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6. WANDERING GHILJYE WOMEN.

        DOST MAHOMMED KHAUN rules at Caubul, but with the greatest difficulty extends his power as far as Jellulabad castward of his capital, and to Coistaun and Ghuznee on the north and south. These districts he holds by making them over to his sons; but the necessity of the Governor’s presence, with a force at hand to collect tribute or put down rebellion, the result of each exaction, renders the levy of revenue tax a very uncertain and dangerous office. A shower of bullets, or a sudden attack on the Prince and his armed emissaries, is, even in the immediate vicinity of Caubul, the not unusual answer of the warlike and refractory inhabitants to a demand for their quota. “ How different, ” said a Baurukzye, one of a guard of twelve of the Shauh’s “ Chuppurs, ” or mouted couriers, who were escorting me from Caubul to Candahar, as our party reached Beebee Naun twelve miles west of Ghuznee, - “ How different is the state of this country to what it was two years ago, in Dost Mahommed’s time! Here, at this village, I should not have dared to show the tip of my nose, nor would a Caufila have reached it unpillaged. The Feringhees are a wonderful people; ‘ Wau, wau! ’ (wonderful). Though, to be sure, Ghiljyes are not disposed to be very civil now; a curse on their fathers’ beards. ” To the latter portion of the speech I could heartily respond; for, though the inhabitants allowed us to pass unmolested their country, it was plainly evident that something unusual moved them, as, foreign to their usual custom of supplying us with forage and provisions, and inviting us to halt within their fort, they closed them rudely against us, with undisguised disgust depicted on their countenances, and, assailing us with savage oaths and the vilest epithets, refused the commonest necessaries. The country, indeed, showed symptoms of that restless and troubled temper which, within a month afterwards, blazed out in such a fearful scene of wholesale pillage, vengeance, and assassination.
    We left Caubul on the 30th of September, and reached our destination, three hundred miles distant, on the 13th of October, making on an average thirty miles a day, inclusive of three days’ halt. Had we taken the regular thirty-one marches, there is little doubt but that I should have been murdered by my Afghaun escort; for at the close of the month(October)the enemy had matured their plans, and, eager for our blood, had occupied in force the road which I had just traversed in safety. For example, the gallant and lamented Capt. Woodburn, who left Candahar on the same day that I reached it, with a detachment of a hundred and forty men, had no sooner quitted Ghuznee for Caubul tan he was invited into a fort with his party, by Gool Mahommed Khaun’s, treacherously attacked by his host, and annihilated, together with all his party. Five only escaped into Ghuznee, who said their commander died fighting nobly. Being asked by his assassins “ Where is the Captain of the infidel band, that we may slay him? ” boldly advancing, he replied, “ Here I am, you villains! ” and fell instantly, pierced to the heart by a bullet. Lieut. Crawford also, of the Bombay Infantry, who left Candahar at the end of October, in charge of state prisoners for Caubul, with a troop of cavalry and forty Afghaun horse, was attacked by overwhelming numbers at Beebee Naunee. He reached Ghuznee(he was one of Shumsoodeen’s captives)with great difficulty, with fifteen men and twenty horses killed, besides several wounded, and the loss his prisoners and baggage, the enemy’s cavalry and foot hanging on their flanks and rear, and circling round them like wasps, for a distance of nearly thirteen miles.
        In my journey from Ghuznee to Candahar, nothing could surpass the dreary monotony of that part of the route which, for a distance of some seventy miles, intervenes between the former city and Kelaut-e-Ghiljye, lying over the broad surface of a sandy valley; for in Afghaunistaun “ all is Eden, or a wilderness. ” Save the parched-up camel-thorn, there is not a single tree or bush to relieve the weary eye, or shelter the fainting traveler, except in the immediatc vicinity of some clustering village, with its beehive-shaped huts of mud, or some solitary fort, or where in the distance colossal mountains, “ confusion on confusion heaped, ” present their terraced sides partially clothed in verdure by the judicious hand of the irrigator. Blanched skeletons of camels are the only landmarks through that stony tract, whose “ long, long deserts scorch the camel’s foot, Or heaving whelm the helpless caravan; And as the soil is, so the heart of man. ” Its sole inhabitants are the marmot, and the Jerboa-like desert rat, and its only but constant visitant the “ Shaitaun ” literally devil, or whirlwind), which, suddenly rising like a water-spout, uproots the smaller tents, and scatters their inmates in its mad career. The climate is as unpleasing as the landscape, the days being as suffocatingly hot as the night and mornings are freezing. As we crept along at a slow walk of thirty miles a day, that the baggage, mules, and “ a loading pony peculiar to country) might keep pace with us, we suffered extremely from the frequent changes of the atmosphere, in addition to the difficulty of obtaining provisions. Shivering as our baggage was being packed, the moment that the sun flashed out, like a globe of fire, its rays doubly reflected over the mountain pinnacles, white with everlasting winter, we hastened to throw off half the “ Choghas ” heaped upon us for protection from the early chills, and spread the folds of our turbans over our smarting faces, peeled by alternations of frost and heat.
        During our field campaign at Candahar, often without tents or covering, we felt these vicissitudes of climate sorely. The nights would be bitter cold, and the water oftentimes frozen, under our frail covering of blanket or tent-cloth; and during the day, should our mess-tent be fortunately pitched, the sun would pour its rays upon it with such intolerable power and brilliancy through the rarified atmosphere, that the thermometer would be for days together up to a hundred and twenty or thirty, varied pleasingly by winds scorching as those of India, with their train of whirlwinds and dust-storms. While sleeping tentless on the ground, we felt too the effects of the noxious soil. It is thickly coated with soda-like powder of a metallic flavour, which impregnates the rivulets also flowing through it with a brackish taste, and colours them with a milky hue. This water causes violent illness in those who drink of it. We were all necessarily obliged to do this, as we were often six months together without beer, or even spirit to counteract its poisonous effect. I must proceed on my solitary march.
        Seldom finding time to pitch a tent, half dressed I used to spread my bedding on the sand, curtained by heaven’s blue vault, and sleep alongside the wild soldiers of my escort, our horses, ponies, baggage, and servants resting in a circle round us. I often sat up, when awaking in the midst of those broad sandy plains, skirted by their frowning mountains, which presented their towering outlines to the sky, and, looking out from my bed-covering upon the chilly night, lit up by the moon, danced round by stars, “ That shine and bear their bright officious lamps, light upon light, ” think upon the singularity of my situation, while my mind was impressed with the sense of my utter helplessness should my Afghauns feel inclined to prove traitors. Then I thought of the trust I reposed in the black-bearded old Moollah, who slept close beside me, and appeared to be a person of weight with the other horsemen. He rode with his big Koraun in his girdle, which was brought to me morning and evening to be touched by my forehead and lips, as a sacred token of friendship between us. No noise ever disturbed the stillness of those nights but the dull sound of the cattle chewing their provender, the crackle of the expiring cooking fires, the song of some Ghiljye in the distant mountains, or the cry of an Afghaun soldier who acted watchman of the little camp. Everything was calm and tranquil. But could I have foreseen what was then maturing through the whole land, I am not certain that my midnight meditations would have been so pleasing. I have often wondered since what prevented those desperate men from taking my life. They must have been aware that, at a signal from their own countrymen, the storm which was fated to destroy, and which was hovering impatiently over us, was even then ready to burst in its full fury on our heads. They were strangers, so could have taken no interest in me, and hirelings, who were to receive a certain sum as the price of their service on escorting me safely to Candahar. This reward, had they been so disposed, they might have quadrupled by destroying me and my servants, and seizing my horses and property, and my oft-repeated refusal to advance a portion of the money during the journey might at any time have provoked these firebrands to such a step. The good fortune that attended me throughout this march is not to be accounted for.
        To break somewhat the sameness of our march, we dismounted one day at Ghoine to smoke, and eat our midday meal, in the vicinity of an encampment of wandering Western Ghiljyes, who move about from place to place in black tents, according to the seasons, for the purposes of agriculture and finding pasture for their flocks and herds. As we rode up, their women were driving in their camels, bullocks, and asses, laden sky-high with the most singular mixture of goods and chattels. Thus might be seen on one camel, hookahs, cooking-pots, the cage of the “ Chikoah, ” or red-legged partridge, leathern water-bottles and bags of flour hanging under his girths, a sheep strapped round the neck of the animal, two large bundles of screaming, half-strangled poultry, tied by the legs, and balanced across the saddle, while, suspended from the flanks, were tent-poles, bedding, warlike weapons, heaps of fruit and fodder; and to crown the whole of this heterogeneous mass, huddled together in the centre of everything, squatted the rising generation, who peeped out of their big black-painted eyes, from under their skull-caps, adorned with bunches of hair, and edged with charms, coins, and amulets. Every available portion of the patient beast was put to some use, and never did his title of the desert ship appear more appropriate than on this occasion. The “ Khail, ” or camp, of “ Khizdees”(black tents)of this “ Oolooss, ” or tribe, is composed of the merest apologies for these habitation. They are often merely black woollen felts stretched out over sticks or twigs. At a little distance, with their supports invisible, they resemble a flock of enormous bats skimming over the flat surface of the plain. The Ghiljye women, whom I have here attempted to depict, are as peculiar in appearance as their summer dwellings. The unmarried ones bring the whole of their hair to the front of their face, and kneading it into a compact cake with the admixture of dung and mud, ornament it with beads, bits of metal, and coloured glass. They permit this emblem of virginity to reach from the centre of the forehead to the upper lip, and across the face to the outer corners of the eyes. Nor can these fair ones see until they have first lifted up this clotted covering. When married, this odious distinction is unbound, and their hair allowed to hang loose. They were dressed in black and dark blue veils, bordered with red and yellow diamond patterns, which they wore after the fashion of the higher classes, though I cannot add that(like theirs)“ the striped white gauze baracan that bound them, Like fleecy clouds about the moon, flow’d round them:” for the nocturnal luminary in their case was slightly overcast with clouds of a dusky character. Their shirts were also of the like somber tint, but their wide figured “ trowsers furl’d About the prettiest ankles in the world. ” They wore ear, finger, wrist, ankle, and nose rings. Some of the young girls were really pretty, I observed, as they raised their frontal badges of purity to peer at the intruder; but one(which is not to be wondered at)squinted, poor thing, horribly outwards; a divergence caused, I presume, by her fruitless and continual efforts to try round the corners of the boss, which imprisoned “ Her hair’s long auburn waves which would conceal Her person if allow’d at large to run, And still they seem resentfully to feel The cruel fillet’s curb, and sought to shun Their bonds whene’er some Zephyr caught began To offer his young pinion as her fan. ”

[Keywords]
chapar/ qafila/ shaytan/ yabu/ chakwa/ ulus/ kzhda’i/ khel/ Dust Muhammad Khan/ Kabul/ Jalalabad/ Kohestan/ Ghazni/ Barakzay/ Farangi/ Ghilzay/ Qandahar/ Gul Muhammad Khan/ Bibi Nani/ Shams al-Din/ Qalat-e Gilzay/ Chogha/ Ghojan

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