INDIAN TRIBAL FEUDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 233, 30 March 1912, Page 9

INDIAN TRIBAL FEUDS.

THE WAYS OF FRONTIERMEN. The capacity of the Indian frontier hillmen for keeping up a feud is wellknown, but even those who are versed in the literature of that part of the world will be interested in what the Westminster Gazette's special correspondent has to say about this characteristic. The correspondent kept his eyes about him as he was driven through the Kyber Pass, and his ears open for the talk of the officials who were with him. Dotted about the valleys on each side of the pass are little villages, every one of which is almost certain to be at war with its neighbor. In the watch-tower of each village a man will sit most of the- day with a rifle across his knees, ready to shoot anybody from an unfriendly village who is rash enough to do a little work in the fields without an escort of armed men. Since the space between two villages is liable to be swept by gun-fire, agriculture is confined to land under cover of the walls. Whero the feud is specially violent, boys have 'to be confined to the compounds until they are of age to carry a rifle, for they ma ? be shot without mercy, on the principal of reducing the number of males in the enemy's camp; and even girls have to be carefully guarded lest they should be kidnapped, and held to ransom. The only sanctuary in the whole region is the Pass road. Whoever kills on the road is within fifty yards of it is amenable to British justice, and in some places trenches are actually cut from the road to a village, so that men can reach the sanctuary under cover. Yet the very men who maintain these ruthless feuds take service in the Khyber Rifles, and guard the Pass faithfully for the English. When they go on leave they apparently return to the bad old life. It is a practice for men of the corps to take their leave on a different date to that stated to their officers, and to go to a different destination, lest they be betrayed by an enemy, and stalked. But the gem of the article is the following:— "At a certain turn of the road before you reach Ali Masjid, going downwards, is a mound of earth, on which many poles with rags attached to them are planted. This is the much venerated tomb of a very holv man. Its origin is recent and historical. A few years ago the Zakkakhcls had no holy man's tomb, .md for that reason were much derided by the Kukikhcls, who had two. This greatly tried thenendurance, so they waited by the roadside until one day there cajine along an ancient and famous sage, of great sanctity, making his journey from Kabul to Lahore. Him they took and cut his throat, and planted him under this mound, to which all the tribe bring offerings to this day, so that the Kukikhels laugh no more."