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AMANULLAH

......._______......... .... -..-. ;.• I .. II '"I " 'I '.....---------- ' .. -—........... . ____ |

thrilled to the shame of it being taller than the Mosque,
true centre of Afghan life.

The drums ceased beating, the regular stamp of feet
was heard no more. There were no more flags in the
green valley, no more bands in the round bandstand
below his mountain retreat. Only, from Kabul, there
rose in the air, day and night increasingly, the smoke
of burning buildings, the aerid scent of powder, the
clash of warfare*

The mullah did not leave his retreat, but pondered
the more and devoted more than his customary atten-
tion to prayer.

The crash of cannon reverberated through the hills.
The drone of 'planes, strange, ungodly apparitions at
which he shuddered, filled the air. He was afraid, not
for himself, for he was past fear and believed in the
goodness of Allah, but for his countrymen.

An infidel King had gone. That much he knew. That
much he prophesied, long ago, when he was told that
the mullahs held no more their power through the land.
That much he knew when it was noised abroad that this
Amanullah, this a Peace of God," was thirsting for war,
for novelty, for the infidel ways of the countries across
the Black Water.

News came regularly to him over the hills. He learnt
of the shameful departure of the Amir to the West. He
learnt of the abandonment of the purdah> the freedom
of women. Was the world crazy ? Was the Faith of
Islam a thing to mock ? That way lay disaster. He
was not at all surprised when the news came that the
irreligious King, who had Cocked the Faith, whose
motor cars had screeched down the voice of the Imam,
and who had persecuted the mullahs, had fled.

The old eyes looked down without excitement, with-
out tremble, but with a pain behind them, in the brain

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