1 58 PUNJAB CASTES.
2 frontier contain full infovmatiaa concerning the Pathans of tho Panjab border, as do Macgregor's
3 Oaietteer of the N.-W. Frontier, and Paget's Expeditions against the N.-W. Frontier
4 Tribes.
5 391. D.scription of the Pathans. — The true Pathau is perhaps the most ,
6 o^ barbaric of all the races with which we are brouo-ht into contact in the
7 Panjab. His life is not so primitive as that of the gipsy tribes- But he
8 ^.^ y~ is bloodthirsty, cruel, and vindictive in the highest degree: he does not
9 !v" ^^ know what truth or faith is, insomuch that the saying Afghan he imdn
10 Las passed into a proverb among his neighbours ; and though he is not
11 without courage of a sort and is often curiously reckless of his life, he
12 would scorn to face an enemy whom he could stab from behind, or to
13 meet him on equal terms if it were possible to take advantage of him,
14 however meanly. It is easy to convict him out of his own mouth ; here
15 are some of his proverbs : " A Pathan's enmity smoulders like a dung-fire." —
16 " A cousin's tooth breaks upon a cousin." — " Keep a cousin jiooi-, but
17 " use him." — " When he is little play with him : when he is grown up he
18 " is a cousin ; fight him." — " Speak good words to an enemy very softly :
19 " gradually destroy him root and branch. i" At the same time he has
20 bis code of honour which he observes strictly, and which he quotes with
21 pride under the name of Pakhtuawali. It imposes upon him three chief
22 obligations, Nanaioitai or the right of asylum, which compels him to shelter
23 and protect even an enemy who comes as a suppliant ; .'iadai or the necessity
24 to revenge by retaliation ; and 3Ielmas(ia or open-handed hospitality to
25 all who may demand it. And of these three perhaps the last is greatest.
26 And there is a sort of charm about him, especially about the leading men,
27 which almost makes one forget his treacherous nature. As the proverb
28 says—" The Pathan is one moment a saint, and the next a devil." For
29 centm-ies he has been, on our frontier at least, subject to no man. He
30 leads a wild, free, active life in the rugged fastnesses of his mountains ;
31 and there is an aii- of masculine independence about him which is refreshing in
32 a country like India. He is a bigot of the most fanatical type, exceedingly
33 proud, and extraordinarily superstitious. He is of stalwart make, and his
34 features are often of a markedly Semitic type. His hair, plentifully oiled, bangs
35 long and straight to his shoulder ;" he wears a loose tunicj baggy drawers,
36 a sheet or blanket, sandals, and a sheepskin coat with its wool inside ; his
37 favourite colour is dark-blue,^ and his national arms the long heavy Afghan
38 knife and the matchlock or jazail. His women wear a loose shift, wide
39 wrinkled drawers down to their ankles, and a wrap over the head ; and ai'e
40 as a rule jealously secluded. Both sexes are filthy in their persons.
41 Such is the Pathan in his home among the fastnesses of the fi-ontier
42 ranges. But the Pathans of our territory have been much softened by our rule
43 and by the agricultural life of the plains, so that they look down upon the
44 Pathans of the hills, and their proverljs have it — " A hill man is no man,"
45 and again, " Don't class burrs as grass or a hill man as a human being."
46 The nearer he is to the frontier the more closely the Pathan assimilates
47 to the original type ; while on this side of the Indus, even in the' riverain
48 itself, there is little or nothing, not even language, to distinguish him
49 'The Pashto word tarbtir is used indifferently for " cousin " or for " enemy j" and tarburnali
50 either for " cousinhood " or for " enmity."
51 ■ This is not true of the northern Pathans, who shave their heads, and often their beards also.
52 sThe colonr and cut of the clothes vary greatly with the tribe.