to see improvements brought in—who would, for instance, like to have roads made through the country, the telegraph brought in, and the men properly armed and drilled ; and the men who,. arguing that what was good enough for their fathers is good enough for them, are opposed to innovations of every kind. These latter, in Chitral, are in the majority. A shudder of horror went through the country when the late Mehtar, Nizam,. one day took it into his head to give his wives and female relations a treat in the country, and had a picnic for them up• the river. " No Mehtar had ever done such a thing before!" the people said. " So why should this one make such a change ? "
We see, then, a state with the fully developed system of government of modern European countries here still in embryo. The control is imperfect. Governors are appointed to the outlying provinces of the state, and these exercise a very independent authority. There is no elaborate system of reporting to the central authority, and very little reference to it. As I have said few men in the country can read or write, so correspondence is reduced to a minimum. For several months the Governor of Mastuj, where I was stationed, had no one by him who could read, and on the few occasions on which he did receive letters, he brought them round to my clerk to read for him. It might be imagined that, where there is so little connection with the central authority, the outlying provinces would gradually drop off and become independent. But there is in Chitral an excellent method by which just sufficient touch is kept up between the capital and the provinces to ensure the integrity of the country. Every now and then the governors have to come in to Chitral itself, to pay their respects to the Mehtar, and in this way, and in the manner already noticed, by which all the notables and a certain number of the poorer classes have to come in to Chitral every year,. the Mehtar is kept in touch with all parts of his dominion.
This, briefly, is the system of government in Chitral as
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