'Russia and India in 1903' [‎11r] (21/68)

THE INDIAN FRONTIER QUESTION.
19
of whom six are known as Khyber Afridis, and they
hold the metalled road through the Khyber Pass, the
main approach to India from Central Asia. This gives
them great importance, and it is added to by their
extraordinarily bellicose character. The Afridis have
a fighting strength of about 20,000. Fighting is all
they care for, and in the absence of any enemy against
whom they can unite, urged on by their mullahs and
maliks, they must fight amongst themselves, tribe
against tribe, family against family, man against man.
The Afridi is a tall, lean highlander, brave and
hardy, yet cold-blooded and treacherous, with an in
satiable appetite for firearms, to acquire which he will
resort to murder or robbery with equanimity. The
probability is that he has a blood feud with nine out
of ten of his own people, and to avenge it he will wait
patiently for days, months, and years.
The stories one hears in the Khyber seem hardly
credible. Every house has its wall and tower. Within
a few hundred yards of the fort at Jamrud the owner
of one tower lays lifelong siege to the owner of another.
Neither dare show himself in the open. The one
made a covered way wherein to attain the high road,
the recognised sanctuary. His neighbour bought the
land at the further end, and thereon erected a little
fort to make the retreat untenable. Night attacks are
incessant. No man sleeps without drawing his ladder
up into the tower after him. No notice is taken of
shots. Even the firing of a small cannon is a frequent
occurrence.
Albeit the Afridi brought under discipline makes a
fine soldier, very popular with his officers. He sinks
race quarrel for a time, but its fire is not extinguished.
Over 4,000 Afridis are in the Indian Army. There
are also two battalions of Khyber Rifles under the
commandantship of Major Roos Keppel. The for
mation of this frontier militia from the tribes was a
happy inspiration. They are doing exceedingly well,