The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume IX, No. 4 [‎205r] (80/172)

THE SOUTHERN BORDERLANDS OF AFGHANISTAN.
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the women folk of the wealthier men; and you see women staggering
along, one with a child on her back, another with a lame sheep under her
arm; children carrying smaller children or kids or lambs. Then come the
donkeys and bullocks, some with loads, others with children and babies
roped face upwards on their backs. One by one, as they reach the
campiug-ground, the women and children unpack their belongings and
set up their tents; the latter is not a difficult process, as it only consists
of setting up four sticks and draping coarse black goathair blankets on
the top and round the sides. Then the boys and a guard of well-armed
men drive off the camels and flocks to graze on the adjacent mountain-
ZARMELAN PLAIN AT DOMANDI.
■sides, while the remainder lie down in the shelter ot trees and rocks and
lazily watch their women folk laboriously fetching water and cooking
the mid-day meal.
There is one feature about the Powindahs’ return journey to
Afghanistan which makes it preferable, if you have the choice, to
march with them on their autumn march to India rather than with them,
as we did, on their return march to Afghanistan. What I mean is this,
that all those who die on the march down or during their winter stay
are buried, but many of them are dug up again on the return journey
and carried home to be interred in Afghanistan. If you see a camel
coming along with long suspicious-looking boxes on his back, you know
they contain some defunct Powindah making his final journey to his
last resting-place.
We stayed at Domandi some three weeks, and while there our
presence ensured the protection of the passing kafilas, and we ourselves