366 THE HEART OF A CONTINENT. [CHAP. XVII.
number of inferior people as the chief of a number of chiefs, who have each their own train of followers. In old days Chitral was split up into a number of little chieftainships. The villages are all separated from each other by strips of barren land, and nearly every village, and, at any rate, every valley, had its separate chief. In the course of time these were federated together under the chief of the village of Chitral. He was to be the head chief, and would lead them all in war, for instance ; but it was understood that each separate chief had rule over his own followers. 'Gradually, however, the power of the lesser chiefs dwindled, and that of the Chitral chief, or Mehtar, increased. But even now there are traces of the original state of affairs, and the Adamzadas, the descendants of these minor chiefs, are very jealous of the remnants of authority still left them, and often oppose the orders of the Mehtar. They are now, indeed, a very unsatisfactory element of the Chitral state. They have little authority, but an immense idea of their importance, and they consider it necessary to stand upon their dignity on every possible occasion. They are sullenly hostile to every Mehtar, and jealous of his authority, and I have even known some of them refuse to turn their men out to resist an invasion of the country. The greater part of them are thoroughly hostile to the British alliance, because they have heard that the British treat rich and poor, small and great, exactly alike, and attach no importance to rank. They therefore fear that, as British
influence increases in the state, their power will still further diminish, and they especially fear that their followers, who are
on much the same footing as the serfs were in Russia, will, under the pressure of British influence, gain more freedom, till they become independent of them. However much, therefore, the Mehtar may realize that his position depends upon the closeness of his alliance with the British Government, he has always to contend against the sullen opposition of these effete remnants of a bygone age.
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