ingenious, and even elegant and refined; but false, designing, and cruel; rapacious, but profuse, voluptuous, and fond of show; at once insolent and servile, destitute of all moderation in prosperity and of all pride in adversity; brave at one time and cowardly at another, but always fond of glory; full of prejudice, but affecting to be liberal and enlightened; admirable for a mere acquaintance (if one can bear with their vanity), but dangerous for a close connection." They are, according to Major Hastings, still distinct in many respects from those around them; and being of the Shiah section of Mahomedans, there is great religious animosity between them and the Afghans, who are Sunis. They all speak Persian, but the Kizilbashes of Aoshahr, in the Chardeh Valley and some of the older men among the Jawansher of Chandaul, still talk Turki in the privacy of their own families. The portions of Cabul city occupied by the "red-heads"-so called because of their distinctive turbans of crimson cloth-are Chandaul, immediately at the foot of the Sherderwaza Hill and Moradkhani, looking towards Sherpur. In Chardeh their chief villages are Nanuchi and Taiba. The total number of families in and about Cabul is 3,220, but these can furnish only 6,000 fighting men-a small proportion compared with Afghan families, every male in which is a fighting unit. In Candahar and Herat there are a large number of families descended from Nadir Shah's vanguard, and a few Kizilbashes are also located in Turkistan. The Jawansher section, occupying the greater part of Chandaul, is the most important clan in Cabul, and has at the present moment several of its members holding commands in the Turkistan army. Appointments under Government, such as those of secretaries, accountants, and similar grades, are always largely held by Kizilbashes; while in years gone by there were several Kizilbash regi ments in the regular army. Hussein Ali Khan, of the Jawansher section, was once Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan army, and many others of the clan rose to important commands. The redcapped regiments were so powerful in Ahmed Shah's reign that to prevent civil war in Cabul that monarch sent them to Turkistan, with orders to conquer Balkh. This they did with very little trouble, and Ahmed Shah was then possessed with a fear that they would become independent, and finally prove dangerous

Their Position in Afghanistan.

415 enemies. At the suggestion of Morad Khan, Populzai, he recalled them, and assigned to them permanently the portion of Cabul and Chardeh which they now occupy. Moradkhani was called after Ahmed Shah's adviser. In Shah Suja's and Shah Zuman's reigns they were harshly treated, and with their usual independence they joined Haji Jumal and Paenda Khan, the father of the Dost Mahomed. When the Dost was in power, he singled his allies out for many distinctions, the fact of his mother being a Kizilbash lady having, no doubt, great weight with him. The clan refer to their treatment by the Amir Shere Ali Khan and his son, Yakub, in anything but grateful terms. Both Amirs, it would seem, were rather inclined to tyrannize over the Shiahs. Major Hastings gives some carefully-prepared genealogical tables, showing the status and place of residence of the chief families, and concludes his report by stating that, though the Kizilbashes still represent a certain amount of strength in Afghanistan, their power is by no means so great as in former years.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Deportation of the Mustaufi to India-His Sympathy with the Family of Shere Ali— Progress of Negotiations with Abdur Rahman-Arrival of the British Mission at Khanabad-Probable Popularity of the Sirdar's Cause - Reception of the MissionThe Amirship formally offered to Abdur Rahman-Return of Ibrahim Khan to Sherpur His Report A Russian Agent in the Khanabad Camp-Treatment of our Envoys as Prisoners-Photograph of the Sirdar sent to Cabul-His Vacillation and Intrigues with the Tribes-Flight of Sirdars Hashim Khan and Abdulla KhanArrival of Afzul Khan-His favourable Estimate of Abdur Rahman-Hasan Khan's Movements in Logar-Cavalry Action at Padkhao Sbana on July 1stGeneral Palliser's Success-Two Hundred Tribesmen Killed-Dispersion of Hasan Khan's Force.

THE following letters, written in May, June, and July, will explain the progress of our negotiations with Sirdar Abdur Rahman which eventually led to his assumption of the Amirship :

26th May, 1880.

Yet another minister of Yakub Khan's has been deported to The Mustaufi, Habibulla Khan, has broken down in his

India.

professions of faithfulness to the British, and on the morning of May 20th he left Cabul in a dhoolie, under an escort furnished by the 9th Lancers, which accompanied him as far as Butkhak. Here two companies of the 67th Foot were in readiness to escort him to Luttabund. They had been sent out on the previous afternoon, their sudden march giving rise to rumours of an impending attack upon our communications, a rumour strengthened by the 9th Lancers standing to their horses the whole afternoon, as if ready for a gallop out. What may have been the Mustaufi's crime I can only conjecture: officially we are told that "he was summoned to Sherpur, and after a long investigation was found guilty of conspiring against the British, and was at once put under arrest." Camp gossip runs that letters were intercepted, bearing his sign manual, inciting the chiefs to rise again, and that these were produced before Wali Mahomed and other sirdars, who swore to the genuineness of the signature. The old man when found out took the matter quite calmly, and when told that he would be sent at once to India rather welcomed the idea, saying he would go on a pilgrimage to Mecca and afterwards visit England. The Mustaufi seems to have recognized the simple fact that we are bent upon making Abdur Rahman Amir, and this he regards as a breach of faith, as nothing was said of our intention when he was striving so hard to bring the Ghazni malcontents to Sherpur. He knew that he could not hope for power under Abdur Rahman—his partisanship for Shere Ali's family was too notorious-and hence in his extremity he resorted to fresh intrigues to delay or put altogether out of the question Abdur Rahman's visit to the British camp. He has been detected, and as Abdur Rahman's path must be cleared of every obstacle, Habibulla Khan has been summarily sent to India.

Contrary opinions as to the final result of our mission to Abdur Rahman are still afloat both in our camp and in the Cabul bazaars ; but so far everything that the most sanguine could have hoped for in the direction of an entente cordiale being established between the Pretender and the British Government has happily come to pass. Our Mission has reached its destination in safety, has been honourably and even effusively received, and we are on the eve of receiving an answer from the Sirdar himself regarding the pro

"Birds of Ill-omen."

417 posals we have made to him. And yet there is a large party in the city who still persist in prophesying that Abdur Rahman will never visit Cabul so long as the British force occupies the city. Their reasons are disjointed and somewhat irrational, but they are repeated with such persistent head-shaking and beard-wagging that, in spite of one's own better belief, it is difficult at times to avoid thinking as these birds of ill-omen think. Not that they deny either the Sirdar's anxiety or determination to be Amir (this they admit most unequivocally), but they argue that he is too wise to ruin himself in the eye of the nation by accepting the Amirship from the hands of a British General. When they are reminded that the British are just as determined that the new Amir shall be simply and solely their nominee, as their work would be incomplete if they left the throne to be filled by any candidate who might get a party together, they cry back on their lines of argument, and insist that Abdur Rahman will be Amir, but by virtue of his own popularity and prowess, and not as a man accepting a boon from a conquering army. When it comes to the finer details of ways and means, the prophets can only take refuge in vague hints and inane mumblings which would have shamed even the vilest impostor in the old days, when prophecy had some points to recommend it to the credulous. Perhaps the explanation is that Abdur Rahman has not in Cabul itself a faction worthy of the name. His prestige lies not so much in the sympathy of the citizens as in the support the hardier tribesmen are willing to give him as a soldier and a ruler. There is something in his success in Eastern Turkistan which has drawn the independent and reckless spirits of Kohistan, Koh-Daman, and Logar to him: it may be the boldness with which he has declared himself claimant to the throne, or that his old fame as a successful general still lives in the hearts of the people. Every man born in Afghanistan is born to a soldier's life, not the life of camps and campaigns so much as the constant struggle of intertribal warfare, or time-honoured family feuds. Every man's hand is familiar with the use of jhezail or rifle, tulwar or knife, and a successful leader is far more honoured and more faithfully followed than a chief who lives by intrigue and begs his way to power by lavish bribery. Abdur Rahman ruled in Cabul, after Dost Mahomed's death and Shere Ali's usurpation, by

mere force of success in arms. He placed his father upon the throne in defiance of Shere Ali, who was never a match for him in the field, even though backed by the support of the Indian Government. Shere Ali won Cabul finally in the absence of his young rival in Turkistan. In an instant his success was magnified, he became the successful warrior, and his power was assured. Abdur Rahman sank out of sight. Later, Yakub Khan blazed into power, a bold leader of armies, full of vigorous life. How success bred success in his case until Herat and Turkistan were practically lost to his father, contemporary history shows; and only when he sank the soldier in the son, and trusted in his father's rotten honour, did his career come to an end. Yakub, free and holding his own proudly in Herat, was a figure to draw men's admiration and support: Yakub, a prisoner in the Bala Hissar, was a fallen star which could no longer dazzle men's eyes. So it has been with Abdur Rahman Khan. In January 1869 he crossed the Oxus a fugitive, and since that eventful year he has been nothing but a lay figure in Afghan politics. Now he is once more clearly outlined before the people, who have been bitterly humiliated by our armies since the murder of our Envoy in the Bala Hissar.

They may at first have looked to the grandson of the Dost to avenge their humiliations by force of arms; but the fall of Ghazni and the appearance of another 7,000 men to swell our numbers in Cabul and the Logar Valley have dashed their hopes once and for all. Now they turn their eyes northward, mayhap their feet also, and await the sign that will free them from the presence of the Kafir armies. So it is that Abdur Rahman seems to them a hero, a deliverer; they are lifted beyond the petty intrigues of the Barakzai sirdars in Cabul, the deep plotting of the Mustaufi, or the empty bombast of Mahomed Jan. Even Mushk-i-Alam, the arch-priest of discontent, is silent for a while: there are no new appeals to their fanaticism, and not 1,000 men are under arms in districts which have been seething with revolt for months. Logar, Kohistan, Wardak, are no longer names to conjure with. Mahomed Jan even has drifted into Kharwar and Zurmut, whose widelyarmed tribes are held in contempt by the better trained forces of the provinces about Cabul, the male population of which has been leavened with sepoys carrying firearms equal in part to