A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
It has become a fashion among English writers on
the Pathan question — most of whom are ex-military offi-
cers, and therefore his enemies — to vilify Pathan charac-
ter. He has been described as " thievish and predatory to
the last degree ". " A Pathan will steal a blanket from
under a sleeping person/' observes Commander Stephen
King Hall. But we have the testimony both of Davies
and the author of that delightful book, The Khyber
Caravan, that the problem facing the military authorities
today is not how to prevent the disappearance of blankets
from under the sleeping citizens, but disappearance of pic-
kets (who have forgotten sleep for fear of the raiders),
rifle and all. Loss of rifles of sentries on duty became so
frequent that orders were issued that except in the case
of Tochi scouts rifles must be chained to the person of the
picket. But neither the penalty of court-martial for loss
of rifle nor the practice of chaining the fire-arms to the
persons of scouts out on duty, " at the wrist and the
waist" was proof against the ingenuity of the raiders who
now carried away the sentry along with the rifle chained
to his person.
In his social relations the Pathan is ruled by what is
loiown as Pukhtonwali or the threefold Pathan code of
honour, which imposes upon tribesmen obligations, the
non-observance of which is regarded as the deadliest of
sins and is followed by lasting dishonour and ostracism :
(1) he must grant to all fugitives the right of asylum
(nanaioatai), (2) he must proffer openhanded hospitality
(melmastia) even to his deadliest enemy, and (3) he must
wipe out insult with insult (badal). This last leads to
the practice of blood-feuds which is the bane of the Pathan
race. Every branch or section of a tribe has its inter-
necine wars, every family its hereditary blood-feuds and
every individual his personal foes. " Every person counts
up his murders, each tribe has its debtor and creditor
account with its neighbours, life for life." " Unfortunate-
ly/' observes Davies, " unruly tribesmen fail to realize
that under the disastrous influence of this barbarous cus-
tom, many of their noblest families are brought to the