The jubah is also made the occasion for deciding the wrestling contests between the chief “pulwans” (athletes) of the city. These wrestling matches are usually conducted before the Amir and the princes, for whom tents are erected on the hillside, and the Amir awards money prizes to the victors. The keenest interest is taken in the wrestling by all people, and among the competitors defeat is in some cases so taken to heart that the man will never wrestle again, and others have been known to become so depressed through being beaten as to commit suicide.
There is no course kept open for those who are racing their horses, and the riders have to dodge in and out amongst the people and other horses and donkeys as best they can, and often man and horse come to grief, chiefly over a donkey which gets out of the way of no one, unless under compulsion. On one occasion two men were racing their horses from opposite ends of the plain, and met midway, and as neither would give way to the other in passing they collided, and the result was that one man and horse were killed on the spot, and the other two died the following day.
Story-tellers are in great favour among the people, and a good raconteur may be sure of an attentive audience. The bazar story-teller takes up his stand in a busy thoroughfare, and begins telling his story. In a short time he is surrounded by a large crowd, eagerly drinking in the various episodes related, while people riding or walking past have difficulty in squeezing their way through the crowd, if they themselves do not stop to swell it; but nothing is said or done by the passers-by to disturb the story-teller in his recital of the adventures of the prince or princess among the various jinn, fairies, or “deoo” (demons) of old time. Story-tellers are also attached to the retinues of the Amir and the princes, and others of high standing. All their attendants and officials are story-tellers in a way; but those mentioned are special men, whose chief duty it is to tell stories to their masters while the latter lie on their beds at night and listen until they fall asleep.
In Kabul, when a guest is invited to dinner, the invitation means that he is expected to stop the night in the house of his host, and on these occasions, when the dinner has been despatched, the guests gather round the host, squatting or lying on carpets while they smoke the chillum, and each one takes his turn at telling a story. The interest in the stories related is so great that they often sit listening to one another far into the night, and are unfit for work the following day.
Boys and children amuse themselves in much the same way as English children. The chief game among boys is “toop bazee,” which is played with a flat piece of wood and a ball, and is very much like rounders. They also go in for wrestling, and fencing with sticks, and throwing arrows with a piece of string, at which they are rather expert. Some of the elder boys shoot sparrows and small birds with clay pellets from a long blow-pipe, and in order to get the birds at close range the boy takes his stand beneath a tree and uses a call which imitates a number of sparrows chirruping and fighting together, and this induces the sparrows to come and investigate the cause of trouble, when they offer a good target from below.
Smaller children play with balls, knuckle bones, marbles, and walnuts. The walnuts are used as in a game of marbles, and any knocked out of the ring, in which each player places a certain number, are the property of the player who knocks them out.
Only very little girls are to be seen in the streets, as at about eight years of age they become “purdah,” i.e. no longer to be seen by men other than their relatives, and are confined to the women’s quarters of the house, and cannot go outside unless wearing the “bukra,” or cotton overdress, which covers them from head to foot, and has a slit covered with fine lace in front of the eyes for them to see through. Little girls may be seen sometimes on the house-top playing at a game similar to ring-of-roses, or playing with their dolls, and keeping house, or keeping shop, and other games of make-believe, which their sex delight in. Their greatest delight is to have an English doll with English clothes, for their own dolls are made of rag and dressed like themselves.