He fully expected the Amir to promote him or
at least present him with a bag of gold and a
concubine or two in return for having shot a
Christian. As a matter of fact, when word did
reach the Amir, he rose up in his wrath and instead
of a promotion gave the murderer a ticket to
paradise. He had him executed on the very-
spot where he had so treacherously killed the
Feringhi.

Perhaps this act of discipline was a good
lesson to all Afghan troops. At any rate we
hoped so !

We were in a part of Afghanistan inhabited
by the Shinwaris, shaggy-haired., baggy-trou-
sered, truculent nomads, considered dangerous
even by the Amir's soldiers. There is a proverb
in Afghanistan to the effect that "a snake, a
Shinwati, and a scorpion have never a heart to
tame". Abdur Rahman, grandfather of the
present Amir, was the first Afghan ruler tem-
porarily to succeed in subduing the Shinwaris.
He not only waged relentless warfare against
them but at Kabul built a tower out of their
skulls, as a hint to the other bellicose tribes of
Ms realm.

But in the nine or ten miles between Landi
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