National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Character
of Tangīr
population.

Though in language and racial descent there is probably little, if anything, to distinguish the
Tangīrīs (Fig. 39) from their eastern neighbours, yet I noticed marked differences in the character
of the population. The most striking, perhaps, is the fact that throughout Tangīr the population
lives scattered in clusters of hamlets and isolated holdings. Of those large villages resembling
townships in which the Darēl people now congregate, at least for a great portion of the year, there
are none to be found in Tangīr. Nor could I hear of ruined sites corresponding to those fortified
villages or ' kōts ' in which the Darēlīs seem to have sought shelter ever since early times. What
dwellings and canals I saw all appeared of distinctly ruder construction than most of those seen
in Darēl. On the other hand I noted a distinctly more manly bearing in the people and, as the
result probably of a natural reaction against the new régime, a sullenness of temper quite absent
among the meeker Darēlīs. Though Pakhtūn Wālī's power had been established in Tangīr far
longer, yet the strength of smouldering animosities was manifest. This accounted for the increased
care with which our ever-watchful escort safeguarded us from any attempt on the part of their
chief's oldest subjects—and foes. Thus flanking parties were conspicuous as we moved up the
valley on August 20th. To what extent the Tangīrīs' reputation for greater valour and turbulence
is connected with the spirit of fanaticism with which they are also credited I am unable to judge.
But it is certain that the easy disregard of the Islamic prohibition against wine that prevails through-
out Darēl is unknown here. Nor could it escape me that the defiant attitude of the numerous
religious students we found gathered round a famous Mullah at the old mosque of Prōrī (Fig. 29)
at first threatened to cause a fracas with our escort.

Upper
Tangīr
valley.

As we moved up the valley above Kāmī, all of it held by Gabar-khēls, I noticed much fertile
ground between the fields once probably cultivated but now overgrown by scrub and Ilex jungle.
Before reaching the clustering hamlets of Prōrī and Pāpat, we passed the side valley of Darō-gāh,
up which a track leads into upper Gayāl-gāh and thence to the main Darēl valley. About three
miles farther we reached Dobats, where the large side valley of Kachilō-gāh comes down from the
west. Through it access can be gained to the Gabriāl valley at the head of the as yet unexplored
hill-tract of Kandia. Close to the junction of the Kachilō-gāh and the main river coming from
Satil, I found the crest of a rocky eminence occupied by a small ruined fort, known as Birnao-kōt
(Fig. 33) and probably intended to guard the route from the north. Its remains did not look very
old. A little over a mile above this point, at an elevation of about 7,500 feet, we passed the outlet
of another large valley, the Maichar-gāh, coming from the west. Its stream seemed as large as
that of the main valley, which our track continued to follow to the north and which from here
onwards is known by the name of Satil.

Wood-
cutting in
Satil.

A magnificent forest of pines and firs extends right down to the bottom of the valley, which
is wide and occupied by gently rising wooded plateaux (Fig. 34). Here timber-cutting had during
recent years been carried on extensively and big clearings had been made. At the end of that
day's march, after passing through glorious sylvan scenery, we arrived at the camp of Miān
Shāh-zāda, a Kāka-khēl from Ziārat and uncle of my surveyor Afrāz-gul. For years he had been
in charge of the wood-cutting operations that Kāka-khēl contractors were carrying on in this
great forest belt, employing hundreds of Pathān and Kōhistānī hillmen from Upper Swāt and
the independent tracts on the Indus. It was his opportune intercession that had helped to over-
come Rāja Pakhtūn Wālī's original scruples about my passage through this territory. Shāh-zāda
had undertaken to keep all fanatical characters in these woodcutters' camps out of mischief, and
the influence of this quasi-sacrosant agent had much to do with assuring our safety on ground
where Pakhtūn Wālī's authority was evidently none too effective.