probably be kept away from me; and though Sitana was within sight, I learned that the colony of discontented Indians there had been removed further into the mountains, as the agitation they kept up in our territory transgressed even the liberal bounds of Afghan hospitality. The question may well be raised as to the expediency of allowing fugitives from English justice to look on us in safety from immediately across the border; but it is at least obvious that we could not well interfere with them without departing from the whole line of policy which we have pursued towards Afghanistan of late years. That policy may be-and, I think, is-a mistaken one; but, if adhered to at all, we require to treat the border as a line which neither party should transgress in ordinary circumstances.

On recrossing the river, a number of the youth of Kubbul accompanied us on mussaks, or inflated hides, on which they moved with considerable rapidity, the front of the mussak being in form something like a swan's breast, and gliding easily through or over the water. Some of these skins were so small that they must have been those of sheep or young calves, and each bore à single swimmer, whose body was thus kept out of the water while his limbs were free to paddle in it. From this point to its origin, about the Tibetan Kailas, great part of the long sweep of the Indus is unknown to Europeans, and its course is set down on our maps by a conjectural dotted line. We know it again where it enters Baltistan, and as it passes through Ludak, but that is all. Indus incolis Sindus appellatus, said Pliny, and the Sanscrit meaning of the word is said to be "the sea;" but the Aryans who spoke Sanscrit must have had rather vague ideas as to what the sea was. As the Sutlej

is supposed to proceed from the mouth of a crocodile, so the Indus comes from that of a lion. Edward Thornton, in his 'Gazetteer of the Countries adjacent to India,' has collected and reproduced all the information of any importance we have in regard to this great and historically interesting river, and I must refer my reader to that work for the details, as also to General Cunningham's 'Ladak.' It has been measured near Torbela and found to be 100 yards broad; but at Torbela I should think it was about 200 yards, though the current was rapid and deep. Between that place and Attock it is so shallow in winter, when it is not fed by melting snow, that there are several points at which it can be forded. From this point, also, boats can go down all the way to the sea, as they can also from very near Kaubul, floating down the Kaubul river till it reaches the Indus.

Starting from Torbela on the afternoon of this day, I went about seven or eight miles down the left bank of the Indus to a ferry there is nearly opposite the mighty rock of Pihúr, which rises on the opposite shore, or rather almost out of the bed of the river, for in seasons of flood this rock is surrounded by the stream. Here I was passed over from the protection of the Huzara authorities to those of the Yusufzai district. Crossing the great river in another of those large high-pooped carved boats of white wood, such as, in all probability, bore Alexander the Great across the Indus, on the opposite bank a very strange sight appeared which looked as if it might have been taken out of the middle ages, or even out of the time of the Grecian conqueror. The boundary-line between our territory and that of Afghanistan here leaves the Indus and runs along the foot of the Hindú Kúsh, and one

is supposed now to be in special need of being taken care of; so I was received on landing, and with great dignity, by a number of Afghan Khans belonging to our side of the border, by a native officer of police, a body of mounted police, and a number of the retainers of the Khans, some of whom were horsemen in chain

armour.

Nothing could be more picturesque than the scene. It was now evening, and through the clear air the red light of the setting sun flamed over the yellow sands of the Indus, and burned on the high summits of the wild mountains around. The Afghan chiefs, with the retainers beside them, and their fine horses, were picturesque enough figures; but the most picturesque feature in the scene was, undoubtedly, the men in chain-armour, who carried immensely long spears, rode the wildest and shaggiest looking of horses, wore brass helmets on their heads over crimson handkerchiefs, and galloped about between us and the hills, shaking their long spears, as if an immediate descent of the enemy was expected and they were prepared to do battle for us to the death. Unfortunately, the enemy never did put in an appearance all the way along the border; but the men in armour did very well instead, and imparted a delightful sense of danger to the mysterious mountains.

The rock of Pihúr is between 300 and 400 feet high, and it would be a pleasant place of residence were it not for the wind which blows very violently up or down the Indus valley, and did so all night when I was there. Here I began to realise for the first time (belief being quite a different thing) that I was of some importance in the world. Guards slept in the veranda of the bungalow in which

I was, though it was placed on the extreme summit of the rock and looked down precipices; guards paced round it all night; there was a guard half-way down the rock; another guard at the foot of the rock; and, when I looked down to the valley below, in the morning before daybreak, there were my friends in chain - armour riding round the rock in the moonlight, but slowly, and drooping in their saddles as if they were asleep and recruiting after the fatigues of the day.

From Pihúr we rode about twenty miles along the base of the mountains to the Thána of Swabi, passing through the village of Topi, the Khan of which accompanied us on the journey. The mountains here and all along the border have a very singular effect, because they rise so suddenly above the plain. Our trans-Indus territory is here almost a dead level, being broken only by water-courses, at this season dry, which descend abruptly below the surface of the plain. From this wide level, which is scarcely 1800 feet above the sea, the mountains of the Hindú Kúsh rise quite abruptly for thousands of feet, range towering above range till we come to the line of snowy summits. As I have already pointed out, these mountains. are really a continuation of the Himáliya, being separated from the latter by the gorge of the Indus, and running more directly to the west. Sir A. Burnes has told us that the name Hindú Kúsh is unknown to the Afghans, but that there is a particular peak, and also a pass, bearing that name. This mountain is far from our present neighbourhood, being between Afghanistan and Túrkestan. A good deal of doubt hangs over the derivation and meaning of the word; but, fancifully or not, the Kúsh has been identified with the Caucasus of Pliny, and the whole

of the immense range from the Himáliya to the Paropamisan Mountains, is known in this country as the Indian Caucasus. It is supposed to have a maximum height of about 20,000 feet, but very little really is known about it, and that adds to the interest of the range. Its highest peak or cluster of peaks appears to be the Koh-i-Baba, the Hindú Kúsh proper, between Kaubul and Bamían; and in the near neighbourhood of the British border there seem to be no peaks quite 16,000 feet high, though some way back from it, beyond Swat, there is one of 18,564, and another of 19,132, the altitude of these heights, I presume, having been taken from points within our own territory, or that of Kashmir. In geological formation these mountains do not seem to differ much from the Himáliya, being chiefly composed of quartz, granite, gneiss, mica-schist, slates, and limestone; but they are richer in metals-namely, gold, lead, copper, tin, iron, and antimony. The most remarkable difference between the two ranges is, that in their western portion the Hindú Kúsh are not backed to the north by elevated table-lands like those of Tibet, but sink abruptly into the low plains of Túrkestan. They are even more destitute of wood than the Himáliya, but have more valleys, which are sometimes better than mere gorges.

The Thána at Swabi is a very large strong place, with high walls, and could stand a siege by the mountaineers. It was here arranged that I should make a day's excursion, and recross the frontier, in order to visit the famous ruins of Ranikhet or Ranigat. This, however, I was told, was not a journey to be lightly undertaken. The Thánadar of Swabi, the officer of police, and quite a number of Afghan Khans, with their followers

(including the inevitable horsemen in chain-armour), thought it necessary to accompany me, all armed to the teeth and mounted on fine horses.

The chiefs who went with me were Mir Ruzzun, Khan of Topi; Manir, Khan of Jeda; Shah Aswur, Khan of Manir; Sumundu, Khan of Maneri; Amir, Khan of Shewa; Husain Shah, the Thánadar of Swabi; and the officer of police, Khan Bahádúr Jhunota, or some such name. It was a most imposing retinue; and in lieu of my solid Khiva horse, they mounted me on a splendid and beautiful steed, which would have been much more useful than my own for the purpose of running away, if that had been at all necessary. I could well, however, have dispensed with this arrangement, for by this time I had begun to suffer intensely from intercostal rheumatism; I could get no sleep because of it, and every quick movement on horseback was torture. I should like to have ridden. slowly to Ranigat, a distance of about twelve miles from the Thána, as the quietest and humblest of pilgrims; but it is impossible to ride slowly on a blood-horse, with halfa-dozen Afghan Khans prancing round you; and however much you wished to do so, the blood-horse would object, so I had to lead a sort of steeplechase, especially in coming back, when, my blood having got thoroughly heated by torture and climbing, the rheumatism left me for the nonce, and by taking a bee line, I easily outstripped the Khans, who must have been somewhat exhausted by their long fast, it being the month of Ramadan, when good Mohammedans do not taste anything from sunrise to sunset. This horse I had must have been worth £200 at least; and when I returned it to its owner, he told me that he could not think of taking it away from me after I had done him the

honour of riding upon it. I accepted this offer at its true value, and found no difficulty in getting the Khan to take back his steed. I was curious enough to inquire at Mardán what would have been the result if I had accepted the offer, and was told that it would have caused endless indignation, and would probably have led to the murder, not of myself, but of somebody who had nothing whatever to do with the affair.

*

Leaving our horses at the little village of Nowigram, we climbed on foot for a thousand feet up the steep hill on which are the ruins of Ranigat. General Cunningham has the merit of having identified this place with the Aornos of Alexander the Great. The antiquarian discussion on this point would hardly interest the general reader; so I shall only say that no other place which has been suggested suits Aornos so well as Ranigat, though something may be said in favour of General Abbott's view, that Aornos was the Mahában mountain.+ Rani-gat means the Queen's rock, and got this name from the Rani of Raja Vara. It has every appearance of having been a petra or "rock-fortress," the word applied to Aornos by Diodorus and Strabo. The Khans who were with me called Ranigat a fort, and any one would do so who had not a special power of discovering the remains of ancient monasteries. Dr Bellew does not seem to have visited this place; but in his valuable report on the Yusufzai district, he refers to it as one of a series of ruins, and dwells on monastic features which they present. He is especially eloquent on the "hermit cells," which, he says, are met with on the outskirts of the ruins of Ranigat;" and argues

that the apertures sloping from them, and opening out on the faces of the precipices, were "for the purpose of raking away ashes and admitting a current of air upwards." Having got so far, the learned doctor proceeds to draw a pleasing picture of the priests issuing from their chambers, crossing to the gateway of the temple, ascending its steps, making their obeisance to the assembly of the gods, offering incense, making sacrifices, "and then retiring for meditation to the solemn and dark silence of their subterranean cells." Unfortunately, however, there is another and much more probable theory in regard to these subterranean cells, and that is that they were simply public latrines. Hence the sloping aperture out on the precipices. The plateau which forms the summit of the hill is strongly fortified by immensely strong buildings which run round it, and are composed of great blocks of hewn stone sometimes carefully fitted on each other, and in other places cemented as it were by small stones and thin slabs. This plateau is about 1200 feet in length by 800 in breadth, and is a mass of ruins. Separated from the external works and the "subterranean cells," the citadel is 500 feet long and 400 broad. number of broken statues, chiefly figures of Búdha, have been found among these ruins, and also one statue with the Macedonian cloak. The whole of this Yusufzai district is full of the most interesting antiquarian remains, such as ruins, statues, bas-reliefs, and coins, indicating the existence of a large population, of great cities, of arts, of an advanced civilisation, and of nations which have long since disappeared. A great part of these

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