ermanently
disfigured by it. When an Afghan comes to negotiate about the price of
an eligible girl for marrying to his son, one of the first questions
asked is, "Has she had the smallpox?" and if not, either the settlement
may be postponed until she is older, or else some deduction is made
for her possible disfigurement if attacked by the disease. Many times
fathers have brought their daughters to the hospital with the scars
left by smallpox in their eyes, begging me to remove them, not so much
for the sake of the patient as because the market value of the daughter
will be so much enhanced thereby. The custom of inoculation was at
one time almost universal in Afghanistan. A little of the crust of the
sore of a smallpox patient was taken and rubbed into an incision made
in the wrist of the person to be inoculated. The smallpox resulting,
though usually mild, was sometimes so severe as to cause the death
of the patient, and the people have not been slow to recognize the
great advantages which vaccination has over inoculation. Only two
circumstances deter the people from universally profiting by the
facilities offered by the British Government. The first reason is that
very often the vaccinators are underpaid officials, who use their
opportunities for taking bribes from the people, and make the whole
business odious to them. The other is, that they have a widespread
superstition that the Government are really seeking for a girl, who
is to be recognized by the fact that when the vaccinator scarifies
her arm, instead of blood, milk will flow from the wound; she is then
to be taken over to England for sacrifice, and the parents are afraid
lest their girl should be the unlucky one.

CHAPTER III

BORDER WARRIORS

Peiwar Kotal--The Kurram Valley--The Bannu Oasis--Independent
tribes--The Durand line--The indispensable Hindu--A lawsuit and its
sequel--A Hindu outwits a Muhammadan--The scope of the missionary.

I was standing on a pine-clad spur of the Sufed Koh Range, which
runs westwards towards Kabul, between the Khaiber Pass on the north
and the Kurram Pass on the south. The snow-clad peaks of Sika Ram,
which rise to a height of fifteen thousand feet, tipped by fleecy
white clouds, were just behind me, while in front was the green valley
of the Kurram River, spread out like a panorama before me, widening
out into a large plain in its upper part, where numerous villages,
partly hidden in groves of mu