Kafirs Of The Hindu Kush

Since the first edition of this book was published in 1897, the Amir of Kabul has consolidated his conquest of the whole of Kafiristan. This has not been done without strong loeasures; but also by the use of a statesmanlike moderation which has surprised those who have studied his relentless will and his terrible methods of rule. A massacre of missionary Moslem priests gave sufficient justification, in the eyes of an Afghan, for those sickening cruelties which Abdur Rahman practises on the ground, it is said, that a few barbarous executions, by their influence on the general imagination, are more deterrent to the violent and the predator}^ than the endless hangings and life imprisonments which characterise our system of government in India. But no Kafirs were tortured. Women and girls have been let alone. Men, though forced to accept Islam, do not seem to be worried into exasperation by fervid bigots. Plastic boys, taken to Kabul in large numbers, are being moulded, by Muhammedan teachers and by the influences of the capital, into zealous followers of the Prophet of Arabia. In less than a generation the Kafirs will produce many fanatics; the fervour of a proselyte is limitless.

When Kafiristan is next entered by an European, much will have changed. Compiled from copious diaries, this volume is the record of a past. There is little doubt that whatever the future of the country may be, it will remain true to its changed faith, to that wonderful
religion which is so attractive to Orientals, especially to those in a low state of civilisation.