AMANULLAH

strange white people across the border, who hold the rich
prize of India. Not many years later he was to clash
swords with the famed armies of that race.

True, there are Englishmen in Kabul, tenacious and
courageous in a land which had always cost them lives
and money. But the missions to the capital are not
greatly in evidence, and the relations between Afghan
and Englishman always under a strain. Besides,
here perhaps the mullahs put in a word of their
own.

" Afghanistan for the Afghans I " is their theme.
*6 This is the forbidden land ! "

Perhaps that age-old battle-cry of the holy men has
its effect at that age on his youthful mind, but, if so, it
was easy to expel, as history showed. Released from the
supervision of the mullahs, too, he grows restive of their
influence over all the land. He ** sees straight/5 does the
youth with the strong, agile body and the black, fearless
eyes. He sees the evil of a priest-ridden peasantry. He
sees the corruption of the Church, as another King has
done since his day — and suffered the same fate* And by
the time he is little more than a youth, he grows actively
resentful of the wholesale regard for the priests, and
tends to link his life more and more closely with the life
of the soldiers.

Marriage intervenes. He is older than is the custom
for bridegrooms in his country, and we can imagine that
he grows impatient with the ritual which must attend his
wedding when he might be out with his troops, jousting
with them in every sporting event, leading them in the
games and the tests of military prowess.

He must change uniform for more ceremonial clothes.
He must busy himself with all the considerations of caste
and heredity, and he must pursue his betrothed, a certain
IQwium, with all the elaborate details which
20