Page images
PDF
EPUB

beings it presented; but at intervals this was changed to paroxysms of rage which followed any lucid moments, that showed the fallacy of his blissful dreams, and the wretched Nora, as she looked from the poor sufferer to their friend, seemed to make the enquiry-" what shall I do?”

After enjoining Micky Dan to observe even greater secrecy and caution than before, Nora found herself alone with her helpless charge, their really sorrowing friend having gone off, as he said, to tell the boys the bad news. It would appear the persons so designated were not in the vicinity, for the unhappy Nora was left alone to endure all the horrors of another night in witnessing the agonies and delirium of the sufferer; at length, near morning, nature seemed exhausted, and he sunk into a lethargic state of some hours, during which many of his former associates had assembled in the cave, to whose anxious gaze, as well as that of the agonized wife, it was evident he was dying.

In breathless agitation all seemed to await the issue of this unnatural pause, expecting each successive breath of that painful respiration would bear the soul from amongst them; but no, it still lingered with that tenacity of life which so often appears to keep the departing spirit on the very threshold of its earthly dwelling; and it seemed as though he had returned from the dead, when his eyes again opened on them beaming with restored intelligence, as with a look of unutterable love he bent them on the face of her whose own were fixed in watchful tenderness upon him. "Nora! my own Nora," he said faintly; sure, my own darling, I've been dreaming; but oh, Nora, 'twas a dream I am sorry to awake from! only, darling, I came back for you to go with me; won't you come, Nora?" and he looked on her with imploring tenderness as pressing her hand to his lips, he said "Yes, Nora, you will come! and I left Grace, and Ally, and all waiting 'till I'd come back to tell you." Here her heart-breaking sobs scemed to distress him, and looking round he became aware of the presence of his friends; beckoning them forward, he extended his hand to each, and faintly smiling, said-“ Boys, Gerald Kirby will escape after all! No one'll have the satisfaction of binding those limbs, or shortening this breath but God Himself, and that's a comfort, boys; so don't be down-hearted"-he paused-the muttered curses on the enemies of their country, and the suppressed sobbings of some, were telling how deeply their feelings were engaged, when making an effort, he said (his voice gaining strength as he proceeded) "There is one thing, boys, ye must do-put my body where they won't find it !" the expressive 'they' was well understood-he went on-" Yes, boys, don't give them the satisfaction of getting it, for it is a comfort to me to think that alive or dead, Gerald Kirby was never in the hands of his enemies." These words were uttered with all the strength and clearness of his best and proudest days; the next moment his lifeless arms were clasped with all the firm convulsiveness of a dying man round the almost inanimate object of his love, and in the low murmur, "Nora," his spirit had taken its flight from a world of sin and sorrow.

The last dream of the rebel chief was fulfilled, and the partner of his earthly sorrows soon joined him in the world of spirits; for the blasts of winter, as they swept through the mountain woods, scattered the withered leaves over the graves of the outlaw and his bride.

PAST AND PRESENT STATE OF AFGHANISTAN.

CHAPTER II.

Names, localities, &c. of the principal tribes, clans, and cities. 1. City of Herat and tribes north of the Cabul river, viz.-Imaks, Huzarahs, Tajiks of Kohistan, and Berduranis. 2. Pesha-wur and Eastern tribes,—Kuttuks, Khybers, Lohanis, Solyman Tribes, Cakers, &c. 3. Ghilji tribes and cities of Cabul and Ghuzni: Durani. 4. Tribes and city of Candahar. 5. Account of Beluchistan, Scinde, and the Punjab.

It may be roughly stated that the Duranis occupy the west and west-centre of Afghanistan, the Ghiljis the east-centre; and that the remainder of the country, north, east, and south, is in the hands of a vast number of tribes, whose connexions are so uncertain as to render a general classification difficult. We shall proceed to enumerate these tribes as well as we can, pointing out their seats, and noting the most marked peculiarities. We shall begin in the north-west, proceeding east and then south.

The north-east corner of Afghanistan is subject to the khan of Herat. The present khan is Kamran, nephew of Shah Sujah. He succeeded his father Shah Mahmud, who died in 1829, having retained Herat alone out of his dominions. Herat contains some 6,000 houses and 40,000 people, a mixture of Afghans, Persians, and Tartars. It is built of brick, with narrow and filthy streets. The fortifications are mean, but the military position good. The valley in which it stands, is remarkable for beauty and productiveness. The trade of Herat, which is an emporium on account of its situation, is considerable. The power of the prince of Herat, beyond his own valley, consists in a military supremacy over the Imaks on the north and west, and some of the minor Duranis on the south.

The chaos of mountains north and west of Herat is occupied by the Imaks, tribes of Mogul descent. They are nomades and dwellers in tents. Their khans have power over life and death; but where there are such facilities of escaping tyranny, we may be sure this power is seldom abused. These Imaks are hospitable marauders. West of them, and stretching as far as Bamian, are the Huzarahs, also Moguls, and speaking the same language as the Imaks, namely, a dialect of Persian. the Huzarahs are at constant war with the Imaks, and their northern

Yet

neighbours the Uzbek Tartars, the Huzarahs being Sheiahs or of the Persian sect; the others, like the Afghans, Turks, and Arabs, being Sunis. The life and government of the Huzarahs are the same as those of the Imaks; but such loose allegiance as they bear is to the chief of Cabul, not of Herat. The passes into Tartary lead through their country, of which the reader will see an interesting account in Burnes's Bokhara, vol. 2.

Still further west is the country called the Kohistan, or Highlands of Cabul. The most of the people of Kohistan are Tajiks, a people deserving some attention. These Tajiks are a people found throughout Persia and Afghanistan, and generally in the towns and villages, as artisans; sometimes forming minor uluses almost in dependence on their neighbours, but occasionally, as in Kohistan, enjoying a wellfought-for independence. They are said to be descendants of the Arabs, who overran the flat districts as far as the Indus, from the seventh to the ninth centuries, on whom the Afghans descended from their unconquerable fastnesses, subduing most of them and driving the rest into a country, the strength of which saved them, as it had before saved the Afghans. So unlike their brethren throughout the rest of the country are these Kohistanis, that they bear the character of being fierce and turbulent; and it took the genius and power of the celebrated Futteh Khan to obtain from them that slight submission which they still pay to the chief of Cabul.*

The steep and hot valley of Kuner is formed between the Belut Tagh,. ("cloudy mountains," the greatest of the northern spurs from the Hindu Kush,) and a minor parallel range. The river Kamah, a tributary which flows through this valley into the Cabul river a few miles below Jelalabad, separates Kohistan from the northern Berduranis. This name is given to the Eusofzyes, Turcolanis, and Ottoman Khail, who live north of the Cabul river, and between the Indus and Kamah; it likewise extends over the tribes of Peshawur, the Kuttuks, Kybers, and Bungush, from the south bank of the Cabul river to the Salt Range. The only tribe of the northern Berduranis, deserving of special notice, is that of Eusofzye. The Eusofzyes were originally seated in the north of Beluchistan, and partly by victories, partly by defeats, and partly by mere migration, made their way about three hundred and fifty years ago, into the valleys of Swat, their present abode, exterminating the noble Afghan tribe of Dilazak on their route, and reducing the Swaters to slavery. They have the character of being the most bigoted, quarrelsome, proud, hardy, and divided people of Afghanistan. The country is productive, though so mountainous, and the population is very dense; Elphinstone states it so high as 800,000.

Their rules as to landed property are most curious. The lands of a

These Kohistanis feed on mulberry fruit, which, though not very wholesome, is said to afford the most abundant produce of any plant used for human food.

ulus are divided into halves, and the inhabitants likewise; but at the end of every ten years, the two halves of the ulus cast lots whether each shall retain for the next ten years the half it had for the preceding ten, or get that of the other, and a similar toss up takes place in each village of the ulus. A rule more fitted to produce dissension it seems hard to imagine, yet this custom (called Waish) extends to all the Berdurani tribes; but in some the division occurs every year, in others every twenty, and in others it is regulated by the Jirga.*

The Eusofzyes are continually at war with the tribes living north of them in the upper defiles of the mountains; and as these, their enemies, are not Mohammedans, they call them Kaffirst or infidels, and think it meritorious to make them slaves; and in this opinion they are encouraged by their avarice and ferocity, as well as by their priests-the worst mulahs in Afghanistan. Anarchy among themselves and war with these neighbours, occupy the Eusofzyes, who having serfs to till their lands, maintain the haughty port, the pride, and unruliness of men accustomed to lord it over others. Elphinstone compares them to the Spartans, and we may add to the list, the planters of North America, and the feudal barons. But in justice to those Eusofzyes it is right to say, that the same writer describes them as kind and liberal to their serfs. The serf, or fakir, has a right to his own land upon doing a fixed service for his master, (like an old English copyholder) and he may change his master, if oppressed. The food and houses of the fakirs are, it is said, sufficiently comfortable. The only token of submission paid by the Eusofzyes to the Cabul chief is a nominal tribute; but they are ever willing to serve in his armies when a rich country is to be invaded. For wars on the side of India they have shown themselves (Koshal Khans' poem to the contrary notwithstanding,) ready enough. Some of the greatest of the Afghan (or, as the Indians call them, Patan) tribes, in India, are of Euzofzye descent. To name the Rohillas, the bravest, most industrious, and most faithful tribe in India, and to say they are Euzofzyes, and still preserve their Pushtu language and character, may suffice to show what noble stuff there is among those Eusofzyes, "the worst of the Afghans," as Elphinstone calls them.

We now cross the Cabul river, and enter on eastern Afghanistan. South of the plain of Jelalabad are the clustered summits called Sufued Koh, 12,500 feet in height. From this centre run off five principal

Volney states that this custom exists in Corsica. See also the consular report on the island, though it is a prejudiced document. If our readers will look to our articles called "Norway and Ireland" in the March and April numbers, they will see a short essay towards a "Natural History of Landed Property," some reference to which they may find useful.

These Kaffirs, or Caffres, are a tall fair race, speaking a dialect of Sanscrit. Each ulus is an independent democracy. By the way, we and our neighbours call the Zulus, Amakosas, and other warlike tribes of South Africa, Caffres, borrowing the word from the Mohammedan traders in that country, and they devised it for the same reason as these Afghans,

ranges; one runs west, with a little curve north, to Cabul; and the road from Peshawur to Cabul, on leaving the plain of Jelalabad, traverses this range by the defiles of Haft,* Jugdulluk, Lutabund, Kurd Cabul, (or little Cabul,) and Buthak, moving along which, but in a direction opposite what we have gone, Elphinstone's army was cut to pieces. The second range goes due east, and fills up the country between the plains of Jelalabad and Peshawur with the Kyber hills, winding round the south side of the Peshawur plain, under the name of Cohat hills, and then turns north, forming the Kuttuk hills, which are about thirty miles in length, and separate the plain of Peshawur from the Indus.

The third is the Bungush or Great Salt range, which, from the place it leaves the Suffued peaks, preserves a distinct line south-east and half east; crossing the Indus at Karabagh, it traverses half the Punjab, and ends by rearing its bold boundary on the Hydaspes, in the Salt hills of Pind Dadun, and the shattered peaks of Rotas, thus extending for 200 miles. The fourth, the Solyman range, runs full south from Suffued, with an average elevation of 7000 feet, rising at the Tukti Solyman (Solyman's Throne) to 12,500 feet, and thence declining in height till it reaches the plains of Gundava in Scinde, when it sweeps off to the west, under the name of the Gendari Mountains; separated by the Bolan Pass from the mountains of Beluchistan. The Lohanis (the native trading tribes) penetrate these Solyman mountains, and also the Ghilji mountains, to Ghuzni, Cabul, and Kandahar, by the passes respectively of Gholari, Bungi, and Rohat; but it is a received opinion among the Indian staff, that neither the principal nor subsidiary passes on any of these routes, are traversable by regular troops of any army, still less by cavalry or artillery.

On the east of the Solyman mountains are low ridges running parallel with it, and then the country called Daman, which forms the right bank of the Indus, from the Salt range to Mittun Kote, where the five rivers of the Punjab enter the Indus through a single channel. On their west are the valleys and table lands of Sirufuz, Bori, Tull, &c. which separate it from the Ghilji mountains. These Ghilji mountains are a loose and irregular range, taking a direction almost southerly, but throwing off to the west numerous and long branches such as the Gauti, Kojeh Amran, and Tukatu. The valleys of the Turnuk, (extending from Ghuzni to the Helmund by Candahar, a length of some 250 miles) of the Urghendab, Urghesan, Burshore, Pishin, and Shal, are enclosed between the highest of these western branches of the Ghilji mountains.

Having called the reader's attention to the topography of Eastern and Central Afghanistan generally, Peshawur now deserves notice. Peshawur and Jelalabad are both situated in plains formed by the southern cliffs of the Cabul valley, receding to some distance from the banks of the river. The plain of Peshawur is thirty-five miles broad, and

• This the newspapers call Haft Kotul, but Kotul means any ravine.

« PreviousContinue »