Under the absolute Amir

by Frank A. Martin

Snuff-taking is also commonly indulged in by the better-class people. The poorer people, however, use the native tobacco, roughly crushed, and put it in their mouths, and there are some who can afford the snuff brought up from India who do the same in preference to sniffing it up the nose.

It is only in the large houses that there are fire-places, but there are few people who are wealthy enough to afford the cost of the large quantity of wood required during the winter months in order to keep the rooms warm enough to sit in, for the doors and windows of all houses are so badly fitted that the draughts of wind make the rooms unbearably cold even with a large fire going, and one has to sit in furs to be comfortable. So, to reduce the cost of fuel to a minimum and yet keep themselves warm day and night, the people have the “sandalee.” This is formed of a square wooden stool placed in the centre of the room and under the stool a small perforated iron box standing on legs, in which charcoal is burnt, and over all is spread a large rezai or quilt which covers the stool and fire-box, and extends on all sides over most of the floor of the room. The stool is used in order to keep the rezai away from the fire-box. Charcoal is lighted in the iron box, and when it is burning brightly the box is placed under the centre stool, whence the heat from the fire spreads under the whole of the rezai and keeps it very warm, and under such a cover the charcoal burns very slowly and the fire lasts for hours. Thin mattresses and pillows placed under the outer portion of the rezai are used to sleep on, or sit on in the daytime. Under this the whole of the family, father, mother, sons and their wives, daughters, children, aunts, and other relations, sleep at night, all being kept warm on the coldest night at the cost of a few pice for charcoal. The drawback is that at times with a newly lighted fire, the charcoal fumes are excessive, and produce nausea and headache, and sometimes suffocation, and also when a person is in the habit of using it during the day while having occasionally to go out into the frosty air, he often gets rheumatism, or other complaint. Another drawback is the moral effect on a whole family of men and women sleeping together in a small space under the rezai, and many call the sandalee “the devil’s playground.” In the guardrooms the soldiers use these sandalees too, the men sitting with their legs tucked under the rezai, while they have sheepskin coats covering the head and body, and in this way they can defy the bitterest wind. It is the one standing outside on guard who gets frozen to death at times.

In Kabul and the principal cities time is kept by means of a sundial, but though there are tables printed in Persian of the daily difference between solar and mean time, the time given by them is only approximate, for the dials have been constructed for other latitudes, and they are fixed in the direction of the magnetic north instead of the true one. One day, after ascertaining the true time, I informed the Amir that the midday gun was twenty minutes fast; but he said it was better so, for then they would not be late for midday prayers. Daily at midday a gun is fired to announce the time to the people, and those who have clocks and watches set them accordingly. Comparatively few, however, of the people are able to tell the time from a clock, and many have the most hazy idea of the length of time expressed by an hour or half an hour. This ignorance extends also to numbers, the people generally being able to count up to twenty, and any number above that is expressed as so many “taman” (score) together with the odd figure to make up the number. Some of the people do not even know the days of the week, and have to be told that a certain day is so many days after the present one.

Courtship and marriage in Afghanistan differ in many respects from those interesting episodes in European countries, but in no respect more than in the man not seeing the girl until they are married, and she is his wife. Men in Afghanistan are not prone to talk about their wives, or the women of their family, and to ask after a man’s wife is akin to an insult, as evincing some degree of familiarity with her. Under these circumstances a man’s feelings while he is waiting to see what sort of girl he has married are not ascertainable by direct question, but one would suppose that there must be an anxiety bordering on the intense to know what manner of woman it is that must hereafter be called “wife,” for the women vary in face and form as much as the men, and the “pig in the poke” may be as beautiful as a houri, or as ugly as sin, if not uglier in the opinion of some sinners.

Excepting in the case of boy and girl betrothals among people of high rank, which are arranged by the heads of the families, or when a young man’s relations arrange which woman he shall marry, it is usual for a man when he desires another wife to make known his wishes to his friends and his intention soon becomes public property. He then receives overtures from men with marriageable daughters, and the discussions with one and another are no light matter, for the prospective father-in-law expects money or kind in exchange for his daughter, and the beauty and qualities of the said daughter being an unknown quantity, the man is not inclined to be either liberal or rash. However, when the proceedings have at length assumed so much headway that the man is satisfied with the standing of the family the girl belongs to, and the family’s future prospects, and considers that the father of the girl has reduced his demands to the lowest fraction, he then sends his female relatives to inspect the cause of the trouble, and on their verdict, other things being satisfactory, concludes the bargain. When all the bargaining is over the ceremony of betrothal takes place, followed sooner or later by the marriage ceremony.

The marriage ceremony depends for splendour and feasting upon the wealth and standing of the families of the contracting parties. With members of the royal family and people of high rank, it means a three days’ tamasha, with the feasting of a great number of relatives and friends, and expenditure of further money in dancing-girls, bands, and other things. Although the expenditure varies according to the wealth of the persons concerned, in all cases the greatest splendour consistent with the rank of the contracting parties is aimed at, even if money must be borrowed to give a good show off, and in this they do not differ much from people nearer London. When the marriage ceremony is completed, the bride is carried in a sort of sedan chair to the bridegroom’s house, and the bridegroom, together with many of his relations and friends riding on horseback, accompany her, carrying guns, which they fire as they go along, while in front of them goes a drum and fife band with men dancing and pirouetting in front of it. The shooting of guns is a relic of older times when a man with the aid of his friends had to obtain his bride by force of arms or some stratagem, and then carry her away in front of his saddle while her relatives pursued them.

The weddings of the poor people have no display such as this, and the bride and bridegroom have perforce to walk before and after the ceremony, for they cannot afford a moullah, or priest, to come to the house, and so have to go to his place to be married. They may be seen in the street, the bridegroom walking first and the bride after him (no woman must walk in front of or even abreast a man); and after her is a girl friend or relative, carrying her clothes in a bundle on her head. In front of them walks a man with a tom-tom (native drum), and another with a tin whistle, both doing their best to enliven the proceedings by making the most noise possible with the instruments at their disposal, and so they wend their way to the bridegroom’s poor house.

I was told in Kabul that there is an old Afghan marriage custom among some of the tribes which differs from the above. With them, a man who wishes to marry a girl is allowed to live for some time in her father’s house, using the girl as his wife, and when after a reasonable time has elapsed, there is evidence that the girl is going to become a mother, he marries her. Should this not happen, the man is at liberty to marry her, or depart, and elsewhere seek a wife who is capable of continuing his family. The wish for a son is very strong among the Afghans, and whereas the birth of a boy is accompanied with great rejoicing, the birth of a girl passes unnoticed, the father showing his displeasure to the extent of, at times, refusing to see the mother until his anger has cooled with the passing of time.

The treatment of the body of a dead person before burial is much the same as among Europeans, except that the body is buried the day death occurs, and should a person die at night, the body is buried the next morning. When a man dies, the moullahs (priests) are sent for, and they wash the body (this is usually done at the side of the nearest stream), lay it out, and wrap it in the burial-sheet ready for interment. The burial-sheet is called “kafn,” which is a word similar to our “coffin.” No coffin is used. After preparing the body for burial, the moullahs say the prayers for the dead over it, in which they are joined by all the relatives and others present, the relations are sent for as soon as it is seen that a person is dying, and then the body is placed on a charpoy (wooden bedstead) and carried to the nearest musjid on the road to the graveyard, where the prayers for the dead are again said, after which the body is carried on to the burial-ground. Here the grave has been prepared beforehand, dug down some three feet, but recessed on one side at the bottom to receive the corpse, and as the earth must not fall on the body when filling the grave up, slabs of stone are placed against the recess. The body is laid on its side in the recess, with the face looking in the direction of Mecca, so that it may more easily see the beginning of the resurrection on the last day, and the grave is then filled up. According to Mussulmans, the resurrection on the last day begins at Mecca. A slab of stone about three feet by one foot, is placed at the head of the grave, but the stone is rough and uncut, and any stone which is lying about is used, provided the shape is suitable. In the case of very important personages, a properly cut stone, setting forth the name of the person buried there, is placed at the head of the grave, and this used to be commonly done to mark the resting-places of other people, but the stones were taken by the late Amir for buildings, as they were of a good quality, and nice white colour, and so the practice fell into disuse.