Under the absolute Amir

by Frank A. Martin

The pay of the troops is very inadequate, considering the dearness of food now to what it used to be. For infantry the pay was eight rupees Kabuli a month, until the present Amir, on his coming to the throne, raised it, to keep the troops contented, to ten rupees a month (6s. 8d.). Cavalry receive thirty rupees Kabuli a month (20s.), but have to find their own horse and its keep out of that. The Amir’s foot-guards receive thirty rupees a month, and are men envied by the rest of the troops because of their princely incomes. The soldiers were far from content when the Amir advanced their pay by two rupees only, for they expected more, and talked of what they would do if they did not get it; but the Afghans are very much like sheep, and unless there is one to lead the way, they remain where they are, and do nothing but bleat occasionally. For each active service medal a soldier gets a rupee extra monthly, and a soldier therefore prizes his medals; but the loyalty medal given to all the troops by the present Amir, when after two years they had remained faithful to him, and had given no trouble, was in many cases pawned for the value of its silver in order to buy food, for the famine came on shortly after the medals were distributed. During the famine, when flour was unobtainable, the Government gave wheat in lieu of a certain portion of the soldiers’ pay, and continued to do so until supplies from the new crops came in.

The length of a soldier’s service is indefinite, and may be regarded as continuing until he is too old for his duties. Many of the soldiers have told me that they had not seen their families for over twenty years, for there are no recognized regulations regarding leave, and when it is absolutely necessary for a soldier to go to his home to settle some private affairs, he is allowed to do so provided he leaves a substitute behind him. In some cases the substitutes are quite young boys, and I have seen several of them in the Jidrani and other regiments of hillmen who were so small that the rifle they carried seemed huge in comparison; but usually they were smart in carrying out their duties, and were quick in attending to orders. What their value would be on active service is another matter. The soldiers are mostly poor men, and some of them have nothing but their pay for themselves and family to depend upon, so when they find that they are growing old and their beards and hair getting grey, they dye them, in order to continue on the active list and go on drawing pay.

The barracks of the soldiers are unfurnished, that is, they have no beds, chairs, or tables, and the men sleep on the floor, excepting those who are fortunate enough to possess a charpai, or wooden bedstead, and for a dining-table they spread a coarse mat on the ground and sit on it while eating their food. Each paira (guard of seven men, including the havildar) carries its own cooking utensils, and it is the havildar’s duty to provide a chopper for cutting firewood and an iron plate on which to bake bread; the other utensils, which consist of a copper cooking-pot, a metal teapot, which is also used as a kettle, and handleless teacups, are provided by the men. As it is their custom to eat with their fingers direct from the pot, no knives and forks or plates are required.

When off duty they laze about in groups, or sit and listen while one of their number strums the rubarb and sings, or else they tell stories. Many of the soldiers are inveterate gamblers, and although card-playing is strictly forbidden and severely punished when detected, it is very common among them, and leads to a good deal of crime, and I knew one man who shot himself because of his losses at cards. If their quarters are near a bazar, they stroll about there, and very often make themselves objectionable to the people, and generally show off as soldiers will when they have nothing better to do. The soldiers, however, do not have a great deal of time to themselves, for there are many guards which they have to mount and other duties on which they are kept busy. Their duties on guard are not tiring, and they do little but sit and sleep, except when they have to take their turn at sentry-go. They have passwords for the night, and the word is changed every second or third night. With those on guard round the Amir the password is different each night, and is strictly enforced.

The various regiments are usually named after the tribe or country they come from, such as the Mohmundai, Jidrani, Jarji, Kandahari, Kohistani, Ardeel, ʾOud Khel. Then there are the sappers and miners, which regiment is entirely composed of Hazaras, and the artillery, which is called the toop khana. All the men of the army are Afghans, excepting the sappers and miners and the Kotwali (police) regiment, the latter being derisively styled by other regiments as “panch padar” (men with five fathers). The Amir’s horse-guards are called the “Rissala Shahi.”

The ʾOud Khels are the thief tribe, and as it was impossible to stop their depredations by other means, for the chiefs of the tribe said their land was unproductive and they had no other means of living, the late Amir formed the bulk of them into a regiment, and gave the rest of the tribe to understand that they must stop stealing from their fellow-countrymen, telling them that if they wanted to steal they must go to India to do it. Many of the rifles stolen from Peshawur and other Indian cantonments could be accounted for by these people. The ʾOud Khels used to give the former Amirs of the country a good deal of trouble, and they resisted the various feeble attempts made at different times to keep them in order; but Amir Abdur Rahman was too strong for them, as he was for most of the lawless people of the country.

There is a story told by the people of Kabul of Amir Shere Ali and the chief of the ʾOud Khels. The latter had been sent for to be told that unless the tribe stopped their thieving, which had of late been very flagrant, the Amir would have each robber caught and hanged. The chief told him that no one could catch an ʾOud Khel in the exercise of his profession, for they were all past masters, and in proof of what he said he undertook to rob the sleeping shawl from under the Amir himself that night, and consented to being hanged if he was caught while doing so. The next morning the chief appeared before the Amir and produced the sleeping shawl from under his coat, handed it to him, saying that he had redeemed his word. The Amir was astounded that the man could pass his guards, make his way undetected into his sleeping chamber, and there take from under him the shawl he slept on, without waking him; and from that time, it was said, Amir Shere Ali left the ʾOud Khels alone.

The ʾOud Khel regiment used to take their turn of guard in the workshops, each regiment in turn supplies a company for a month on this duty, and their captain I found to be a simple-minded man, and having helped some of his men during the first cholera epidemic that occurred while I was there, we became acquainted. He used to come to my office at times during the dinner-hour and chat with me, and one day I asked him to teach me the Pushtoo language, as I wished to learn it and had no book to study it from. He seemed uncomfortable when I asked him and remained silent, but after a time he said he could not teach languages, because he was not accustomed to it, but he would teach me to thieve, and he undertook to make me so efficient that in a few weeks no one would be able to catch me doing it. The ʾOud Khel regiment was disbanded by the Amir at one time, but they at once took to their old profession, and complaints were so loud that the Amir had them enrolled again.