrested by the Taipur Amirs from Mekan half a century ago, has become one of the first of the great seaports of our Indian Empire, and with its extensive conveniences, its excellent harbour, and its flourishing institutions, it is hard to say what possibilities the future may not have in store for Karachi. c

Chapter II. Bilochistan And The Biloches

Bilochistan, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, includes all the country between the Arabian sea and Afghanistan ; Sind and Persia. The Persian frontier, once a subject of constant dispute, was settled by a mixed commission under Sir F. Goldsmid in 1870. On the north is the Biloch desert, blending with the Afghan districts formerly dependent on Kandahar, but both this and the north-eastern boundary is, to say the least, ill-defined. It is perhaps more correct to say the country is here bounded by the assigned districts, or British Bilochistan, the northern boundary of which is at present under consideration in the Foreign Office of the Indian Government. Within these limits is included, the mountainous province of Sarawan, with its capital Khelat. West of the Hala range, the equally mountainous province of Jalawan, its chief the second noble of Bilochistan.

Between the Hala mountains and Sind, is the proverbially sultry Kachhi Gundtiva, the country of the bad-i-simum, or "blast of death"; the flattest and hottest province of all, but as including the two great thoroughfares from Sind, commercially the most valuable. South again, between the final spurs of the Hala range and the sea, is the little triangle of Lus, with its capital Beyla, under its hereditary chief called the Jam. And last, the less known, the most barren, though by far the most extensive region of Makran, the ancient Gredosia, extending from Lus to the boundary of Persia, and including the Kohistan, or land of mountains, on the west, and the bulk of the Bilochistan seaboard. The most striking characteristics of almost the whole of this The Best Trade on the Stony Hills of BilochistSn. extensive country, are a succession of rugged mountains and narrow valleys, for the most part barren or uncultivated, conditions due to a great extent, to the want of water.

Of rivers, there can hardly be said to be any ; what streams there are, have more of the nature of torrents, filled only at rare intervals, and which frequently c disappear in the ground at no great distance from their source. In the north, a large part of districts like Nushki, Chagai or Sistan deserve no better appellation than desert, and the very names of plains like the Dasht-i-bc-daidat, "the plain without wealth," Dasht i bcdar, " the uninhabitable waste," Bast i Goran, " the desert of wild asses," or the Bcgistdn, " the country of sand," are sufficiently expressive. There is a saying that the most useful knowledge for a traveller to possess is a knowledge of the watering places, which the Biloch classifies as " sweet," " good," " drinkable," and " bitter." Really or nominally, all these provinces are under the Brahui Khan of Khelat, and the chiefs acknowledge him as their suzerain.

Albeit this suzerainty has always been more nominal than real, and it may be doubted if it was ever complete. At no time can it be said the turbulent Biloch chiefs were kept in order save when the Khan received, not merely recognition, but assistance from the British Government. When that assistance was with drawn, chronic anarchy resulted ; and even now, anarchy would follow almost immediately if British control were withdrawn again. The history of the dynasty for a century back, is mainly the story of successful robbers on a large scale, a succession of deeds of lawlessness, rapine, bloodshed ; for though the average Biloch would deem private theft disgraceful in the extreme, plunder and devastation of a country have always been held as honourable deeds deserving the highest commendation.

The hereditary chiefs of Sarawian and Jalawan with their hereditary standard bearers bearing banners of red and yellow, had always the privilege to sit on the Khan's right and left, their place in battle right and left of the centre, and the national flag tri-colour with the red, yellow and royal green. No measure of importance could be passed without their consent, nor the two large provinces they represent taxed, save by a Vazir chosen from among the Tajiks, the principal revenue payers, who had almost equal hereditary financial powers. The revenue varied with the ability of the Khan to enforce the payment of so-called state dues. The claim for military service — based on a description of feudal tenure, but differing from that of the ancient Normans, or equally ancient Rajputs, in that the troops, once on active service, were at the charges of the state — was generally acknowledged, but the number of troops that could be assembled depended on the popularity of the Khan, or the cause for which they were re quired to fight.

Several of the chiefs, like the Jam of Beyla recognised no claim, beyond rendering to the head of the con federacy this feudatory service in case of need. The Brahui Khan, Nasr, is practically the first man of any rank who stands out of the historic fog enveloping the more modern Brahui and Biloch genealogical story. He seems to have united a formidable confederacy of chiefs, maintained a sort of supremacy, and established something like a decent government. But he was first a nominee of the great Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah and subsequently a fief of Ahmad Shah of Kabul, a position from which even his declaration of independence in 1758 did not entirely relieve him. His forty years of rule — from 1755 to 1705 — is what a distinguished authority calls the Augustan age in Bilochistan ; but even then it would have been difficult to define the various rights of the ruler, his Sardars, and his subjects.

On all hands he is admitted the most distinguished Biloch as a soldier, statesman, and ruler, and to have combined the most exceptional virtues with the most vigorous government. He put down rebellion and encouraged trade, made triumphant war and established successful gardens. His justice and equity are still household words among the people, and he had discretion enough to interfere as little as possible with his feudal chiefs. But when he died, lull of years and honours, the whole country almost immediately fell back into anarchy. The governors of provinces, and the chiefs of districts withdrew their allegiance, the country was distracted with broils, and the power of the ruler of Khelat diminished even more rapidly than Nasr had augmented it. When the British moved through the Bolfm to Afghanistan in 1839, the Khan though said to be dangerous, was comparatively insignificant.

General Wiltshire, with about 1000 men, is reported as taking Khelat in " a few minutes." When a second Nasr was recognized by the Outram treaty of 1841, he described himself as a vassal of Kabul. From the conquest of Sind by Sir Charles Napier in 1843, to the revised treaty with Khelat drawn up by Major Jacob in 1854, the Khan was little better than a puppet in the hands of an intriguing minister, while the tribes, each on its own account, plundered unrestrained in all directions. Raids on the Border were constant, life and property everywhere unsafe. With Jacob's treaty and his powerful control, came a brief period of wonderful prosperity, to be succeeded again by a broken treaty and a renewal of disorder. Nasr the Second it is said was poisoned, the present Khan, Mir Khudadad, who as a boy succeeded, was driven out and another set up only to be murdered.

The chiefs of Lus, and of Wadd in Jalawan were in chronic rebellion, the people of Kej in Makran threw off all pretence of allegiance. The Marris and Bughtis were constantly on the war-path. Anarchy became so hopeless, the British Government had again to interfere, not less at the request of the Khan than of his subjects, and to restrain the tribes from tearing themselves and their country to pieces. The treaty of 1854, with certain additions, was renewed in 1876, on the basis of the Khan's receiving substantial aid from the British Government, including a subsidy of an annual lakh of rupees. He to have no relations with any other foreign state, and to permit the occupation of such positions in his territory by British troops as the Government of India may consider advisable. Since then, the relations have been drawn closer, our Government has accepted the situation of the paramount power, the old disputes between the various chiefs have been happily settled, and the position of the Khan as head of a powerful confederacy, and ruler of all Bilochistan, established.

Certain districts, including the valley of Quetta have been made over for permanent occupation by our troops ; while by the treaty of Gundamak, all Afghan rights, real or pretended, in the districts of Thai Chutiali, Sibi. and Peshin, up to the mountain barrier that separates that valley from the plain of Kandahar, were assigned to us, and have now been regularly incorporated with the British administration. The Border line has, in fact, been moved up to the Khawaja Amran range. The tribes which give the name to the country are, as will be subsequently noticed, neither the most numerous nor the most powerful. The race from which the present rulers are drawn, call themselves Brahuis, and assert, on somewhat doubtful authority, a prior occupation and a distinct origin. Bilochistan however, and not Brahuistan, has universally come, even by the Brahuis them selves, to be the accepted name of the country, and its people to be spoken of as Biloches.

They or their various divisions, are the dominant race all along the Border, practically as far north as the commencement of the Dera Ismail Khan district, and in them we have by far the pleasantest of our neighbours. Essentially a nomad — good-looking, frank, with well-cut features, black and well-oiled flowing hair and beard, attired in a smock frock, that is theoretically white, but never is washed save on the rare occasions when he goes to durbar — the Bilochi is a general favourite. He is a bit of a buck, and when he finds himself pass ing into the sere and yellow, dyes his hair. It is not uncommon to find an old gentleman with eyebrows of deep black, and the tip of his beard gradually shading off through purple to red, to the roots of pure white. His wife makes quite a toilet and arranges her hair in many effective plaits, but any connection with soap and water would be voted by either as a mark of the worst effeminacy.

He shares with the Pathan many of the virtues and vices peculiar to a wild and semi-civilized people ; but in most respects he pre sents the most agreeable contrast. Both are given to hospitality, both ready to exact an eye for an eye, and a life for a life ; but the Biloch prefers to kill his enemy from the front, the Pathan from behind. To both, "Allah is Great and Muhammad is his Prophet ; " though the Pathan is often a dangerous fanatic, while the Biloch is perfectly willing to have his prayers said for him. As Ibbetson pithily puts it, he " has less of God in his head, and less of the devil in his nature." There is a story of one who, asked why he did not keep the fast of Ramzan, replied that he was excused, as his chief was keeping it for him. " What are you doing ? " said another to a pious Muhammadan saying his evening prayers in the plains.

"Praying in the fear of God," said the plainsman. " Come along to my hills," rejoined the Biloch, " where we don't fear anybody." Both have but dim perceptions of the difference between meum et tuum, preferring " the good old rule, the simple plan, that he shall take who has the power, and he shall keep who can." There is a Biloch proverb that " God will not favour a man who does not steal and rob ; " and there is no doubt that, though he does not much like work, he is extremely partial to rupees. Whatever he does, he first inquires what his hakk, or " share in rupees," is to be. Both are English in their love for horses and everything connected with them. Like the Dean's sister in Dandy Dick, a Biloch who cannot afford a whole mare, will own as many legs as he can manage, keeping her a quarter of a year for each leg of which he is owner.

The political organization of both is tribal : but the Pathan is essentially a Radical — every man as good as his neighbour, and better — and will obey no one but the Jirgah or democratic council, and not always that ; while the Biloch is as loyal to his chief as a Highland clansman to a Mclvor. Consequently, Government can deal as safely with a Biloch tumandar, as with any other limited monarch ; and this fact alone has materially simplified all the frontier arrangements on the borders of Bilochistan. To attempt any detailed notice of the subdivision of the many tribes and clans would be wearisome ; but most of them have similar characteristics, which go to make them good subjects and valuable feudatories. They are physically powerful, hardy, bold, and manly, naturally warlike, open in manner, as a rule truthful and faithful to trust.

They have been so often and so fully described, ethnologically and otherwise, by many writers, it is perhaps unnecessary to enter into much detail about them. Of their use as auxiliary troops there are probably not two opinions. The late Sir Charles Macgregor, who knew them very well, entertained a high estimate of their value. He speaks of them as " a hardy, warlike race ; their style of fighting peculiar and much more deadly than that of their neighbours, the Pathans. The Biloch dismounts and pickets his mare, and then enters the meUe, sword and shield in hand, while the Pathan engages with his matchlock from a distance, if possible under cover, and seldom closes with his adversary. Their courage is of a sterner kind, and this is shown not so much in their encounters with us — though, all things considered, they have fought better against us than the Afghans ever did — as in their tribal feuds, and in the infinitely bolder manner in which they carry out their raids in our territory.

An Afghan at feud with his neighbour gets into a tower or behind a rock, and waits till he can murder him in cold blood ; a Biloch collects all the wild spirits of his clan, and attacks his enemy in force, sword in hand, generally losing very heavily. The determined gallantry of the 700 Bughtis, who refused to surrender to Merewether's horsemen, though escape was hopeless, but allowed themselves to be shot down till more than two-thirds had fallen, is worthy of a page in history. Although as a race they are poor, living from hand to mouth, they will not be induced to take regular service, as they will not wear uniform or undergo discipline, and are impatient of control. Their objections to our service are mainly as follows : — They are afraid of their hair being cut ; they object to any but white, or dirty-white clothes ; and they do not wish to leave their homes.

It is, in fact — with the Biloches as with all wild races at first — they require careful hand ling, and they will wear anything, go anywhere, and do anything they are asked." The most ordinary tact would suffice to ensure a large supply of particularly excellent material, pre-eminently suited for irregular cavalry. Born horsemen, the breeders of a particularly hardy and enduring race of horses ; and equally hardy and enduring themselves, they have further the spirit engendered by generations of freedom.

Chapter III. Eeliques Of Biloch History

Of anything approaching to authentic history, the Biloches have less than most Border people. From whence they came, the route they travelled, who were their progenitors, are still very much matters of conjecture. They have no written character, and con sequently no literature. War is looked upon as the first business of a gentleman, and every Biloch is a gentleman. Even agriculture is despised, and the arts viewed with contempt ; the art of writing would fall actually beneath contempt. The Douglas, in Marmion, thanks his saint " that son of mine, save Gawin, ne'er could pen a line ; " and this is very much the attitude of the Biloch. Whatever there is of tribal or national tradition has been handed down in the poems and ballads of which they are exceedingly fond, and many of which are probably of considerable age.

" Sweet, singing minstrel, bring your guitar ; Bind a large turban on your head. Let the good man receive gifts from the generous. " Sweet, singing Relan, bring hither the guitar of rejoicings ; Bring unto my life the fresh breeze of the morning — Strike powerfully with your fingers, Drive out grief from the bright body," and others of the invocations collected, and admirably translated by Dames,1 might, with little alteration, pass muster among Sir Walter Scott's collection. Like mostMuhammadan tribes, Biloch tradition uniformly points Laghari Biloches. to Arabia as their original home. One popular story derives the word Biloch, from Bachh, a son, and Luch, a slave girl in the harem of Muhammad bin Harun. According to Rawlinson, it is derived from Belus, who is identified with the Nimrod of Scripture, the son of Cush.