m-W'^-W-^^'-'^-^-'-f^^^'^- Jl ^^l 'c a/i^^ -^/^ /^ - BANNU; oil OUR AFGHAN FRONTIER. SaOclBBMiUi ^llnt^L. BANNU; OUR AFGHAN FRONTIEB S. S. THORBURN, INDIA CIVIL SERVICE, SETTLEMENT OFFICER OF THE BANNU DISTRICT. •^ LONDON: TRtJBNER & CO., 57 and 59, LUDGATE HILL. 1876. All Rights Reserved. : HERTFORD PRINTED BY STEPHEN AXISTIX AND SONS. PREFACE In the spring of 1848, just twenty-eight years ago, the late Sir Herbert Edwardes, then a young lieutenant in the service of the East India Company, achieved in a few months the bloodless conquest of the Bannu valley—a valley studded with 400 village-forts, which all the might of a military nation like the Sikhs had failed to subdue, though for twenty years and more they had made repeated efforts to do so. Lieutenant Edwardes had been supplied with the means wherewith to compel submission, or rather to attempt it, in the shape of several Sikh regiments ; but happily his personal influence and tact enabled him to accomplish his task without resorting to physical force. The troops, as well as the people they had been sent to conquer, saw with wonder and admiration how difficulties, formerly deemed insurmountable, disappeared in a few weeks before the earnest enthusiasm of one Englishman. The good work had hardly been completed, when the second Sikh war broke out, and Edwardes hastened away with what troops and levies he could collect to stem the tide of rebellion by boldly laying siege to Multan. At the close of the war, in which he had proved him- self a heroic soldier and skilful officer, he went home on furlough to find himself the lion of the hour. There he devoted his leisure to the production of a book called " A Year on the Punjab Frontier^^'' in which he de- scribed, in vivid and glowing language, the events of 1848-49 in the Punjab, and his own share in them. This work is perhaps the best of its class ever yet published on an Indian subject, and, owing to its delightful sparkle and graphic scene-painting, bearing the impress of reality in every line, its pages afford charming reading to young and old alike, whether in- terested in India or not. The very school-boyish vanity and ingenuousness of the writer enhance the pleasure of the reader, who sees the author before him as he then was, a young officer, who had bravely and wisely used a great opportunity, and who had gone to England, fresh from the scene of his conquests, to find himself made a hero of by his countrymen. In Part I. of the following pages extracts are intro- duced from Edwardes' book, which is now, I believe, out of print ; and the previous and subsequent history, social and political, of the Trans-Indus tracts of this District are sketched. A short account is then given of the revenue system as it was under the Sikhs, and as it is under the British; of the primitive collective form of property in land, which still survives in some parts of Marwat; and of the Settlement operations now in progress. I have endeavoured to interweave with the narrative some account of how rulers and ruled spend their lives in this far-away corner of the British Empire, which may, perhaps, prove not uninteresting to Englishmen at home. Part II. is devoted to an account of the customs and folklore, the proverbs, ballads and popular tales, the unwritten but fondly treasured literature of the Pashto-speaking inhabitants of the District, from which some insight into the thoughts and opinions which govern their actions may be gained. Let me now tell how and why this piece of patch- work, which I am venturing to publish, ever came to be written. In 1872 I began the Settlement of this District, and my duties as Settlement Officer afforded me great oppor- tunities of studying the people, and caused them to be ready to serve me in any way I desired. I then com- menced making a collection of their proverbs for my own pleasure, and, meeting with encouragement from Government, the idea of having it published occurred to me. With this intention I arranged the collection as it appears in Part II. during the hot weather of 1874. Having done so, I felt that an introduction, descriptive of the people whose thoughts and sayings I had strung together, was required. Accordingly when in camp during the cold season of 1874-75, I wrote in odd hours of leisure the six chapters which comprise Part I., and it was not until the last sheet was laid aside, that the unconscionable length of what had at first been meant to be a short introduction dawned upon me. Finally, possessing a number of Pashto stories, I translated some of tliem, aud wrote a chapter on Pathan social life. As the subject was a dry one, I adopted a narrative form, hoping by that means to render the account less uninteresting than if no thread of connexion had run through it. As the book has been composed amidst the hurry and worry of engrossing and constant work, I hope all shortcomings will be pardoned, and that want of time may be accepted as my excuse for having failed to prune these overgrown pages. For the accompanying map, my acknowledgments are due to Colonel H. C. Johnstone, C.B., Bengal Staff Corps, Deputy Superintendent of Survey, North- western Frontier. I have also to thank Henry Priestley, Esq., late Bengal Civil Service, for having corrected the proofs of the sheets printed in Pashto type. The task of revising the work and seeing it through the press has been kindly undertaken by my cousin, Captain W. Stewart Thorburn, 41st Kegiment, to whom will belong all the credit should errors be few. S. S. THORBURN, Settlement Officek, Bannu. Edwardesabad, May, 1876. nr\-\TrvTM<Trro ERRATA. Page 6, line 26, /or Dawd read Da^^d. 8, ,, 6,for gTain read giam. 13, ,, 9, /or Badwi read Badwi. 14, „ 6 (Note),>r Prakrit-like read Prakrit, like. 16, „ 3Z,for'Dmd read Band. 26, „ 9, /or alternatively reac? alternately. 100, ,, 2, /or mind-expoMnders rfffrf mind-expanders. 161, ,, 1 (Note), /or stingo i^anzUr >•««(;? stirgo ranziir. 161, ,, 2 (Note),/or J/azar rert!c?iVazar. 183, ,, 9, a/f'er, a hill man passed by, «6?rf, with three .sheep. 224, „ 4, /or Isakhels nad Isak Khels. 283, ,, 13, /or "boat (is) old" read "may (your) boat sink." 284, ,, 30, /or z;ain rmt/ rain. 287, ,, 12, /or that read because. Class and Local 243 Co-operation 256 Cowardice 257 Custom 259 Death 260 translated some of them, and wrote a chapter on Pathan social life. As the subject was a dry one, I adopted a narrative form, hoping by that means to render the account less uninteresting than if no thread of connexion had run through it. Maij, 18/ b. ——— CONTENTS. PAET I. PAGE Chapter I. Geographical. Bannu and its Emvirons . 1 II. Bannu Independent and under Native Eule . 12 III. Bannu under British Rule 42 IV. The Muhammad Khel Rebellion, and its Lesson C5 V. Times of Peace and Plenty 86 VI. Land Revenue System—Tenures and Settlements 107 PART II. Chapter I. Social Life, Customs, Beliefs and Superstitions OF the Peasantry 141 „ II. Popular Stories, Ballads and Riddles. 171 Class I. —Humorous and Moral . .173 „ II. —Comic and Jocular .... 192 „ III.—Fables 217 Marwat Ballads 224 Riddles 228 „ III. Pashto Proverbs translated into English . 231 Begging 236 Boasting 238 Bravery 241 Class and Local 245 Co-operation 256 Cowardice 257 Custom 259 Death 260 X CONTENTS. Chapter III. (continued) : — PAQK Enmity 263 Family 267 Fate 269 Friendship 271 God 278 Good Looks 281 Good and Bad Luck 281 Goodness and "Wickedness 285 Haste and Deliberation 288 Home 291 Honour and Shame 292 Husbandry, Weather and Health .... 296 Ignorance and Foolishness 308 Joy and Sorrow 312 Knowledge 316 Labour 319 Lying 322 Liberality and Parsimony 324 Man's Justice 330 Old Age 332 Poverty 333 Pride, Self-conceit and Lame Excuses . 338 Selfishness and Ingratitude 342 Strength 344 Wealth 348 Women 350 Unclassed, Ethical, Didactic and Miscellaneous . 361 „ IV.—The same Proverbs in Pasuto .... 414 Appendix 475 PART I. INTRODUCTORY. Being an Account of the District of Banni5, its People and THEiE Rulers, Past and Present. OUR AFGHAN FRONTIEE. CHAPTER I. GEOGEAPHICAL. BANNU' AXD ITS E]S"VIEONS. Competition is now so keen, that any ordinary English- man who aspires to a competence by the time he is fifty has to spend the first twenty-five years of his life in pre- paring for and passing examinations, and the next twentj'- five in one continuous grind of work, broken by the occasional brightness of a holiday—at home a trip abroad or to the sea- side ; in India a month in the hills or a run to England. During those busy years his early bookish acquirements are forgotten, and most of his general know- ledge consists of a smattering, gleaned from periodicals and newspapers hastily read in leisure hours. If the bread-making Englishman at home has little unconcern of , . busy Englishmen i" England or spare time and inclination to devote to picking up og-eneral ro 1 injiia m matters _ information on subjects which do not interest him pro- °°th tbeiT''^'^ p™^'^^^'°'^^- fessionally, his countrymen out here, with the exception perhaps of those resident at the capitals, or the few always at Government Head Quarters, have less. Climate, isola- tion, the monotony of work, distance from any great 2 BANNU AND ITS ENVIRONS.