heir
favourite pastime. But the simpler native games are gradually giving
place to the superior attractions of cricket and football, and the
tournaments which of recent years have been organized between the
various native regiments and between the different tribes inhabiting
each district and between the schools of the provinces are doing much
to create a spirit of friendly rivalry, and to develop among these
frontier people a fascination for those sports which have done so much
to make England what she is. Some tribes among the Afghans, such as the
Marwats, are very stay-at-home, and soon become homesick if they enlist
in a regiment or undertake a journey. Others, like the Povindahs,
are perhaps the greatest overland merchants of the East. They travel
down from their mountains in Khorasan, through the passes in the
North-West Frontier, and traverse with their merchandise the length
and breadth of India, and numbers of them engaged in the trade in
camels cross over the seas to Australia and take service there.

With the idea of developing the esprit de corps of the school, and
gratifying their love of travel, while at the same time conferring on
them the benefits of a well-planned educational tour through the chief
cities of India, I arranged in the summer of 1906 to take the football
team of the Mission High School at Bannu on a tour through a great
part of Northern India. A number of colleges and schools from Calcutta
to Karachi not only accepted our challenge for football matches, but
offered us hospitality for such time as we should be in their town. Our
team represented all classes--Muhammadans, Hindus, native Christians,
and Sikhs. The captain of the team was an Afghan lad of the Khattak
tribe, Shah Jahan Khan by name, while the vice-captain was a native
Christian, James Benjamin. Various difficulties presented themselves,
but all were eventually successfully surmounted. Stress of work and
school duties compelled us to make the tour in the slacker time of the
year--viz., in July, August, and September. This was also the hottest
time in most of the places we visited, and some of the matches were
played in a temperature bordering on 100 deg. F., while the spectators
were sitting under punkahs.

At this time of year the River Indus is in full flood, and presents a
remarkable sight as, bursting forth from its rocky defile at Kalabagh,
it spreads out over the flat alluvial plain of the Western Panjab. In
the winter i