d before the Royal Geographical Society, the group attired as
on their journey, with McNair in the centre, and his Mahommedan friends
around him.

In introducing Mr. McNair to the meeting, the President (Lord Aberdare)
said that the paper he was about to read was an account of a visit he
had recently made to Kafiristan. Mr. McNair had resided in India for a
long time previous to his adventurous journey, and whilst in the
service of the Topographical Department in the North-west of India, had
been employed in surveys beyond the frontier of Afghanistan. His
attention was thus directed to the interesting country which the paper
would describe. Kafiristan was a country of very peculiar interest. The
name Kafiristan, or the "country of infidels," was a nick-name given by
the surrounding Mahommedans, and was not that by which it was called by
the natives. It had long been a reproach to English geographers that
the only accounts of Kafiristan had been obtained through Orientals
themselves, whose statements had never been tested by the actual visit
of Europeans to the country. The consequence was that a sort of mystery
surrounded Kafiristan,--so much so that Colonel Yule, when discussing
an interesting paper by Colonel Tanner, on a visit he made to the
borders of the Kafir country three years ago, said that when Kafiristan
was visited and explored the Royal Geographical Society might close the
doors, because there would be no more new work to be done. The veil had
at last been drawn aside. It might be asked why the country had been so
long held inaccessible. The explanation was that the inhabitants were
always at war with their Mahommedan neighbours, by whom they were
surrounded on all sides, and who had been extremely jealous of their
communication with European travellers. Mr. McNair had penetrated
Kafiristan in disguise. He (the President) had had an opportunity of
seeing the paper, and he found that Mr. McNair had not dwelt upon the
historical geography of Kafiristan, and therefore he would say a few
words on that subject. As long ago as 1809, Kafiristan attracted the
attention of one of the ablest public servants that England ever sent
out to India--Mountstuart Elphinstone--who was anxious to add to his
"History of Kabul" something about the people of Kafiristan; and
knowing that it was inaccessible to Europeans, he employed an Indian, a
man of learning and intelligence, to travel there and obtain all the
information he co