AFGHAN TRAITS. Their History One Continued Tale of Vendetta.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 238, 21 January 1888, Page 2

AFGHAN TRAITS.

Their History One Continued Tale of Vendetta.

— — — — . fj. " Badal, or revengo, is the soul of Afghan? Jife. All the history of Afghanistan', both* £ pttMic and private, isone^co"ointted tale ofT Vendetta. $§ftqtfre&,er]ib chances^thab I have no^in my,pon%tipn ahy songfjpff vendetta illustrating" \this 'side,'; of Afghan life in a manner sufficiently kliarabteristio to deserve quotation. -Suffice it to say that, vendetta i 3 with the Afghans what it isvvith the Corsicans, the Albo n ians ? and all primitive mountaineers ; it is hereditary and not to be proscribed. Even on British territory the law ls^powerless against the badal j-ib-is-one of the crimes for 'which no witness will be found to speak before the judge in icachehrL There is hardly an Afghan in the mountain "who has" riot a foe who aims at his head and at whose head he aims. , It happens nob seldom that m{ Afghan sepoy f roiti Yaghistah—many Afghans from over "the border enlist in the native contingent— asks for leave for private business ; that means that there is up there some wolfs head which he has to take. There isa story of an Afghan sepoy, who, having not joined hx&paltan in due time, complained bitterly of, the iniquity of his officer, who had dismissed him from service : "I had ft duty of badal toperform ; I had a foe to kill. The scampabsconded for weeks ; what could I do ?"