selves in ever-widening circles round this centre and gyrate round
it, ever keeping the centre on the left, so as to give greater play
to their sword-arms. The older and less nimble of the warriors form
the inner circles; outside them come the young men, who dance round
with surprising agility, often with a gun in one hand and a sword in
the other, or, it may be, with a sword in each hand, which they wave
alternately in circles round their heads. Outside them, again, circle
the horsemen, showing their agility in the saddle and their skill
with the sword or gun at the same time. On one side are the village
minstrels, who give the tune on drums and pipes. They begin with a slow
beat, and one sees all the circles going round with a measured tread;
then the music becomes more and more rapid, and the dancers become
more and more carried away with excitement, and to the onlooker it
appears a surging mass of waving swords and rifles. The rifles are
as often as not loaded and discharged from time to time, at which the
gyrations of the horsemen on the outside become more and more excited,
and one wonders that heads and arms are not gashed by the swords which
are seen waving everywhere. Suddenly the music ceases, and all stop to
regain their breath, to start again after a few minutes, until they
are tired out. The excitement and the intricate revolutions often
bring the scene to the brink of a real warfare, and not infrequently
it ends in bloodshed. In one instance, where a man fell, and in
falling discharged his rifle with fatal effect into another dancer,
the unintentional murderer would have had his throat cut there and
then had not his friends hurriedly dragged him out and carried him
off to his home, fighting as they went. In this way blood-feuds are
sometimes started, which will divide a village into two factions,
and not end till some of the bravest have fallen victims to it.

On one occasion I was seated with some Afghans in a house in the
village of Peiwar in the Kurram Valley. Most of the houses were on
either side of one long street running the length of the village,
and I noticed that some little doors had been made from house to house
all down the street, and on inquiring the object of this, I was told
that some time before a great faction fight had been carried on in the
village. One side of the street was in one faction and the other side
in the other faction, and they were always in ambush to fire at each
other ac