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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10382 ***
+
+Memoir of
+WILLIAM WATTS McNAIR,
+_Late of "Connaught House" Mussooree,
+Of the_
+INDIAN SURVEY DEPARTMENT,
+The First European Explorer of Kafiristan.
+
+_BY J.E. HOWARD._
+
+
+
+
+INSCRIBED TO
+THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
+IN REMEMBRANCE OF
+A LIFE MADE HAPPIER BY ITS
+RECOGNITION OF RARE AND MODEST WORTH.
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR.
+
+William Watts McNair, who was born on the 13th September, 1849, joined
+the great Indian Survey Department in September, 1867, when he was
+only eighteen years old, and served the Government of Her Majesty the
+Queen and Empress of India faithfully unto the day of his death, on
+the 13th of August, 1889. In the official proceedings or notes of the
+Surveyor-General of India, for August, 1889, will be found the
+following more than merely formal notice of the services of the
+deceased officer of a great but scarcely sufficiently recognised
+scientific department of the magnificent Indian Empire of Her Majesty
+the Queen-Empress. "The Surveyor-General deeply regrets to announce
+the death of Mr. W.W. McNair, Surveyor, 3rd grade, from fever
+contracted at Quetta while attached to the Baluchistan Survey Party.
+He was granted leave to proceed to Mussooree, where he died on 13th
+August. Mr. McNair joined the department on the 1st September, 1867,
+and was posted to the Rajputana Topographical Party. The first twelve
+years of his service were passed on topographical duty with this party
+under Major G. Strahan, R.E., and in the Mysore Party under Majors G.
+Strahan and H.R. Thuillier, R.E. From the very first he showed special
+aptitude as a plane-tabler, and was soon recognised in the department
+as an accomplished surveyor. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected to
+accompany the Khyber Column of the Afghan Field Force, and was present
+with that force during the severe fighting that occurred before Kabul
+in the winter of 1879-80, and the subsequent defence of Sharpur.
+Whilst in Afghanistan he mapped a very large portion of hitherto
+unknown country, including the Lughman Valley and approaches to
+Kafiristan, and the Logar and Wardak Valleys to the south of Kabul. He
+explored the Adrak-Badrak Pass with a native escort, and made himself
+acquainted with the route from Kabul to Jalalabad, _viâ_ Lughman,
+which was explored by no other European officer. At the close of the
+war he was attached to the Kohat Survey, under Major Holdich, R.E.,
+and was specially employed in the risky work of mapping the frontier
+line from Kohat to Bannu, including a wide strip of trans-frontier
+country, and much of the hitherto unmapped Tochi Valley. On the
+break-up of the Kohat Survey he was temporarily employed on geodetic
+work in one of the Astronomical parties, but was re-transferred to the
+frontier when the Baluchistan parties were formed. His chief work in
+connection with Baluchistan has been carrying a first-class series of
+triangles from the Indus, at Dehra Grhazi Khan to Quetta, which
+occupied him to the close of his career. His ability as an observer,
+his readiness of resource under unusual difficulties, and his power of
+attaching the frontier people to him personally, have been just as
+conspicuous throughout this duty as were his energy and success as a
+geographical topographer. Apart from his departmental career, he has
+won a lasting name as an explorer by his adventurous journey to
+Kafiristan in 1883, when on leave. It may be fairly claimed for him
+that he was the first European officer who set foot in that
+impracticable country, and he is still the best authority on many of
+the routes leading to it. His services to geographical science were
+recognised by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him the
+Murchison grant, and there can be little doubt that a distinguished
+career was still before him when he was suddenly cut off in the prime
+of his life."
+
+To those who know what an Indian Department means, such language of
+eulogy, no less truthful than graceful, from so respected a functionary
+as the Surveyor-General of India, who knew Mr. McNair personally, will
+carry a weight far beyond the official recognition of that deceased
+officer's worth to his department. The comparative neglect of a great
+scientific department of State, such as the Indian Survey Department
+undoubtedly is, as a mere ornamental section of the huge and complicated
+machinery of that gigantic Empire called India, is but too often repeated
+by a department and its official heads in regarding the merits of the
+living and the dead who sacrifice their lives to its achievements; but
+in this one instance, at least, it cannot be said that the head of a
+department fell beneath his opportunities for doing himself and his
+subordinate due honour. It is not always from official neglect, or human
+pride and indifference, that this want of sympathy for human labour and
+human devotion arises, but rather from the infinite preoccupations and
+monotonous overwork of the faculties of all public servants of any
+position of importance in that vast continent of swarming bees intent on
+their day's labour and nothing else. It is a good token for the future
+that men shall feel their labour is appreciated, although a desire for
+official recognition may be no incentive to the devotion itself. It is
+certain that William McNair always valued the appreciation of his
+official superiors, and that nothing could have given him greater
+pleasure or more comfort, in his review of his own brief labours, than to
+have known he would be thus remembered by the head of his own department.
+To natures that regard the daily associations of an arduous career as
+giving a sanctification all their own, the testimony of colleagues--and,
+most of all, of the responsible mouthpiece of those colleagues--is
+specially and naturally dear. Within this period of twenty-two years'
+faithful service to the State occurred the remarkable exploit, the
+account of which, as read in a paper before the Royal Geographical
+Society of London, on the 10th December, 1883, I transcribe into this
+memoir direct from the proceedings of that society, published in the
+number for January, 1884, in the following words, giving the substance
+of what was said by the President of the society, who introduced the
+lecturer, and the several speakers who raised a discussion on the subject
+of the paper after it had been read.
+
+PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.[1]
+
+ _A Visit to Kafiristan_. By W.W. MCNAIR.
+
+(Read at the Evening Meeting, December 10th, 1883.)
+
+[1] In order to let the reader see how perfect was the disguise of
+McNair during his Kafiristan expedition, I have prefixed to this Memoir
+a portrait of McNair, taken a year or two before his death, and to the
+paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, the group attired as
+on their journey, with McNair in the centre, and his Mahommedan friends
+around him.
+
+In introducing Mr. McNair to the meeting, the President (Lord Aberdare)
+said that the paper he was about to read was an account of a visit he
+had recently made to Kafiristan. Mr. McNair had resided in India for a
+long time previous to his adventurous journey, and whilst in the
+service of the Topographical Department in the North-west of India, had
+been employed in surveys beyond the frontier of Afghanistan. His
+attention was thus directed to the interesting country which the paper
+would describe. Kafiristan was a country of very peculiar interest. The
+name Kafiristan, or the "country of infidels," was a nick-name given by
+the surrounding Mahommedans, and was not that by which it was called by
+the natives. It had long been a reproach to English geographers that
+the only accounts of Kafiristan had been obtained through Orientals
+themselves, whose statements had never been tested by the actual visit
+of Europeans to the country. The consequence was that a sort of mystery
+surrounded Kafiristan,--so much so that Colonel Yule, when discussing
+an interesting paper by Colonel Tanner, on a visit he made to the
+borders of the Kafir country three years ago, said that when Kafiristan
+was visited and explored the Royal Geographical Society might close the
+doors, because there would be no more new work to be done. The veil had
+at last been drawn aside. It might be asked why the country had been so
+long held inaccessible. The explanation was that the inhabitants were
+always at war with their Mahommedan neighbours, by whom they were
+surrounded on all sides, and who had been extremely jealous of their
+communication with European travellers. Mr. McNair had penetrated
+Kafiristan in disguise. He (the President) had had an opportunity of
+seeing the paper, and he found that Mr. McNair had not dwelt upon the
+historical geography of Kafiristan, and therefore he would say a few
+words on that subject. As long ago as 1809, Kafiristan attracted the
+attention of one of the ablest public servants that England ever sent
+out to India--Mountstuart Elphinstone--who was anxious to add to his
+"History of Kabul" something about the people of Kafiristan; and
+knowing that it was inaccessible to Europeans, he employed an Indian, a
+man of learning and intelligence, to travel there and obtain all the
+information he could. It was curious to notice how faithful the report
+of his emissary was. The people of the country were described in the
+following words: "The Kafirs were celebrated for their beauty and their
+European complexions. They worshipped idols, drank wine in silver cups
+or vases, used chairs and tables, and spoke a language unknown to their
+neighbours." Their religion seems to have been a sort of debased Deism:
+they believed in a God; at the same time they worshipped a great number
+of idols, which they said represented the great men that had passed
+from among them; and he described a scene at which he had been present,
+when a goat or a cow was sacrificed, and the following prayer, pithy
+and comprehensive, although not remarkable for charity, was offered up:
+"Ward off fever from us. Increase our stores. Kill the Mussulmans.
+After death admit us to Paradise." Killing the Mussulman was a
+religious duty which the Kafirs performed with the greatest fidelity
+and diligence. In fact, no young man was allowed to marry until he had
+killed a Mussulman. They attached the same importance to the killing of
+a Mussulman as the Red Indians did to taking the scalp of an enemy.
+Their number did not appear to exceed 250,000. They inhabited three
+valleys, and small as their number was they were constantly at war with
+each other, and seized upon the members of kindred tribes in order to
+sell them as slaves. The women were remarkable for their beauty; and
+Sir Henry Rawlinson once said at one of their meetings that the most
+beautiful Oriental woman he ever saw was a Kafir, and that she had,
+besides other charms, a great mass of golden hair, which, let loose and
+shaken, covered her completely from head to foot like a veil. In order
+to show what was the state of our knowledge of the country down to
+1879, he would read part of a paper by Mr. Markham on "The Upper Basin
+of the Kabul River." "This unknown portion of the southern watershed of
+the Hindu Kush is inhabited by an indomitable race of unconquered
+hill-men, called by their Muslim neighbours the Siah-posh
+(black-clothed) Kafirs. Their country consists of the long valleys
+extending from the Hindu Kush to the Kunar river, with many secluded
+glens descending to them, and intervening hills affording pasturage for
+their sheep and cattle. The peaks in Kafiristan reach to heights of
+from 11,000 to 16,000 feet. The valleys yield crops of wheat and
+barley, and the Emperor Baber mentions the strong and heady wine made
+by the Kafirs, which he got when he extended his dominion to
+Chigar-serai in 1514. The Kafirs are described as strong athletic men
+with a language of their own, the features and complexions of
+Europeans, and fond of dancing, hunting, and drinking. They also play
+at leap-frog, shake hands as Englishmen, and cannot sit cross-legged on
+the ground. When a deputation of Kafirs came to Sir William Macnaghten
+at Jalalabad, the Afghans exclaimed: 'Here are your relations coming!'
+From the days of Alexander the Great the Siah-posh Kafirs have never
+been conquered, and they have never embraced Islam. They successfully
+resisted the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni, and the campaign which Timur
+undertook against them in 1398 was equally unsuccessful. But the Muslim
+rulers of Kabul continued to make inroads into the Siah-posh country
+down to the time of Baber and afterwards. Our only knowledge of this
+interesting people is from the reports of Mahommedans, and from an
+account of two native missionaries who penetrated into Kafiristan in
+1865. Elphinstone obtained much information respecting the Kafirs from
+one Mullah Najib in 1809; and Lumsden from a Kafir slave named
+Feramory, who was a general in the Afghan service in 1857. Further
+particulars will be found in the writings of Burnes, Wood, Masson,
+Raverty, Griffith, and Mohun Lal." In recent years, Major Biddulph
+entered from Kashmir, through Gilgit, and made his way to Chitral, and
+Colonel Tanner advanced from Jalalabad a short distance into
+Kafiristan, among a portion of the people who had been converted to
+Mahommedanism, but who still retained many of the peculiarities of the
+Kafir race. Dr. Leitner had also taken great pains to obtain
+information about this ancient and unconquered people but Mr. McNair
+was the first European who had ever penetrated into Kafiristan.
+
+Mr. McNair then read as follows:--
+
+In the September number of this Society's "Proceedings," p. 553, under
+the heading "An Expedition to Chitral," allusion is made to my being
+accompanied by a native explorer known "in the profession" as the
+Saiad; it is to this gentleman that I am indebted for the partial
+success that attended our undertaking. I say partial advisedly,
+inasmuch as the original programme we had marked out, of penetrating
+into the heart of Kafiristan, fell through, for reasons that will
+appear as I proceed with the narrative.
+
+The Saiad, whose name I need not mention, had been made over to me more
+than a year ago by Major Holdich to instruct. This led to a mutual
+friendship, and on his explaining to me that he had a plan of getting
+into the Kafir country, which was by accompanying Meahs Hosein Shah and
+Sahib Gul (who yearly go to Chitral either through Dir or via the Kunar
+Valley) as far as Birkot and then following up the Arnawai stream,
+crossing the hills to the westward and returning to Jalalabad either by
+the Alingar or Alishang rivers, I suggested accompanying him in the
+guise of a Hakim or Tabib, _i.e._, native doctor. He was to be
+accompanied by Meah Gul, a Kafir convert. The two Meahs of course had
+to be consulted, and after some difficulty I succeeded in getting their
+consent, having convinced them that the undertaking was entirely at my
+own risk, and that in the event of my detection they would be freed
+from all responsibility. I next sent in my papers for a year's furlough
+with permission to spend the first half in India. This was granted, and
+my leave commenced from March 27th. By April 9th I was at Nowshera, and
+by three o'clock on the following morning, with head shaved, a weak
+solution of caustic and walnut juice applied to hands and face, and
+wearing the dress peculiar to the Meahs or Kaka Khels, and in company
+with Hosein Shah, I sallied out as Mir Mahomed or Hakim Sahib.
+
+It may not be out of place if I here mention that the Kaka Khel section
+of Pathans, to which the two Meahs belong, are not only very
+influential, but are respected throughout both Afghanistan and
+Badakshan. The Kafirs also pay them a certain amount of respect, and
+will not knowingly attack them, owing to an epidemic of cholera which
+once broke out amongst them immediately after they had returned from
+murdering a party of Kaka Khels, and which they superstitiously
+attributed to their influence. They number in all a few short of 3,500;
+this includes menials and followers. Though really considered spiritual
+advisers they are virtually traders, and I do not think I am far wrong
+in saying that they have the monopoly of the trade from Kabul eastward
+to the borders of Kashmir territory. If you say that you are a Meahgan
+or Kaka Khel, words signifying one and the same thing, you have not
+only access where others are questioned, and a sort of blackmail levied
+on them, but you are treated hospitably, and your daily wants supplied
+free of cost--as was often the case with us. Of course the Meaghans
+have to make some return. It is done in this wise: a fair lasting from
+five to seven days is yearly held at Ziarat, a village five miles
+south-west of Nowshera, the resting-place of the saint Kaha Sahib; it
+is resorted to by thousands from across our north and east frontiers,
+and all comers are housed and fed by the Meahs collectively. Offerings,
+it is true, are made to the shrine, but I am told the amount collected
+is utilised solely for the keeping up of the shrine.
+
+What follows is taken from my diary, which I stealthily managed to keep
+up during my journey. It was not till April 13th that we were fairly
+across the British frontier. The interval of four days was spent in
+getting together all necessaries. The rendezvous was for the 13th at
+Ganderi, and true to appointment all were present, our party then
+consisting of forty, including muleteers, and fifteen baggage animals.
+In the shape of provisions, we had nothing but sugar and tea. The
+contents of our loads (I should say goods, only that we got very little
+in return) were cloths of English manufacture, musical boxes,
+binoculars, time-pieces, a spare revolver or two with a few rounds of
+ammunition, salt, glass beads, shells, needles, country-made
+looking-glasses, shoes, and lungis, as well as several phials and
+galipots of medicines. In addition to these I had secreted a prismatic
+and magnetic compass, a boiling point and aneroid thermometer, and a
+plane-table which I had constructed for the occasion. The
+last-mentioned instrument answered famously the purpose for which it
+was intended, and was in use from the beginning to almost the end of my
+journey. It answered, in case of a surprise, to pass off for a tabib
+book of prescriptions; all that was necessary was to slip off the paper
+that was in use inside one of the folds and expose to the gaze of the
+inquisitive individual merely a book or rather the outer case of one,
+in which I had written several recipes in Urdu. The instruments were
+either carried by the Saiad or myself in a _gooda, i.e._, untanned skin
+of goat or sheep invariably used by travellers in this region.
+
+The Malakand Pass (elevation 3,575 feet) is well wooded with brushwood
+and stunted oak; grass and a goodly supply of water from springs are
+procurable all through the year. The ascent is easy, and practicable
+for heavy baggage. The descent into the Swat Valley is not nearly so
+easy; beasts of burden as well as foot passengers have to pick out
+their way, but a company of Bengal or Madras sappers would in a few
+hours clear all difficulties sufficiently well to allow a mule battery
+to keep up with infantry. When once in the plains this state of things
+changes; where previously one had to avoid loose rocks and boulders, we
+had now to search for a dry spot on which to alight. Both banks of the
+rivers are irrigated; the soil is very rich, and well adapted for rice
+cultivation. The valley has the reputation of being very unhealthy,
+owing, I have no doubt, to the effluvia arising from the damp soil. A
+Swatie is easily recognised by the sallow appearance he presents--a
+striking contrast to his nearest neighbours.
+
+The Swat river is about 50 feet wide, from three to four deep, and
+flush with its banks. We crossed over in _jalas_ (_i.e._ inflated
+skins) opposite the large village of Chakdara; the loads were taken
+off, and our animals forded the stream with little or no difficulty.
+Almost due north of our crossing, and distant eight miles, lay the
+village of Kotigram. The valley, known as the Unch Plain, is somewhat
+open, narrowing as we neared the village. Midway, about Uncha, we
+passed several topes, or Buddhist remains. These topes are very
+numerous, at least twenty were visible at one time, and some of great
+size and in a very good state of preservation--more than one quite as
+large as the famous tope of Mani Kiyala. A little further up the valley
+towards the Katgola Pass, to the left of our route, there were numerous
+excavated caves, in the side of the hill, in one of which the traveller
+could take shelter during a passing shower. The assent to the Laram
+Kotal is easy, and though the south face of this range is somewhat
+denuded of both fir and pine, yet the soil is sufficiently rich to
+allow of cultivation on its slopes. On this pass, whilst taking some
+plane-table observations, I was within an ace of being detected from an
+unexpected quarter. Four men armed with matchlocks showed themselves.
+Much quicker than it takes me to record it, the rule or sight vane was
+run up my long and open sleeve, and I began to pretend to be looking
+about for stray roots; the intruders were thrown off the scent, and
+after a while assisted the Saiad in looking for odd roots for the
+supposed native doctor.
+
+The descent from the pass, which registered 7,310 feet, to Killa Rabat
+(3,900 feet) in the Panjkhora Valley, was for the first half of the
+distance by a long and densely wooded spur, within an easy slope, but
+on nearing the foot we found it very stony. Our party was met at the
+entrance by the khan, and later on we were invited to dinner by him.
+Long before this I had got quite used to eating with my fingers, but on
+this occasion I must admit I found it unpleasant diving the fingers
+into a richly made curry floating in grease, and having at the next
+mouthful to partake of honey and omelet. The banquet lasted for an hour
+or more, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable sitting on the
+ground in the one position so peculiar to Eastern nations, when the
+hookah came to my rescue, and allowed of a change in position.
+
+We forded the Panjkhora a little above the fort, and by 5 p.m. reached
+Shahzadgai.
+
+We found the chief busy with a durbar he was holding under a large
+chinar tree, and discussing the plan of attack on Kunater Fort. Our
+introduction was somewhat formal, except in the case of Hosein Shah,
+who was very cordially received and publicly thanked for having
+responded to the chief's request to bring a doctor from India for him.
+
+Rahmatullah Khan, chief of Dir, is an Eusafzai, ruler of a population
+exceeding 600,000. In appearance he is anything but prepossessing--small
+of stature and very dark in complexion for a Pathan; with not a tooth in
+his head, and the skin on his face loose and wrinkled, he presents the
+appearance of an aged man, though really not more than fifty-five.
+
+I was at Shahzadgai seven days, and during that time succeeded in
+bringing round the chief, who was suffering from an ordinary cold and
+cough. I cannot say my stay was a pleasant one, for from early morn
+till dusk our hut was surrounded by patients, and inasmuch as the chief
+had recovered, it was considered a sufficient guarantee that, no matter
+what the ailment or disease might be, if only the tabib would
+prescribe, all would come right. Men with withered arms and legs,
+others totally blind, were expected to be cured, and no amount of
+persuasion would convince those who had brought such unfortunates that
+the case was a hopeless one. It was here that I got as a fee the
+antique seal which I have brought for exhibition to the meeting. The
+man who brought it had found it across the Panjkhora, opposite
+Shahzadgai, whilst throwing up some earthworks; it was then encased in
+a copper vessel. General Cunningham, to whom I showed the seal at Simla
+about three months ago, writes as follows:--"I am sorry to say that I
+cannot make out anything about your seal. At first I thought that the
+man standing before a burning lamp might be a fire-worshipper, in which
+case the seal would be Persian. I _incline_, however, to think that it
+may be an Egyptian seal. I believe that each symbol is one of the
+common forms on Egyptian monuments; this can be determined by one
+versed in Egyptian hieroglyphics." Since my arrival here I have
+submitted the seal to Sir Henry Rawlinson. The fact of its having been
+dug up in the Panjkhora Valley adds great interest to the relic.
+
+On the 24th we left for Kumbar. Whilst here it got abroad that my
+friend Hosein Shah was accompanied by two Europeans in disguise. The
+originator of this report was no other than Rahat Shah Meah, a native
+in the confidence of our Indian Government, and enjoying the benefits
+of a _jagir_ or grant of land in the district of Nowshera, given him
+for loyal services, but a sworn enemy of my two friends. He had sent
+letters to Asmar, Chitral, Swat, and Bijour, urging on the people to
+track out the Kafirs who were in company with the Meagans, and destroy
+them, as they could have gone with no other purpose than to spy out the
+land. Shao Baba took up the matter, and not until the Dir chief had
+written contradicting the statement and certifying that he had asked my
+companions to bring from India a hakim, were suspicions allayed.
+Unfortunately, in a country like Afghanistan, where fanaticism is so
+rampant, once let it be even surmised that outsiders, and these the
+detested Kafirs, are about, the bare contradiction does not suffice,
+and the original idea only lies dormant, as our future progress showed.
+
+Two marches took us from Kumbar (elevation 4,420 feet) to Dir (5,650
+feet). Crossed _en route_ the Barawal range; height of the pass is
+8,340 feet, by a very fair road, which can be ridden up. Here our party
+was joined by the Dir chief, who having settled his disputes, was
+proceeding to his capital.
+
+The fort of Dir is of stone, but in decay; it has an ancient aspect,
+but this applies still more to the village of Ariankot, which occupies
+the flat top of a low spur detached from the fort by a small stream.
+The spurs fall in perpendicular cliffs of some 20 feet in height, and
+in these are traces of numerous caves similar to those already spoken
+of, and some of which are still used as dwellings by the Balti people,
+who come to take service as porters between Dir and Chitral. The
+population of the fort and valley exceeds 6,000 souls.
+
+Four more days were wasted by our party at Dir procuring carriers, as
+the Lowarai Pass (called Lohari by some) was not sufficiently clear of
+snow to admit of our baggage animals crossing it, and from all accounts
+brought in would not be so for another month. This decided us on
+procuring the services of Baltis, who had come from Daroshp and
+Chitral, and who preferred their wages being paid in cloths or salt to
+sums of money. I should here add that my companions had in the
+meanwhile received letters from the neighbourhood of Asmar, advising
+them not to pay a visit to Arnawai just then, as the rumours concerning
+us were not very favourable; so, rather than remain where we were, I
+suggested visiting Chitral. The idea was adopted, the loads were made
+over to the men we had engaged, and the following morning we bade adieu
+to Rahmatullah Khan, and started for Mirga, elevation 8,400 feet.
+Though the distance from Mirga to Ashreth is not more than ten miles,
+yet it took us almost as many hours to accomplish it. From Mirga to the
+Lowarai Kotal (elevation 10,450 feet) the route lay over snow. It is
+quite true what has formerly been related of the number of cairns on
+this pass, marking the burial of Mahommedan travellers who have been
+killed by the Kafir banditti, who cross the Kunar river and attack
+travellers on the road. Travellers as they pass throw stones upon those
+cairns, a method universal among the Pathans in such cases. But many
+bodies were still visible in various stages of decay and imperfectly
+covered. There is no habitation for about six miles on either side of
+the pass, and it is only when information reaches a village that they
+send out to cover the remains of the true believer. The only village
+between the pass and the Kunar river is Ashreth. The people of this
+village pay tribute to Dir as well as Chitral, and this tribute is
+rendered in the form of escort to travellers ascending the pass. But
+the people themselves are Shias and recently converted Kafirs, and are
+known to be in league with the Kafir banditti, giving notice to the
+latter of the approach of travellers rather than rendering effective
+aid against them. Fortunately the ascent was easy and gradual. The
+descent is steeper, and in parts very trying. We had to cross and
+recross the frozen stream several times, owing to the sides of the hill
+rising almost perpendicularly from its base. To add to our
+difficulties, we had to pick our way over deep snow (even in May), not
+only over branches, but tolerably large sized trunks of trees that had
+been uprooted. I was told that during the winter months a regular
+hurricane blows up this valley, carrying everything before it. The Pass
+(Kotal) forms the northern boundary of Dir territory.
+
+Ashreth to Chitral (5,151 feet) was done by us in three marches. It is
+at the head of the Shushai Valley that the village of Madalash lies,
+the inhabitants of which are alluded to by Major Biddulph, in his
+"Tribes of the Hindu Kush," as being a clan speaking amongst themselves
+the Persian tongue. They keep entirely to themselves, and enjoy certain
+privileges denied to their surrounding neighbours, and from what I
+learnt are credited as having come, over a couple of hundred years ago,
+from across the Hindu Kush, _viâ_ the Dura Pass.
+
+Between Daroshp and Chitral the passage by the river contracts to a
+narrow gorge, over which a wall was built more than two centuries ago
+to resist an attempted invasion by the troops of Jehangir. Up to this
+point the Mogul force are said to have brought their elephants, but
+finding it here impracticable to pass they turned back: this force came
+over the Lowarai Pass. The ascent from Jalalabad is impracticable,
+because the river runs in various places between Asmar and Chigar Serai
+in almost impassable gorges.
+
+It was late in the evening when we arrived at Chitral, but as the
+Badshah was not feeling very well, beyond the usual salutations
+exchanged with Hosein Shah and Sahib Gul, all introductions were
+deferred till the following morning.
+
+The following morning, before presenting ourselves to Aman ul Mulk, we
+sent him the following presents, viz., a Waziri horse, two revolvers, a
+pair of binoculars, several pieces of chintz and linen, twenty pounds
+of tea, sugar, salt, and several pairs of shoes of Peshawar
+manufacture, as well as trinkets for his zenana. After the preliminary
+and formal inquiries as to our health, the Mehter Sahib, or Badshah,
+alluded to the rumours regarding me, and wound up by saying that as he
+was a friend to the British, and his country at their disposal, I was
+at liberty to go about and do as I pleased, provided none of my
+followers accompanied me. Fortunately, our Indian Government think
+differently, and judge his character more correctly. This was not
+exactly what we had expected, but rather than be thwarted in the one
+object I had come for, a consent was given to his proposal; but before
+we had fairly got back to our quarters, a message was sent us, saying
+that the passes into Kafiristan were not open just then; our reply was
+that in that case we should return immediately to India. He then sent
+for Sahib Gul, and eventually it was decided that I should defer my
+visit to the Kafirs till some of their leading men should arrive, and
+_ad interim_ I might pay a visit to the Dura Pass. No European had
+hitherto been along this route, and thinking some information might be
+collected, and notes on the geography of the route taken, I agreed,
+though affecting disgust, and started on the 13th of May for Shali.
+
+Andarthi was our next halting place; the fort commands the entrance
+into the Arkari Valley; at the head of the valley are the three passes,
+Agzam, Khartiza, and Nuksan, over the Hindu Kush, leading into
+Badakshan, and a little below the Ozur Valley, which takes its rise
+from the Tirach Mir Mountain, whose elevation is deduced
+trigonometrically by Colonel Tanner to be 25,426 feet, presenting a
+magnificent view.
+
+The dorsal ridge of the Hindu Kush has here a mean elevation of some
+16,000 feet, and this great mountain of Tirach Mir stands on a
+southward spur from the main range from which it towers up thus 9,000
+feet above the latter. The head of the Dura Pass, which leads to Zebak
+and Ishkashim, is a little over 14,000 feet, the ascent being very
+gradual and quite feasible for laden animals; but owing to the people
+of Munjan and the Kafirs in the Bogosta Valley, traders prefer the
+route _viâ_ the Nuksan Pass, which, as its name denotes, is much more
+difficult. Neither pass is open for more than three months in the year.
+
+In this valley between Daroshp and Gobor, I noticed several detached
+oval ponds, evidently artificial, which I was told were constructed for
+catching wild geese and ducks during their annual flight to India just
+before the winter sets in, _i.e._, about the middle of October. The
+plan adopted, though rude, is unique in its way, and is this:--By the
+aid of narrow dug trenches, water from the running stream is let into
+the ponds and turned off when full; the pond is surrounded by a stone
+wall high enough to allow a man, when crouching, to be unobserved; over
+and across one-half or less of this pond a rough trellis-work of thin
+willow branches is put up: the birds on alighting are gradually driven
+under this canopy, and a sudden rush is made by those on the watch.
+Hundreds in this manner are daily caught during the season. The flesh
+is eaten, and from the down on their breasts coarse overcoats and
+gloves are made, known as _margaloon_. This method of trapping is
+borrowed from the Kafirs.
+
+A short distance beyond the village of Daroshp are some mineral springs
+that are visited by invalids from Badakshan.
+
+Having satisfied myself on my return from the Kotal by a visit up the
+Bogosta Valley that the descent into the Arnawai was not practicable
+for some weeks to come, I returned to Chitral on the 22nd of May. Some
+Kafirs had come in, and amongst them one who had just a year ago taken
+in to Kamdesh a Pathan Christian evangelist, who had unfortunately
+given out that he was sent by the Indian Government, and that his
+masters would, if he gave a favourable report of them, come to terms
+with the Kafirs, so as to secure them in future against Mahommedan
+inroads. My visit occurred inopportunely with regard to this statement
+of the evangelist, and although I stated that his utterances were
+false, the Kafir would have it that I had come on behalf of the
+Government, and that the Chief of Chitral had persuaded me into giving
+him the arms and sums of money I had brought for them. This Kafir next
+wanted me to pledge myself to aid their sect against Asmar, and on my
+refusing left my quarters in a pet, but returned after a couple of
+hours, saying that I might accompany him as doctor, and attend an aged
+relative of his.
+
+Kafirstan embraces an area of 5,000 square miles, bounded on the north
+by the Hindu Kush Mountains, on the south by the Kunar range; for its
+western limit it has the Alishang with its tributary the Alingar; its
+eastern boundary is not nearly so well defined, but taken roughly, may
+be expressed as the Kunar river from its junction with the Kabul to
+where the former receives the waters of the Kalashgum at the village of
+Ain; thence following up this last tributary to its source, a line
+drawn from that point to the Dura Pass is well within the mark. I may
+also include a small section occupying a tract north-west of the
+above-named pass, and subject to Munjan. There are three main tribes,
+viz., Ramgals, Vaigals, and Bashgals, corresponding with the three
+principal valleys in their tract of country; the last-named occupy the
+Arnawai Darra, and are divided into five clans, Kamdesh, Keshtoz,
+Mungals, Weranis, and Ludhechis. The Keshtoz, Mungals, and Weranis pay
+a nominal tribute in kind to the ruler of Chitral, but not so the other
+two clans. The Vaigal tribe are reckoned the most powerful; this
+probably is due to their occupying the largest valley. Each of the
+three principal tribes has a dialect different from the other two, but
+have several words in common, and as a rule have very little to do with
+those inhabiting the other valleys. The entire population is estimated
+at over 200,000 souls. Their country is picturesque, densely wooded,
+and wild in the extreme; the men of fine appearance, with sharp Aryan
+features and keen, penetrating eyes; blue eyes are not common but do
+occur, but brown eyes and light hair, even to a golden hue, in
+combination are not at all uncommon. The general complexion varies to
+two extremes, that of extreme fairness--pink rather than blonde, and
+the other of bronze, quite as dark as the ordinary Panjabi. The cast of
+features seems common to both these complexions, but the fairer men if
+asked will indicate the dark men as having come from the south, and
+that they themselves have come from the north and east. They are, as is
+always the case with hill tribes, short of stature, daring to a fault,
+but lazy, leaving all the agricultural work to their womenkind, and
+spending their days, when not at war, principally in hunting. They are
+passionately fond of dancing, in which both sexes join, scarcely
+letting an evening pass without indulging in it around a blasing fire.
+
+The dancing, which I on several occasions witnessed, was invariably begun
+by a single female performer appearing on the scene, and after going
+through a few graceful movements, a shrill whistle (caused by inserting
+two fingers into the month) given by one of the men is the signal for
+a change. Several performers then come forward, advancing and retiring
+on either side of a huge bonfire, at one end of which were the
+musicians--their instruments, a large drum, two kettle-drums, and a
+couple of flutes. To this music, more particularly to the beating of the
+drums, good time is kept. The whistle sounds again, when immediately the
+performers set to partners, if I may use the expression; after a while
+they disengage, and begin circling round the fire singly--men and women
+alternately. The tamasha ended by again setting to partners; each couple,
+holding a stick between them, their feet firmly planted on the ground and
+close together, spin round at a great pace, first from right to left and
+then from left to right. None objected to my taking part in this
+performance, but, for the indulgence, I had to pay as forfeit several
+strings of beads and shells, a few looking-glasses, and some needles,
+which I presented to those of the fairer sex only.
+
+The houses are generally built on the slopes of the hills; the lower
+story is of stone, from 12 to 15 feet high, but is not used for cattle
+even, which are kept apart in stone byres. Timber is stored in these
+lower stories, as also the ordure of cattle, which is used as fuel,
+especially for smoking their cheeses. This cheese is made daily, and is
+of the nature of cream cheese, and when fresh is not bad. On the roof of
+this lower story, leaving a space all round to walk, rises the actual
+habitation, which is of wood entirely, and contains only one or two
+rooms; these are neat enough, but very dark. The door and door-frames are
+roughly carved with figures and scrolls. There is little furniture, but
+all use low wooden chairs or wicker stools to sit upon. The food, either
+bread, which is ordinarily of very thick cakes, but when guests are
+entertained of very thin broad cakes, like Indian chapatties, or meat
+boiled in a large iron cauldron, is served in large deep circular wooden
+vessels, hollowed from a trunk or thick branch of a tree, without any
+table, though tables were seen occasionally on which drinking vessels
+were set. The bread cakes were served to guests, with slices of cheese
+between two such cakes, imbedded in hot butter. Their beds are very rude
+fixtures, consisting of poles, one end of which rests in the walls and
+the other on two legs: it is remarkable that they call them _kat_. The
+object of the lower story seems chiefly to raise the house above the snow
+in winter; it is ascended by a ladder outside, which can be drawn up.
+Sometimes there is a third story, which is, of course, like the second,
+of timber, but is also surrounded by a platform. The roof of flat stones,
+laid on beams and covered with mud.
+
+The temples are square chambers of timber, with doorways carved and
+coloured; inside there are set several stones, apparently boulders from
+the river bed, but no images were seen, except those connected with
+funeral rites, which were temporarily set up in the temples. The use
+of these temples seemed to be chiefly in connection with funeral rites.
+The coffins were carried there and sacrifice performed before the bodies
+were carried off to the place of eventual deposit.
+
+The men shave the whole of the head, except a circular patch on the
+crown, where the hair is allowed to grow, seldom, if ever, cutting
+it--never wearing a covering. Almost all the men I saw wore the Indian
+manufactured cotton clothes, similar to the Afghans, and on their feet
+had strips of hide tied with strings of hide. The dress of the women is
+merely a single garment, not unlike a very loose dressing or morning
+gown, gathered up at the waist. The hair, which as a rule is very long,
+is worn plaited and covered over with a broad cap with lappets, and
+just over the crown stick up two tufts (some have one only) which from
+a distance appear like horns. A sample of this head-dress as well as of
+three or four other articles of interest I have brought for exhibition
+to the meeting.
+
+It is purely due to no blood-feuds existing among themselves that they
+have succeeded in holding their own against the Mahommedans by whom they
+are hemmed in on all sides. They have nothing in common with them, and,
+in fact, are incessantly engaged in petty warfare with the Mahommedans.
+They are exceedingly well disposed towards the British: I may venture
+further and state that they would not hesitate to place their services,
+should occasion require, at our disposal, and steps might be taken to
+secure this. Slavery exists to a certain extent amongst them; this
+nefarious trade, however, would fall through if slaves did not command
+so ready a sale at Jalalabad, Kunar, Asmar, and Chitral. Polygamy is
+the exception and not the rule; for infidelity on the part of a wife,
+mild corporal punishment is inflicted, and a fine of half-a-dozen or
+more heads of cattle imposed, according to the wealth of the male
+offender. The dead are not buried, but put into coffins and deposited
+either in an unfrequented spot on a hill-side, or carried to a sort of
+cemetery and there left, the coffins being in neither case interred.
+I visited one of these cemeteries, and saw over a hundred coffins in
+different stages of decay; resting against the heads of some of these
+I noticed carved wooden figures of both sexes, and was told that this
+was an honour conferred only on persons of rank and note. As regards
+their religion, one Supreme Being (Imbra) is universally acknowledged.
+Priests preside at their temples, in which stones are set up, but
+to neither priests nor idols is undue reverence paid. Unforeseen
+occurrences are attributed to evil spirits, in whose existence they
+firmly believe, giving no credit to a spirit for good.
+
+I have noticed that several mention the Kafirs as being great
+wine-bibbers. The beverage brought to me on several occasions nothing
+more nor less than the pure grape-juice, neither fermented nor
+distilled, but in its simple form. During the season, the fruit, which
+grows in great abundance, is gathered, the juice pressed out, and put
+into jars either of wood or earthenware, and placed underground for
+future use. I obtained some, which I put into a bottle for the purpose
+of bringing away, but after it had been exposed to the air a short time
+it turned into a sort of vinegar. To the Kafir chief who took me in I
+offered some whisky, and poured about half a wine-glass into a small
+Peshawar cup, but before I had time to add water to it, the chief had
+swallowed the pure spirit. I shall never forget the expression depicted
+on his countenance. After a while all he could give utterance to was,
+"We have nothing so strong."
+
+Their arms consist merely of bows and arrows and daggers; a few
+matchlocks of Kabul manufacture have found their way into the country,
+but no attempts have been made to imitate them. At a distance of about
+50 yards, with their bows and arrows they seldom fail to hit an object
+smaller than a man. The string of the bow is made of gut. Their wealth
+is reckoned by the number of heads of cattle (goats, sheep, and cows)
+they possess. There are eighteen chiefs in all; selection is made for
+deeds of bravery, some allowance also being made for hereditary
+descent. Wheat is their staple food, and with the juice of the grape
+they make a kind of bread, which is eaten toasted, and is not then
+unlike a Christmas plum-pudding.
+
+To resume the narrative: once again, unaccompanied by my two friends, I
+left Chitral on the morning of May 23rd, and struck off from Urguch,
+spending the first night at Balankaru, in the Rumbur Valley. The people
+are the Kalash section of the Kafirs, inferior in appearance, manner,
+and disposition to their neighbours situated westwards; they pay a small
+tribute in kind to Chitral, and are allowed to retain their own manners
+and customs. To Daras Karu, in the Bamburath Vale, famed for its pears,
+I next proceeded; here also are Kalash Kafirs, and some Bashgali
+settlers. The valley is very narrow, and the cultivation restricted
+principally to terraced fields on the hill-slopes. Kakar was the next
+march; beyond it no trace of habitation. After a short stay we proceeded
+up the valley till dusk, and spent the first part of the night under
+some rocks. All beyond was snow, interminable snow. Starting at midnight
+for the head of the pass (the difference in elevation between our
+night's encampment and the crest was 7,000 feet) it took us an hour to
+do every thousand perpendicular feet. The view on the Kotal as the sun
+was rising was a sight never to be forgotten; near and around us the
+hills clad in white with different tinges of red showing, and clouds
+rising in fantastic shapes, and disclosing to view the blue and purple
+of the distant and lower ranges. I was very fortunate in having a clear
+morning, as it enabled me to bring my plane-table into great use. As the
+descent was very tedious, owing to the upper crust of the snow having
+melted under the rays of the morning sun, we decided on adopting a
+sort of "tobogging" system by sitting ourselves on the snow, raising
+the feet, at the same time giving the body a reclining position; a
+jerk, and then we were off, following in each other's wake, bringing
+ourselves up every now and again by embedding our feet in the snow.
+By this means we got down almost to the base of the hill in a very
+short time, and on arriving at the Ludhe villages were well received.
+
+Going out was abandoned, but whilst thus inactive so far as going
+about went, my time was spent in examining closely into their manners
+and customs, when an urgent message was brought from the Aman ul
+Mulk, desiring me to return immediately, owing to some unfavourable
+news that was abroad. Thinking of my two friends, whom I had left at
+Chitral, being involved in some difficulties, I hurried back, only to
+learn that the chief had sent for me on the paltry excuse of having
+heard that the chief of Asmar and the Kafirs had begun their annual
+quarrels. So once again was another opportunity of penetrating further
+frustrated. During my absence on this trip that arch-fiend Rahat Shah
+had arrived at Chitral from India. As he has quite the ear of the
+ruler, all further chances of our getting on in the may of exploring
+were at an end, and so we decided on returning to India _viâ_ Kashmir.
+In return for the presents we had given Aman ul Mulk when we first
+arrived at Chitral, he gave us others, and immediately threw every
+obstacle in his power to prevent our getting away, and it was only on
+refusing to accept his presents that we were supplied with carriers.
+
+Starting on the 5th of June, on the fourth day we arrived at Drasan
+(6,637 feet). The fort of Drasan commands the entrance to the Turikho
+and Tirach valleys, whose waters meet a few miles north-west of the
+fort. Both these valleys are very fertile; in the latter one, and just
+before its junction with the former, are several yellow arsenic mines,
+but the working of these is not encouraged by the present ruler. Gold
+also, I was told, is to be found in the streams about Chitral; this
+statement proved correct, as I was able to work up some with the aid of
+mercury, and on having the ore tested by a goldsmith's firm in India,
+it was pronounced by them to be 21 carat; but this washing is seldom
+permitted, the reason assigned by the chief being that if once it were
+known that Chitral produced gold, his country would be lost to him.
+
+Mastuj (elevation 7,289 feet) is on the main or Chitral stream, and
+commands the entrance to the Laspur Valley, which leads more directly
+to Gilgit _viâ_ Gupis and Gakuch, and was the route traversed by Major
+Biddulph. On reaching Gazan, we left the main route and followed up the
+smaller one along a stream taking its rise at the Tui Pass (14,812
+feet). The ascent to it is easy, but the descent exceedingly difficult,
+a nasty piece of glacier having to be traversed, over which we were
+unfortunate enough to lose two horses, and had several of our followers
+severely frost-bitten about the feet. Two marches further and Gilgit
+was reached, and from there in eleven double marches we arrived at
+Srinagar, where my disguise was thrown off. To dwell on these last
+stages of our journey would be merely repeating what has been so ably
+handled by such authorities as Drew, Tanner, and Biddulph.
+
+In conclusion, I would here record that whatever success has attended
+this undertaking is due in a great measure to my faithful companions
+and allies, Hosein Shah, Sahib Gul, and the Saiad.
+
+The following discussion ensued on the reading of the above paper:--
+
+Colonel Yule said he had for thirty or forty years looked with intense
+interest at the dark spot of Kafiristan on the map of Asia, and had
+therefore listened with great pleasure to Mr. McNair's modest account of
+one of the most adventurous journeys that had ever been described before
+the Society. Twenty or twenty-four years ago we had nothing but the
+vaguest knowledge of Kafiristan, but the country had been gradually
+opened out by General Walker and Colonel Montgomery's pundits in
+disguise. Foreign geographers had sometimes cast it in the teeth of
+Englishmen that their discoveries beyond the frontiers of India had been
+made vicariously, but in this case it was an Englishman who had performed
+the journey. He believed he was right in saying that no Englishman before
+Mr. McNair had ever visited the Swat Valley. It was now inhabited by a
+most inhospitable race, who had become Afghanised, but rumours had often
+been heard about the Buddhist there. Eighteen or twenty centuries ago it
+was one of the most sacred spots of Buddhism, filled with Buddhist
+monasteries and temples, but, as far as he knew, no European except Mr.
+McNair had ever seen those remains. If further explorations were carried
+out there probably most interesting discoveries would result. Passing on
+to the Panjkhora river and to Dir, there was very little doubt that those
+valleys were the scene of some of Alexander's exploits on his way to
+India. Many scholars supposed that Dir was one of the fortresses which
+Alexander took, and incidentally the place was mentioned by Marco Polo as
+the route of a Mongol horde from Badakshan into Kashmir. He believed that
+the earliest distinct notice of the Kafirs was the account of the country
+being invaded by Timour on his march to India. When he arrived at Andaráb
+he received complaints by the Mussulman villagers of the manner in which
+they were harassed by the infidels, and a description was given of how
+the great Ameer himself was slid down snow slopes in a sort of toboggin
+of wickerwork. He captured some of the Kafir forts, but could not
+penetrate into the country. After that very little mention was made of
+them in history, till Major Rennell referred to them in his great memoir
+on the map of Hindostan, and Mountstuart Elphinstone, who, the Afghans
+used to say, could see on the other side of a hill. He always seemed able
+to collect items of knowledge which further research proved to be
+correct. He (Colonel Yule) rejoiced that had lived to see Kafiristan
+partially revealed by an Englishman and not by a Russian.
+
+Dr. Leitner said it was well that travellers, however naturally
+accurate in their observations, should submit their results to the
+criticism of learned societies, for, after all it was in such centres
+that information from various quarters could be best collected, sifted,
+and compared. The task of a pioneer is proverbially ungrateful, but he
+is sufficiently rewarded if he collects facts for the examination of
+scholars, and if some of these facts stand that test. On the other
+hand, it was essential that, as a rule, no one should be sent out on a
+geographical, anthropological, or ethnographical mission who was not
+something of a linguist or who was not accompanied by a linguist, and
+who had not given proof of sympathy with alien races. Hayward fell a
+victim as much to his temper as to the greed and treachery of Mir Wali,
+whom he had insulted. An Arabic proverb says that "the traveller even
+when he sees is blind," and if, in addition to this artificial
+blindness, he is practically both deaf and dumb owing to his ignorance
+of the language of the people among whom he moves, it is almost certain
+that he will make many mistakes, if not insure failure. Now few results
+are apt to be more delusive than a mere collection of words, or even of
+short sentences. The instances of "a dead policeman" as a Non-aryan
+equivalent for the abstract term "death" which the inquirer wanted; of
+the rejoinder of "what do you want?" for the repeated outstretching of
+the "middle finger," a special term for which was sought, and numerous
+other mistakes, are often perfectly avoidable, and it was therefore
+desirable that the traveller, armed with an inexhaustible patience,
+should not content himself with a collection of words, but also add the
+sentences in which they occur, and, if possible, also collect fables,
+songs, and legends. The process in dealing with a race whose language
+one does not know at all is more difficult, but, even in initial
+stages, the procedure of pointing to objects that are required will not
+only generally give their native equivalents, but will also elicit the
+orders or imperatives for these objects being brought, whilst the use
+of these imperatives by the traveller will often elicit the indicative
+or future in the assent or dissent of those to whom the imperatives are
+addressed, or else an ejaculatory affirmative or negative. The early
+training in, at least, two languages will also enable the inquirer to
+discriminate between the substance of a fact or thought, if he might
+use such a term, and the sound that represents it, for, if he has only
+studied his own language early in life, he will never be able to
+emancipate himself completely from the confusion which is naturally
+engendered between the idea and his special manner of expressing it.
+Adaptation, again, even more than translation, is what is required, and
+in order that the adaptation, should be practised successfully,
+geographical inquiry cannot be altogether dissociated from philology,
+nor can philology be dissociated, as it so often is, from ethnography,
+history, and anthropology, which throw either a full light or at least
+a side-light or half-light on linguistic problems, as has been pointed
+out by Dr. Abel. The gestures too of a race are of importance in
+eliciting correct information, for it is obvious that where, on rugged
+mountain sides, ascent or descent can only be practised by the aid of
+the hands as well as of the feet, the terms for "up" and "down" may be
+significant of surrounding topography, just as, to reverse the
+argument, where many meet only to fight, the putting of the fingers of
+both hands together will mean "collision," instead of its being the
+more usual sign for "multitude," or the limit of computation which a
+savage race may have reached. Finally, in this age of subdivision of
+labour on a basis of general knowledge, the present practice of
+explorers working separately without the co-operation of colleagues in
+the same or kindred branches, and sometimes even without a knowledge of
+the material that already exists, should be discouraged. The first step
+to be taken is the compilation of travellers' handbooks, dialogues, and
+vocabularies for the various districts of the so-called "neutral zone,"
+so as to give to these travellers the key of information and to the
+sympathy of the people, and our Government of India especially might
+with advantage steadily collect both old and new information, not at
+the time _when_, but long _before_, an emergency arises, so that it may
+be dealt with by a wealth of knowledge when it does arise. Had this
+view obtained when the "poor relatives of the European" were seen by
+Sale, Macnaghten, Wood, and others, thousands of Kafir men and women
+would not have been carried into slavery by the Afghans, hundreds of
+Kafir villages would not have been destroyed, and the area of Kafir
+traditions would not have been both corrupted and narrowed by the
+broadening of the belt of "Nimchas," or converted Kafirs, which so
+increases the difficulties of an exhaustive inquiry into at least the
+_past_ of an interesting race. Above all should we have had a faithful
+ally in our operations against Kabul, for even as it was, the tardy
+knowledge of that war by the Kafirs sufficed to bring thousands into
+the field ready to be let loose on their hereditary foe, whilst it put
+a stop, at any rate temporarily, to the internecine feuds, which, as
+much as Muslim encroachments, reduced the number of Kafirs. He hoped
+that the visit of Mr. McNair and of the native Christian missionaries
+recently in Kafiristan, might be another step towards the future union
+and civilisation of a race that, whether in part descended from the
+colonies planted by Alexander the Great or not, should no longer be
+treated as "poor relatives" by their European brethren, for whom the
+interposition of friendly and vigorous tribes of mountaineers, along
+with the Dards with whom they have so much in common, between the
+British and Russian possessions in Asia, cannot fail to be an advantage
+in the interests of peace. As to the various routes to and through
+Kafiristan, he would add nothing to-night to what had been so ably
+stated, but as regards the languages, he could not forbear mentioning
+that there are at least five distinct dialects spoken by the tribes,
+which differ as much as Italian does from French, if not from German,
+although based on Aryan roots common to them all. Their religious
+beliefs and customs also show great divergencies as well as
+similarities. The members of various Kafir and kindred tribes, of whom
+he submitted a few photographs to the meeting, and whose measurements
+have been taken, have supplied an amount of information which may be
+laid before the Society in due course, along with, he hoped, a very
+full account of a neighbouring race that is anthropologically and
+linguistically perhaps even more interesting than the Kafirs, who are
+mainly Dards; he meant the people of Hunza (Hun-land?), who language
+is, if not a prehistoric remnant, at any rate like no other that has
+hitherto been discovered, in which the pronouns form an inseparable
+part of numerous substantives and verbs, and in which gutturals are
+still in a state of transition to vowels. This people practise a code
+of religion and of quaint immorals fortunately confined to themselves,
+but which is not without some bearing on the question of the "Mahdi,"
+now giving us some trouble in Africa. As some Kafirs call themselves
+"Kureishis," wnich favours a Shia notion in opposition to their Sunni
+persecutors, he might incidentally observe that the expectation of a
+"Mahdi" is a singular importation of a Shia notion, not entirely
+without our aid, into the orthodox Sunni Mahommedan world, which has so
+long been content with the _de jure_ Khalifa, the Sultan, belonging to
+the category of "imperfect" Khalifas, as a chief and representative who
+is admittedly a "defender of the faith" only so long as he has power to
+enforce his decrees and is accepted by the general _consensus_ of the
+faithful, the very essence of Sunni-ism, the "al-sunnat wa jamáat".
+This view is in bold contradiction to the _hereditary_ principle,
+represented, by the "Mahdi" of the "Imam's" descent from the Kureish
+tribe of Arabia, which caused the very separation of the Shia sect from
+the Sunnis, which is the very essence of Shia belief, and which has
+among other fictions, led to the assumption of the name of "Kureishi"
+by some of the Kafirs.
+
+Sir Henry Rawlingson was glad of the opportunity of expressing his high
+appreciation of the value of Mr. McNair's exploration. His journey was
+not a mere holiday trip, or an every-day reconnaissance survey; on the
+contrary, it was a serious undertaking, and opened up what he (Sir
+Henry), for twenty years had maintained to be the great natural
+highroad from India to Central Asia. The route to the north of the
+Kabul river and along the Chitral Valley was by far the most direct and
+the easiest line of communication between, the Punjab and the upper
+valley of the Oxus; and although native explorers had, as Colonel Yule
+had observed, already traversed the route and brought back a good-deal
+of general information concerning it, Mr. McNair was the first European
+who had ever crossed the Hindu Kush upon this line, or had gained such
+an acquaintance with the different ranges as would enable geographers
+to map the country scientifically, and delineate its physical features.
+The seal which Mr. McNair had exhibited to the meeting was of
+Babylonian workmanship, and although relics of the same class were of
+no great rarity in Persia and Mesopotamia, it was a curious
+circumstance to find one in such a remote locality as the Swat Valley,
+and could only be explained by supposing it to have belonged to one of
+Alexander's soldiers who brought it from Babylon. Eldred Pottinger had
+found a similar relic at Oba on his journey through the mountains from
+Herat to Kabul. The tradition in the country had always been that the
+Kafirs whom Mr. McNair visited, were descended from Alexander's
+soldiers; but there was not in reality the slightest foundation for
+such a belief. Neither in language nor religion, nor manners and
+customs, was there the least analogy between the Kafirs and Greeks. The
+various dialects spoken by the tribes of the Hindu Kush, including the
+Kafir tongues, were all of the Perso-Indian branch of the Aryan family,
+and showed that the mountains must have been colonised during the
+successive migrations of the Aryan tribes from Central Asia to the
+southward. It might perhaps be possible some day to affiliate the
+various tribes, when the vocabularies had all been collected and
+compared by a good philological scholar, but at present there was much
+uncertainty on the subject. Colonel Yule had expressed his pride and
+satisfaction at Mr. McNair's success, and had congratulated the Society
+on the great feat of exploring Kafiristan for the first time having
+been accomplished by an English rather than by a Russian geographer. He
+(Sir Henry) would furnish a further source of gratulation by remarking
+on the fact that on the very day when Mr. McNair had related to the
+meeting the incidents of his most remarkable journey, intelligence had
+been received from the Indian frontier of another surprising
+geographical feat having been achieved by a British officer who was
+already well known to the Society, and who was, in fact, the chief of
+the department to which Mr. McNair belonged. He alluded to the
+successful ascent of the great mountain of Takht-i-Suliman, overlooking
+the Indus Valley, by Major Holdich, of the Indian Survey Department.
+This mountain, from its inaccessible position beyond our frontier, and
+in the midst of lawless Afghan tribes, had long been the despair of
+geographers, but Major Holdich with a small survey party had at length
+succeeded in ascending it, and was said to have triangulated from its
+summit over an area of 50,000 square miles. The Survey Department might
+well be proud of holding in its ranks two such adventurous and
+accomplished explorers as Major Holdich and Mr. McNair. The President
+said that Mr. McNair agreed with Sir Henry Rawlinson that the route he
+had described would undoubtedly be the best into Central Asia, but the
+account of the journey did not inspire him (the President) with any
+confidence as to immediate results in the future. Mr. McNair had to
+disguise himself as a Mahommedan who was acceptable to the Kafirs, and
+it did not appear that he had in any way facilitated the entrance into
+the country of any one who could not conceal his nationality. The
+reports, famished by native explorers sent from India, had, however,
+been fully established by Mr. McNair, and it would therefore appear
+that the best way of solving the problem was to send educated natives
+into Kafiristan. He was sure the meeting would heartily join in giving
+a vote of thanks to Mr. McNair for his interesting paper.
+
+It will be noticed by those who read the paper closely flow remarkably
+absent from it are all allusions to personal experiences, such as
+fatigue, weariness, physical discomfort, sense of disappointment, or
+other of the necessary incidents of so toilsome an effort and long
+sacrifice. As was the character of the man, so is his paper, simple,
+direct, without any of the exaggerations of peculiar features in the
+exploration or rhetorical artifices of description to enhance the
+effect of the discoveries of the traveller, and with an entire
+suppression of himself. For all that appears in the paper, he might
+have been engaged in the most enjoyable pursuit, free from all personal
+risk or daily discomfort.
+
+I desire to testify rather to what I knew of the man himself during a
+close friendship of over eighteen years.
+
+In youth he was very ardent and affectionate, but as he advanced in
+years the hardships of his life and the long periods of solitude he
+passed through seemed to mellow the natural demonstrativeness of his
+nature, and he appeared to me to have suffered that chastening which
+all men derive as their blessed portion from communion with Nature in
+her loving and silent moods; the very ruggedness of mountain solitudes
+speaking to the heart of man with a solemnity no tongue can reach. A
+subtle writer in the London _Spectator_ of the 14th September last, in
+the course of an article on "Clouds," has attempted to describe the
+idealising lesson of her works to the spirit of man as "the tranquil
+rhythm of this fair Nature, the hurrying throb of the human interests
+it measures, there is the eternal poem of human life." In this wise, a
+subdued sweetness in William McNair's nature remained, which was a
+transfiguration of his ardent, buoyant, somewhat impulsive early
+manhood.
+
+On the cricket-field he was in his heartiest element. Men would make a
+scratch team at the sound of his voice, just to be led by him as
+captain. No mean field or batsman, he excelled in bowling. His resource
+in taking wickets was only equalled by the good temper with which
+adversaries walked away from the field with their bats after that
+terrible McNair had done for their score, or their hopes of one. I have
+seen him demoralise a whole team by the way in which he would take
+wicket after wicket, within an hour, by the artful way in which he
+adapted the style of his bowling to the character of the man who fenced
+him at the wicket. Boys were simply enamoured of him, for, by that
+instinct which never fails the young, he won their heartfelt devotion
+by his quick discernment of the weaknesses and proclivities of all the
+young with whom he ever came in contact. I have seen my youngest son--a
+lad of eleven--after years of separation from him, when the boy met him
+in London, in 1884, nestle on his knee quite spontaneously, to listen
+to some of his Kafiristan exploits not touched on in his paper. His
+beaming, manly laugh of amusement and tender compassion over the boy's
+simplicity when asked by my ingenuous lad why he did not kill a lot of
+those fellows during those days of danger, I fancy I see while I write.
+Indeed, this keen participation in the nature and delights of the young
+was the secret of his success during the Kafiristan exploration. It was
+the touchstone of his sympathy with the various barbaric tribes with
+whom he had to come in contact, and whose nature he did not require to
+learn, for he had already sounded all that was human in its touching
+variety. Love and sympathy for man as man, could alone give this
+knowledge and furnish this magic key to hearts in wilds unknown. No
+human system of mental training could ever do it. In this connection I
+smile somewhat at Dr. Leitner's profound German dialectic in the
+discussion on the paper read by McNair over the preliminary preparation
+in language and terms required by an explorer to do his work
+effectively. Where man is equipped by that instinctive faculty of
+accommodating himself to the men of all nations with their physical
+attributes and surroundings, I think he may dispense, in a large
+measure, with the science of language as an open sesame. Nature has her
+own methods.
+
+This being more in the nature of a memoir purely personal in its
+details, giving the characteristics of the man who performed an exploit
+deemed by the Royal Geographical Society worthy of the Murchison Grant,
+I may be pardoned for adding a few private particulars of the events
+leading to the death of one so young, and whose career was so full of
+promise at its earthly close.
+
+During the summer of the year 1888, McNair met with a very serious
+horse accident, one, indeed, that might with complete natural sequence
+have terminated his life on the spot. The vicious horse of a friend he
+was riding to tame the brute (for he was a skilful horseman as well as
+good at sports), reared and fell over on him. By the display of
+personal alacrity he managed to avoid vital injuries, but sufficient of
+the animal's body came on his own to render it necessary that he should
+be carried home in a "jhampan," or Sedan chair, used in the mountain
+sanitaria of India for the conveyance of ladies. A friend's house in
+the neighbourhood of the spot where the accident occurred was of great
+use in restoring him somewhat from the effects of the accident. The
+kind friends who helped him to undertake the journey to his house,
+about a mile distant (carried in this way on men's shoulders), did Mr.
+McNair one of those services for which India is renowned as a land of
+friendly help. The injuries sustained internally nevertheless kept the
+patient in bed for a month, and the nursing of a mother and sister
+brought him round sufficiently to enable him to do his work as usual to
+all appearance. During the ensuing winter he had very hard work, which
+involved much exposure, and he suffered exceedingly from the effects of
+that accident. Immediately after he felt indisposition of any kind he
+complained of a return of the pains due to the accident, and there can
+be but little doubt that the inward injuries then sustained had left
+their mark, though nominally healed. 1888-9 was a severe winter in the
+mountain regions of our frontier, and a letter I had from McNair in
+April, 1889 (the last letter I ever received from him), gave some
+description of the vicissitudes of temperature he had to undergo. I
+give the letter in his own words in the Appendix, as a facsimile of his
+handwriting, to show how precise a hand he wrote, and as a memento of
+himself which some of his many friends might wish to cherish, for I
+believe that in many respects handwriting bears marked characteristics
+of the qualities of the individual. Here I will only extract the
+following description of the trials my friend had to undergo in the
+matter of temperature. In camp, away from Quetta and all means of
+procuring supplies on the spot, he writes under date the 2nd of April,
+1889: "For the past fortnight I have had a rough time of it with rain,
+wind, and haze. Since yesterday there has been a change for the better,
+so now I hope to push along with my observations. Just at present I am
+in a low valley, and consequently the heat is somewhat trying, but in
+another fortnight I expect I shall be complaining of it being a _little
+bit_ too cold, at an elevation of 10,000 and odd. I have little or no
+news to give, as it is now some time since I saw a pale face, but
+somehow or another solitude has its charms for me." The writer of that
+letter soon after applied for three months' leave, having experienced
+broken health for some time previously, in constant returns of fever,
+but owing to the delay that occurs in getting post letters despatched
+from the frontier away from posting stations, and the circumlocution
+which is a feature in all great departments of State, McNair did not
+get his leave sanctioned till sometime in July, 1889, and he was not
+able to start from Quetta for his mountain home in Mussooree, a
+distance of several days' trying journey, until the early days of
+August. The fond hearts of a mother and sister that awaited him there
+had no knowledge of the dangerous character of the fever from which he
+had been suffering for nearly a fortnight before he started from
+Quetta.
+
+Within a very few days after his arrival at Mussooree, the doctors held
+a consultation over his case, as the fever could not be subdued by any
+treatment tried, and then the truth that it was typhoid had to be
+acknowledged. All that medical skill and affectionate nursing of
+devoted relatives, friends, and a qualified nurse, could do towards
+saving the patient was done, and hopes were entertained of recovery
+till almost the last; but three days before the fatal end, hemorrhage
+of the intestines set in, and then the medical attendants despaired.
+McNair himself spoke soon after his arrival at Mussooree of the hour of
+separation having come, and asked for his brother George. The
+suddenness of the end gave all his friends a painful shock, for many
+had not even heard that he was dangerously ill; and, as to the
+relatives, silent consternation for the moment are the only words that
+can adequately describe their desolation and sorrow. A fervently
+attached younger brother George, a popular member of the well-known
+firm of Messrs. Morgan and Company, the solicitors for the East Indian
+Railway Company, hurried up from Calcutta, on a telegram to join his
+family at Mussooree, but when he left he did not know of his brother's
+death. It was only when he reached the foot of the mountains, at a
+place called "Rajpore," within two hours' ride of Mussooree, where he
+inquired of the hotel manager if any recent news had been received of
+his brother's condition, that he got news not only of his brother's
+death, but of his burial. The railway journey from Calcutta to
+Mussooree is a long one of about a thousand miles; but Indian Railways,
+travelling even at express speed, do not exceed twenty-five miles an
+hour. The sympathy experienced by the sorrowing family from near and
+distant friends was beyond mere conventional words of condolence. I
+have it, from the members of the family themselves, that they were
+comforted in a very real and essential manner by the tender and
+extremely touching devotion of their friends, the depth of whose regard
+was then for the first time in many cases discovered. Rising above and
+beyond this general sympathy, two proofs came with a binding and
+enduring force that mark them out for special mention. They typify the
+two extremes of human life and the complexity of human relations. On
+the one hand there was the perfect knowledge of every detail of daily
+life and sacrifice, and the loyalty and enthusiasm that made such a
+life possible, which _sharing_ a life to the full means. On the other,
+there was the tender reverence bred of looking up to something that
+seemed better and higher than the common lot of men. The two extremes I
+refer to were centered in the man who had most scientific knowledge of
+William McNair's worth, and the closest sympathy with his life, namely,
+Colonel Holdich, of the Royal Engineers, under whom McNair served, and
+for whom I know McNair had the highest admiration and the warmest
+personal regard, and native subordinates McNair had under him, who
+loved as only Asiatics can love Europeans whom they revere. An intrepid
+explorer himself, _vide_ the announcement made regarding Colonel
+Holdich by Sir Henry Rawlinson at the close of the discussion on the
+paper read by McNair, Colonel Holdich has added year by year to his
+many signal scientific services rendered to the Indian Government; and
+recently he has added to his many accomplishments the rarer merit among
+men of that love of worth in others, which culminates in human
+brotherhood. His words of appropriate Oriental metaphor, in writing to
+the family, that his sense of personal loss in the man with whom he had
+for years, in the wildest solitudes and the most prolonged hardships,
+eaten "bread and salt" together, made it difficult for him to say all
+he felt, were emphasised by the human grief he could not repress at the
+funeral; where, owing to the suddenness with which everything had
+happened, he was indeed the "chief mourner"--in touching emotion that
+bore witness to the depth and susceptibility of the man's noble nature.
+The other testimony, which kindled great comfort in the desolate
+household, came from the scene of McNair's latest exploit, far away, at
+and near Quetta, when his native companions and friends heard of his
+death. The grief felt was so profound, that it seemed irreparable to
+the men who mourned their beloved friend, as the leader who was also
+their constant companion, and always cheerful with them under every
+adversity. The Oriental may be unappreciated by the Saxon till the
+latter knows the sentimental side of every Asiatic character, but then
+the floodgates of human sympathy are opened, and the very counterpart
+of characteristics and qualities exhibited by Saxon and Asiatic,
+conduce and contribute to a closer and more romantic union between
+them. It is on the principle which Bagehot so profoundly illustrated
+when he said that no age is just to the age immediately preceding it,
+because of their similarity and proximity. The appreciation of Colonel
+Holdich for his valued coadjutor and the executant of many of his plans
+was based on the contrary principle acutely observed on by George Henry
+Lewes, when he remarked that surprise, like appreciation, can only have
+for foundation of any worth, a background of close observation and
+exact perception.
+
+I state the simple truth when I record that the testimonies, received
+in this way from the two extremes of highest knowledge and most diverse
+social and national conditions, remain the most grateful and enduring
+memorials of a life's work to those who must ever cherish the memory of
+what this memoir is precluded from touching on, namely, the more sacred
+domestic endearments of the life-long devotion to family ties of a son
+and a brother. This much I may be permitted to reveal without any
+intrusion on the hallowed reserves of the family circle. A more united
+or more tenderly-knit family, of strong religious feeling, I have never
+known. I had the privilege twenty-one years ago, of knowing a younger
+brother of the deceased, named John, who in less than three years
+attained to an honoured position in the Finance Department of the
+Indian Government. He was preternaturally grave and philanthrophic, and
+died at the age of a youth in England (I think he was not 23 years old)
+of small-pox contracted at Lahore, in the Punjab, where he was
+stationed at the time. He had for some time, although but a lad in
+years, spent his leisure hours in attending the hospital, and reading
+to sick soldiers, where it is believed he contracted the disease. Of
+the living, conventional usage forbids all mention, but I have deemed
+it right to reproduce as appendices to this skeleton and imperfect
+memoir the notices that appeared in the principal Indian papers of
+William McNair's death, as also the obituary notices taken from the
+proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for October and November,
+1889.
+
+The extract reprinted from the _Pioneer_ editorial gives the most
+complete and faithful description of Mr. McNair's achievements during a
+too brief day of usefulness. Portions of that editorial need a passing
+word so far as the subject of this memoir is concerned. With regard to
+the disapproval of the Indian Government of McNair's venture in
+entering Kafiristan without the permission of his Government, I never
+heard a word from his lips by way of complaint, although no doubt the
+paper accurately describes the facts.
+
+Nor did I ever hear a syllable from the brave, unselfish man of
+disappointment at the way in which his worldly prospects were never
+advanced in the slightest by the nobly adventurous work he had done. By
+nature he was too bent on doing the work in hand to theorise about
+anything. By character he was too loftily absorbed in loyalty and
+reverence for the law of obedience as a root-principle of his life, to
+deplore any want of appreciation of his worth on the part of the
+Government which he had so loyally served. It is true, as the "Pioneer"
+points out, that on the Russian side such a man would have had honours
+and distinctions showered upon him. He would have been dragged out of
+his retirement and made to feel he was the favourite of the monarch,
+for the risk to life he had undertaken in spontaneous devotion to the
+State. Not only is such warmth and enthusiasm not the English method,
+but the Indian Government is a huge machine which goes grinding on in
+its mechanical way, and is besides, a bureaucracy which has a good deal
+of pride in regarding any new departure as a dangerous token of
+disrespect to its old and consecrated tradition of simple obedience to
+written orders and codified instructions. The highest originality is
+smothered in a secretariat as its fitting cabinet. McNair knew these
+attributes of the Indian Government, and never troubled his head about
+preferment or official promotion. It is said he was on the eve of it,
+and the State is believed to somewhat deplore the loss of an
+opportunity for rewarding a servant it prized, doubtless, in its own
+dull, routine sort of way. But he is now beyond earthly rewards or
+distinctions, and neither the praise nor the blame of men can touch
+him. In life he was very sensitive to kindness or coldness, but he was
+of too masculine a fibre to allow the natural sweetness and contentment
+of his disposition to be alloyed or marred by any such influence from
+without. He loved his work for its own sake. It became his sole
+occupation and serious aim in life. He deplores the weather in his very
+last letter to me, most characteristically, because it interfered with
+his "observations," which, with "the change" he hoped for and partly
+realized, he would "_push_ along."
+
+The epithet describes the simple, practical side of his character. His
+later love of solitude was the natural outcome of that closer contact
+with nature which made to him a living daily reality the command, "Thou
+shalt have no other gods but Me." His last hours were ministered to
+faithfully by a chaplain of the English Church in Mussooree. The
+religious life of the family resigned itself speedily to that sovereign
+will of heaven which means to all who have tasted of its majesty and
+glory, and have seen glimpses of the wisdom and foresight that put
+man's desires to shame, the submission of heart and mind in all their
+integrity. Nay, more, as one from that inner circle very beautifully
+put it in a letter to the writer of this memoir, "It was 'infinite
+love' alone that permitted his return to us to die, surrounded by our
+love," and in a lovely mountain region where for many years he spent
+his annual summer and autumn "recess," working out the results of the
+observations made during the rough winter's campaign, he lies buried
+near the home of his loved ones. There the eternal stars give a more
+brilliant light to the pure air surrounding his last resting place, and
+the solemn pines and firs pointing heavenwards with their venerable age
+and sighing their constant hymn give an everlasting pathos to the story
+of man's day on earth. The hill sides, terraced into beds of
+flowers--many wild and more cultivated, especially dahlias, which grow
+in great luxuriance and richness of colour in the hills of India--form
+the beautiful ground-work of an Indian cemetery in a sanitarium like
+Mussooree. On that spot, as it lies, the visitor will behold on one
+side, to the south, the dark shadow of a mountain elevation, called the
+"Camel's Back," by reason of its shape and sheer projection upwards,
+typifying the wall of human sense at sight of death; and on the other
+he will look out upon the ever-changing, though distant line of
+perpetual snow. The snow view in India, on mountain regions, is beyond
+description. No word-painting could give an idea of it; and few artists
+have been able to reproduce the magical effects of sunrise and sunset
+on the snows during the varying seasons of the year. The roseate tints
+of dawn blush on their peaks till they become a flame, and pale into
+iciest marble; and the evening splendours of purple and violet and
+death-like blue are the phantasmagoria which no human hand has ever
+made a living picture. Like the human life, it grows into beauty,
+coruscates, and then passes into darkness.
+
+Looked at from the purely materialistic side, doubtless, the lives of
+men are mere seaweed thrown up by the mighty ocean of Creation on the
+shores of Time. But from the Christian's higher standpoint, the broken
+arc is made a magic circle on the side we cannot see.
+
+_There_, let us trust, all lives which seem to us to have snapped
+asunder here, in imperfect fruition of bright promise, may find their
+perfect fulfilment of desire. As Faber poetically says:--"Death, after
+all, is a darkening and disappearance of those we love, and we must be
+content to take it so. It is only a question of more or less, where the
+darkness shall begin, and what it shall eclipse first. To the others
+who have loved the dying, and have gone before him, it is not a
+darkening, but a dawning. Perhaps to them it is the brightest dawn when
+it has been the most opaque and colourless sunset on the side of the
+earth." Or as Keble, with divine humility of richest spiritual
+imaginativeness, expresses it--
+
+"Ever the richest tenderest glow
+  Sets round the autumnal sun--
+But there sight fails: no heart may know
+  The bliss when life is done."
+
+J.E.H.
+
+20, Earl's Court Square, South Kensington, London,
+October 20th, 1889.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE DELHI GAZETTE," _August 19th_, 1889.
+
+A LIFE OF PROMISE ABRUPTLY ENDED.--It was with feelings of deep sorrow
+that we read in _The Pioneer_ of Friday last the death notice of Mr.
+William McNair, the Kafiristan explorer. A man singularly frank and
+genial, he was 33 years of age when he undertook the venture that won
+for him the medal and fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society
+which were conferred in 1884. In that year he had the satisfaction of
+lecturing before British audiences on the results of his travels, and
+as it was the first time he had visited the land of his fathers the
+pleasure of seeing the old country under circumstances so honourable to
+himself was doubly keen.
+
+The story of his adventures may be briefly told. Every one knows that
+the Government of India issued strict injunctions against allowing any
+European to cross the Afghan frontier. Nevertheless that restless
+spirit Sir Charles McGregor, Quartermaster-General, was naturally
+anxious to know something of the debateable land that lies north of the
+Kabul river and south of the Hindoo Koosh, and which tradition alleges
+to have been colonised by the soldiers of the Great Alexander himself.
+We have no doubt, that McGregor prompted the enterprise, though McNair
+never distinctly said that he had been urged by so high an officer to
+break the orders of his official superiors. The affair was arranged in
+this way. McNair took furlough, and ceased for the moment to be a
+servant of Government. He disappeared across the frontier and was not
+heard of again till his safe return was assured. Of course he had
+confederates; one in particular, a tribal chief whose friendship he had
+secured in the Afghan campaigns of 1878-79. His disguise was, however,
+pretty complete, walnut juice being, we believe, the material that
+converted a florid complexion into the tan so natural to Afghan
+mountaineers. He had the wisdom to confine his words to a language he
+understood as well as English, viz., Urdu, and posed as a _Hukeem_ from
+India impelled by a spirit of benevolence to visit unknown lands for
+the sake of caring the ailments of his fellew creatures. Had he
+attempted to talk Pushtoo, his foreign intonation would have been
+detected, while his knowledge of that tongue enabled him to detect the
+drift of any conversation that was carried on in his presence. Once, we
+believe, he was in imminent danger, a proposal having been set on foot
+to put an end to the wanderings of the _Hukeem_, as an English spy. A
+rapid change of quarters averted the danger, and he afterwards fell in
+with the people he came to see, viz., the Kafirs, who whether,
+descending from Alexander's Greeks or not, received him kindly. We
+believe the _Hukeem_ was aided in his researches by a big book supposed
+to contain medical receipts, but which was in reality a box of
+surveying instruments, its outside covered with cabalistic signs
+bearing a family resemblance to a plane-table! The _Hukeem_ was much
+given to solitary meditation, and generally sought mountain peaks for
+that purpose. On such occasions the plane-table afforded him invaluable
+assistance.
+
+But we have said almost enough of poor McNair's adventure. On his
+return he was ordered to Simla and officially reprimanded by the
+Viceroy, Lord Ripon, for disobedience of orders! He was consoled,
+however, by being told by the same nobleman at a private interview that
+his pluck was admired, while his fast friend, Sir Charles McGregor,
+received him with open arms. Such was the bright opening of a career
+that was so soon to be cut short at Mussooree by typhoid fever.
+
+McNair was a favourite with both sexes. By the men he was adored on the
+cricket-field, where his bowling was most effective, while the girls,
+who always possess second sight in the way of detecting a good fellow
+when they see him, loved him _en masse_. It may be some consolation to
+the widowed mother now robbed of her darling boy, to know that there
+are heavy hearts in other homes besides her own--the purest tribute
+that can be laid on the grave of one who was a good son as well as a
+gallant explorer.
+
+We note that the fever of which he died was contracted at Quetta.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "The Pioneer," _August 20th,_ 1889.
+
+THE LATE MR. McNAIR.--The lives of some men are so intimately connected
+with certain phases in the general development of knowledge that their
+biographies afford short but useful pages in the history of progress
+which may well be read in connection with more stirring national
+records. Thus it was with the life of a man who quietly passed from the
+subordinate branch of the Survey Department into the land of shadows on
+the 13th of this month at Mussoorie. At the commencement of the year of
+grace 1879, a little over ten years ago, we were groping our way across
+the borderland which separates India from Turkistan, in unhappy
+ignorance of all but two or three partially illustrated lines of
+advance which might land us either at Kabul or Kandahar. Considering
+the vital importance that it always has been to India that at least a
+creditable knowledge of the countries separating her from Russia should
+exist, the geographical mist which enveloped the highlands of
+Afghanistan and the deserts of Baluchistan in 1879 was certainly
+remarkable. It is true that the war of 1839-43 had brought to the front
+one or two notable geographers, amongst whom North, Broadfoot, and
+Durand were conspicuous, but it had also developed a host of inferior
+artists, whose hazy outlines and indefinite sketches tended most
+seriously to obscure the really trustworthy work of better men. More, a
+good deal, was known about Kandahar and Kabul than of our present
+frontier opposite Dera Ismail, or of the passes leading from Bannu
+across the border only a few miles distant. Indeed, so far as that
+frontier was concerned, from Peshawar to Sind, no military knowledge of
+it existed whatever. It is with the gradual evolution of light over
+these dark places that McNair's name is so closely associated. For many
+years previous to the Afghan war he had been making himself thoroughly
+acquainted with modern survey instruments of precision, which are to
+the scientific weapons of our forefathers of fifty years ago what the
+Gatling and Henry-Martini are to the old Brown Bess. He was one of the
+first to grasp the true principles of using the plane-table when rapid
+action is necessary, and right well he turned his knowledge to account.
+It was the advance on Kabul in 1879 that first introduced him to the
+notice of military authorities, and in the course of that year's
+campaign he had added more to our map information than all the
+geographers of the "old" Afghan war put together.
+
+Some of his exploits were remarkable, as for instance when he explored
+the Adrak Badrak pass leading from the Lughman valley to Jugdalak with
+no military escort whatever, trusting only to the tender mercies of an
+"aboriginal" guard. He thus made himself acquainted with every detail
+of the direct road from Kabul, _viâ_ the Kabul river, to Jalalabad; and
+with him our practical acquaintance with that important route has
+passed away. No sooner had he left Afghanistan than he was attached to
+the frontier party then working in the Kohat district; there he was
+Major Holdich's right-hand man. If there was a specially hard frontier
+nut to be cracked, McNair's powers of assimilating himself to Pathan
+manners, and of winning the confidence of all classes of natives, which
+had already carried him through many a perilous undertaking, were most
+fully utilised for the purpose of cracking it. From Kohat to Dera
+Ismail he was incessantly engaged in quiet little unobtrusive
+excursions (with full political sanction _bien entendu_) which resulted
+in a very complete map of the border, a map which it will be hard to
+supersede. There is one particularly awkward corner of our
+frontier--awkward from a military as well as geographical point of
+view--which thrusts itself forward over the general line into British
+territory, and which can never fail to attract the attention of the
+frontier traveller. This is the rocky fastness of Kafir Koh. From red
+salt hills south of Bahadur Khel the three-headed peak of Kafir Koh is
+seen standing up like a monument in the southern distance: nor is it
+less a conspicuous feature when viewed to the north from the Bannu
+road. At the back of it, to the west, is the direct road connecting the
+upper Meranzai valley with the Bannu district, of which the existence
+was known, but not the nature, when McNair took it in hand. Up the
+sheer face of that square-cut peak, composed chiefly of shifting sand
+and pebbles, which overtops the rest, McNair did his best to climb. He
+did not succeed for the reason that no living thing without wings has
+probably ever succeeded in surmounting it, although there is a legend
+to the effect that a specially active Waziri robber did once contrive
+to reach the top--and there remained to starve; but the English
+explorer at least got far up enough to obtain the clear view he
+required, and he came back richer in wisdom to the extent of many
+square miles of most remarkable mapping. His name soon became well
+known on the border, especially amongst the Waziris, and so much did
+they appreciate his own appreciation of themselves, that there is a
+story current that one well-known Mahsud chieftain stopped a Punjab
+Cavalry detachment near the border line and demanded a passport order
+from McNair. Perhaps his best achievement about this part of his career
+was the mapping of all the approaches to, and the general features of
+the lower Tochi valley.
+
+In 1883 he conceived the bold scheme of taking leave and exploring
+Kaffiristan in disguise, trusting to the good fellowship of certain
+Pathan friends, amongst whom two members of the Kakur Khel were chief.
+It was a bold scheme for many reasons. The physical difficulties of the
+project were many. The impossibility of keeping up a continuous
+disguise was well known to him, and last, but not least, "What would
+Government say?" For fear of involving others in any venture of his
+own, he resolved to cut himself adrift from his department for the time
+being and take his chance. In order to appreciate properly the spirit
+of enterprise which animated the man, critics of his actions should put
+themselves in his place. He was well aware that the information which
+he could obtain would be of the highest value; further, he knew that
+probably there was not another man in India who could obtain it as
+successfully as himself, and he judged that some slight exception might
+be made in his favour if he took on himself the responsibility of
+accepting a most favourable opportunity of doing most valuable work at
+the expense of infringing certain rules about crossing the border.
+These rules were, to say the least, vague and indefinite, and had never
+been officially promulgated. Reward or recognition of service he
+rightly never expected. It must fairly be conceded that the conditions
+under which such a spirit of enterprise was shown made that spirit
+especially honourable--for the Government of India has never been in a
+position to encourage any such ventures. On the contrary, the possible
+gain in information has always been held to be more than
+counterbalanced by the chance of "complications." Lord Lytton, ever
+ready to bewail the decadence of a soldierly spirit of enterprise
+amongst our officers, was yet never quite able to see his way to making
+such enterprise possible to a man who valued his commission. Lord
+Ripon, under whose rule indeed more geographical work was completed
+than under any previous Viceroy, was apt to regard the line of frontier
+peaks and passes much as a careful gardener regards a row of
+beehives--as subjects of tender treatment and watchful care: whilst
+Lord Dufferin has lately with one wide sweep removed the great
+incentment to all exploration enterprise by making the results thereof
+"strictly confidential." These are cloudy conditions under which to
+grow a true spirit of enterprise, and where it here and there crops up
+and flourishes in spite of circumstances it is surely all the more to
+be commended.
+
+The story of McNair's journey to Kaffiristan need not be told here. It
+was not made strictly confidential in those days, and it will be found
+in the chronicles of the Royal Geographical Society. For this
+performance he obtained the Murchison grant of the Society, and on the
+strength of it he may be said to have taken his place amongst the first
+geographers of the day. His frontier work did not end here. For the
+last two years he was engaged on the most trying work of carrying a
+"first class" triangulation series from the Indus at Dera Ghazi Khan,
+across the intervening mountain masses, to Quetta, thence to be
+extended to the Khojak, a work which involved continuous strain of
+mountain climbing, of residence with insufficient cover in intensely
+cold and high elevated spots, and the unending worry of keeping up the
+necessary supplies both of food and water for his party. No doubt it
+tried his constitution severely, and a hot weather at Quetta is,
+unfortunately, not calculated to restore an impaired constitution.
+Although very ill he determined to leave Quetta when his leave became
+due, and he made his way with difficulty to Mussoorie to die amongst
+his own people.
+
+McNair belonged to a department which is not great in distinctions and
+decorations, and is connected with no celestial brotherhood. Indeed, it
+has no dealings with stars but such as are of God's own making--and he
+belonged to what by grace of official courtesy is called the
+"subordinate" branch. Out of it he never rose, though had he lived on
+the Russian side of the border his career might well have brought him
+high military rank and decorations in strings across his uniform. They
+say that decorations are "cheap" there. Yet it should be remembered
+that zeal, industry, enterprise, and patriotism are "cheap," too, if
+they are to be won by them. Perhaps we manage better. The good old
+copybook maxim, "Virtue is its own reward," must be McNair's epitaph,
+whilst we cannot help feeling that India could have better spared many
+a "bigger" man.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE STATESMAN," _August 27th_, 1889.
+
+By the death of Mr. McNair, of the Survey Department, a most valuable
+officer has been lost to the Government of India, and a contributor to
+our geographical knowledge of Afghanistan. It is difficult to estimate
+the value of his services, as they have never been brought prominently
+into notice like those of others who have lived in the sunshine of
+official favour. We believe that, as in many similar cases, the public
+record of his work was nothing to what he really did in the service of
+geography, without any official publicity or recognition of the fact
+whatever. From what we know of his life's work, we can gather
+information that is amply sufficient to entitle Mr. McNair to being
+placed in the front rank of geographers, in respect, as a contemporary
+remarks, of that "borderland which separates India from Turkestan," It
+is said of Mr. McNair, that in the course of the Afghan campaign in
+1879, he added more to the sum of our knowledge of Afghanistan than all
+the geographers of the "old" Afghan war put together, while some of his
+exploits in surmounting what appeared to be absolutely insuperable
+difficulties, make him take rank with the great geographers of his day.
+His work in the Kohat district was especially valuable, although it
+never, we believe, received the official recognition it deserved.
+Thanks to his excursions and observations, we have, as the _Pioneer_
+justly observes, a complete map of the border, a map which it will be
+hard to supersede. His journey to Kaffirstan resulted in some valuable
+contributions to our knowledge of that region, but the conditions of
+Government service unfortunately prevented his receiving the reward,
+which he would have secured as a matter of course, had he been the
+servant of a power more quick and more liberal in its recognition of
+merit. As the _Pioneer_ happily remarks, "Mr. McNair belonged to a
+department which is not great in distinctions and decorations, and is
+connected with no celestial brotherhood. Indeed, it has no dealings
+with stars, but such as are of God's own making--and he belonged to
+what by grace of official courtesy is called the 'subordinate' branch.
+Out of it he never rose, though had he lived on the Russian side of the
+border, his career might well have brought him high military rank, and
+decorations in strings across his uniform." By his death, India loses a
+valuable public servant, and that loss, we venture to say, will be more
+deeply felt should complications arise on the frontier, when the
+knowledge, experience, and ability of men like Mr. McNair will be the
+primary condition of success in any operations in that quarter. We do
+not know whether we should regret of any man that he did hot receive
+the full meed of the success achieved by him in his life career amongst
+his fellows. Certain it is that it is but deferred to the general audit
+of every man's claims, for the hard and thorough work he has done to
+the generation from which he has passed away, but to which and to its
+successors he has left an example for them to emulate, and if they
+can--surpass.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE TIMES," _10th September_, 1889.
+
+The Indian mail brings intelligence of the death of Mr. William Watts
+McNair, of the Indian Survey. In 1883 Mr. McNair, disguised as a
+Mahomedan doctor, succeeded in reaching the outlying valleys of
+Kafiristan, travelling by way of the Swat Valley and Chitral. For this
+adventurous journey, in the course of which he obtained much valuable
+information regarding the passes of the Hindoo Khoosh and about the
+manners and customs of the Sirjah Push Kafirs, the Royal Geographical
+Society awarded the Murchison Grant. Mr. M'Nair, in whom the Indian
+Government has lost an able and zealous servant, died at Mussoorie on
+August 13 of fever contracted at Quetta.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "UNITED SERVICES GAZETTE," _19th October, 1889._
+
+Mr. W.W. McNair.--The death is announced of Mr. McNair, a distinguished
+member of the Indian Survey, who expired at Mussoree of typhoid fever.
+He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department, and had rendered
+signal service, especially during the Afghan War of 1878-79. In the
+disguise of a native doctor he made a journey into Kafiristan in 1883,
+and this achievement gained for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal
+Geographical Society. This expedition was, up to the time,
+unparalleled. Mr. McNair ascended to the Dora Pass over the Hindoo
+Khoosh Mountains, which he found to be over 14,000 feet high, but with
+an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden animals.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for
+October, 1889._
+
+Obituary.
+
+W.W. McNAIR.--We are sorry to have to record the death of this
+distinguished member of the Indian Survey, who has died at Mussooree of
+typhoid fever. He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department,
+and had done good service, particularly during the Afghan war of
+1878-79, when his work lay along the valley of the Kabul river, and
+during the last two years, in which he has been extending a series of
+triangles from the British frontier at Dera, Ghazi Khan, by the direct
+route across the Suliman Mountains to Quetta and the Khojak Amran. But
+his most conspicuous piece of work was his journey (in the disguise of
+a native doctor) into Kafiristan in 1883, an achievement which gained
+for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal Geographical Society, and
+which stands quite alone, as unless Russian explorers have recently
+succeeded in entering the country, there is no record of any other
+European ever having done so. Major Biddulph had visited Chitral, but
+Mr. McNair had not only reached that town by way of the Swat river and
+Dir, but crossed the mountains to the west, which divide the valley of
+the Kashkar or Chitral river from that of the Arnawai. He reported that
+he was kindly received by the villagers of the Lut-dih district, who
+belong to the Bashgal tribe of Kafirs. The valley is important, for
+along it there runs a direct and comparatively easy route from
+Badakshan to Jelalabad. No doubt he would have explored the country
+more fully, but owing to the conduct of a native, who maliciously
+spread about the report of his being a British spy, Mr. McNair was
+forced to abandon further attempts. He ascended, however, to the Dora
+Pass over the Hindu Kush Mountains, which he found to be a little over
+14,000 feet in height, with an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden
+animals. This pass had been previously explored by the "Havildar" on
+his return journey to India in 1870-71. Mr. McNair returned by way of
+Mastuj, Yasin, Gilghit, and Srinagar. The account of his adventurous
+and important journey was read by him before the Royal Geographical
+Seciety on the 10th December, 1883, but official permission to publish
+the map could not be obtained.
+
+
+
+
+_From the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," November,_
+1889.
+
+Obituary.
+
+The late Mr. W.W. McNair.--Colonel T. H. Holdich, R.E., sends us from
+India the following additional details regarding the career of Mr.
+McNair, briefly noticed in our last issue:--Amongst the many practical
+geographers who have passed away during the year 1889 is Mr. W. McNair,
+of the Indian Survey Department. His career was very closely connected
+with a new phase of military exploration carried out on the frontier of
+India, which had gradually superseded the older forms of
+reconnaissance, and was rendered possible by late improvements in the
+smaller classes of instruments, and a wider knowledge of the use of the
+plane-table. For about ten years previous to the Afghan War of 1879,
+McNair was attached to the topographical branch of the Indian Survey,
+and he had always shown a special aptitude for that class of work,
+which consists in acquiring a comprehensive grasp of a wide field of
+geographical detail in the shortest possible space of time. When war
+broke out, Afghanistan no longer afforded a field for such simple
+geographical exploration as had already been accomplished during the
+campaign of 1839-43. A completer military survey of all important
+districts was required, which would furnish detailed information of
+routes and passes which were far removed from the beaten tracks of
+previous armies. At the same time the conditions under which such a
+survey was to be made were exactly the same as those under which the
+rough reconnaissances of the former campaign were obtained. The
+surveyor was under the same urgent restrictions, both as to time and as
+to the limits of his own movements off the direct line of march.
+McNair, with one or two others, was selected for this topographical
+duty with the Afghan field force, and right good use he made of his
+opportunities. He was present during the fighting which took place
+before Kabul in the winter of 1879-80, and was shut up with the
+garrison of Sherpur during the fortnight's siege. His energy and
+determination carried him through the campaign with more than
+credit--he was able to illustrate modern methods of field topography in
+a manner which threw new light on what was then but a tentative and
+undeveloped system. He was one of the first to prove the full value of
+the plane-table in such work as this, for it must be remembered that he
+was working in a country peculiarly favourable to the application of a
+system of graphic triangulation, and very different to the densely
+forest-clad mountains of the eastern frontier into which the
+plane-table had been carried before, with advancing brigades. At the
+close of the war, which brought no recognition of his exceptional
+services, he was appointed to the Kohát survey party, which was
+primarily raised for the mapping of the Kohát district, but which
+afforded occasional opportunities for extending topography across the
+border. When this party was first raised our frontier maps were of the
+most elementary character; there was many a wide blank in the
+topography of the lower borderland, and geographical darkness shrouded
+nearly the whole line of frontier mountains. The hostility of the
+border people had always been such that it was a matter of considerable
+risk to approach them, but the temper of the tribes was then rapidly
+changing with the times, and McNair rapidly succeeded in establishing
+himself on a friendly footing with frontier robber chiefs, whose
+assistance was invaluable in arranging short excursions across the
+line, by means of which he was able to complete a fairly accurate map
+of most of the border country. No work that ever he accomplished has
+been of more value to the Government of India than this unobtrusive
+frontier mapping. It was whilst he was thus occupied between Peshawur
+and Dera Ismail Khan that he made the acquaintance of certain
+influential men of the Kaken Khel, who offered to see him safely
+through the dangerous districts outlying Kaffirstan, and give him the
+opportunity of being the first European to set his foot in that land of
+romance. The snow-capped summits of some of the more southerly peaks of
+Kaffirstan had been seen and fixed by McNair during the progress of the
+Afghan campaign, and it had ever been a dream with him to reach those
+mighty spurs, and torn those peaks to account by using them as the
+basis of a topographical map of the country. He did reach them, as the
+records of the R.G.S. sufficiently show, and he may fairly claim to be
+the first Englishman to lift even a corner of the veil of mystery which
+has ever shrouded that inaccessible country so far as its topographical
+conformation is concerned. This excursion won for him the Murchison
+Grant of the Society, and established his position as a leading
+practical geographer. For the last few years of his life he has been
+almost incessantly occupied in the rough work of frontier surveying,
+which his knowledge of frontier people and power of winning their
+confidence and help especially fitted him to undertake. At the time of
+his death he was employed in the Baluchistan Survey party in the
+completion of a triangulation series which should carry the great
+Indian system to the Kojak range, and furnish a scientific and highly
+accurate base for future extension into Afghanistan. This was a duty
+which severely taxed even his vigorous constitution. It involved
+incessant labour in examining lofty mountain peaks in order to select
+suitable sites for stations, and subsequently days and nights of
+anxious watching during the progress of the observations, whilst food
+and water (when snow was not lying on the ground) were scarce, and
+mists and clouds hung round the mountains. No doubt it tried him hard,
+and when typhoid attacked him at Quetta he seemed unable to make a good
+fight for his life. He was able, however, to reach Mussoorie, where he
+died on the 13th August, leaving a gap in the Department which he
+served so well which it will be exceedingly hard to fill.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of William Watts McNair, by J. E. Howard
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10382 ***
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+Title: Memoir of William Watts McNair
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+
+Memoir of
+WILLIAM WATTS McNAIR,
+_Late of "Connaught House" Mussooree,
+Of the_
+INDIAN SURVEY DEPARTMENT,
+The First European Explorer of Kafiristan.
+
+_BY J.E. HOWARD._
+
+
+
+
+INSCRIBED TO
+THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
+IN REMEMBRANCE OF
+A LIFE MADE HAPPIER BY ITS
+RECOGNITION OF RARE AND MODEST WORTH.
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR.
+
+William Watts McNair, who was born on the 13th September, 1849, joined
+the great Indian Survey Department in September, 1867, when he was
+only eighteen years old, and served the Government of Her Majesty the
+Queen and Empress of India faithfully unto the day of his death, on
+the 13th of August, 1889. In the official proceedings or notes of the
+Surveyor-General of India, for August, 1889, will be found the
+following more than merely formal notice of the services of the
+deceased officer of a great but scarcely sufficiently recognised
+scientific department of the magnificent Indian Empire of Her Majesty
+the Queen-Empress. "The Surveyor-General deeply regrets to announce
+the death of Mr. W.W. McNair, Surveyor, 3rd grade, from fever
+contracted at Quetta while attached to the Baluchistan Survey Party.
+He was granted leave to proceed to Mussooree, where he died on 13th
+August. Mr. McNair joined the department on the 1st September, 1867,
+and was posted to the Rajputana Topographical Party. The first twelve
+years of his service were passed on topographical duty with this party
+under Major G. Strahan, R.E., and in the Mysore Party under Majors G.
+Strahan and H.R. Thuillier, R.E. From the very first he showed special
+aptitude as a plane-tabler, and was soon recognised in the department
+as an accomplished surveyor. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected to
+accompany the Khyber Column of the Afghan Field Force, and was present
+with that force during the severe fighting that occurred before Kabul
+in the winter of 1879-80, and the subsequent defence of Sharpur.
+Whilst in Afghanistan he mapped a very large portion of hitherto
+unknown country, including the Lughman Valley and approaches to
+Kafiristan, and the Logar and Wardak Valleys to the south of Kabul. He
+explored the Adrak-Badrak Pass with a native escort, and made himself
+acquainted with the route from Kabul to Jalalabad, _viâ_ Lughman,
+which was explored by no other European officer. At the close of the
+war he was attached to the Kohat Survey, under Major Holdich, R.E.,
+and was specially employed in the risky work of mapping the frontier
+line from Kohat to Bannu, including a wide strip of trans-frontier
+country, and much of the hitherto unmapped Tochi Valley. On the
+break-up of the Kohat Survey he was temporarily employed on geodetic
+work in one of the Astronomical parties, but was re-transferred to the
+frontier when the Baluchistan parties were formed. His chief work in
+connection with Baluchistan has been carrying a first-class series of
+triangles from the Indus, at Dehra Grhazi Khan to Quetta, which
+occupied him to the close of his career. His ability as an observer,
+his readiness of resource under unusual difficulties, and his power of
+attaching the frontier people to him personally, have been just as
+conspicuous throughout this duty as were his energy and success as a
+geographical topographer. Apart from his departmental career, he has
+won a lasting name as an explorer by his adventurous journey to
+Kafiristan in 1883, when on leave. It may be fairly claimed for him
+that he was the first European officer who set foot in that
+impracticable country, and he is still the best authority on many of
+the routes leading to it. His services to geographical science were
+recognised by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him the
+Murchison grant, and there can be little doubt that a distinguished
+career was still before him when he was suddenly cut off in the prime
+of his life."
+
+To those who know what an Indian Department means, such language of
+eulogy, no less truthful than graceful, from so respected a functionary
+as the Surveyor-General of India, who knew Mr. McNair personally, will
+carry a weight far beyond the official recognition of that deceased
+officer's worth to his department. The comparative neglect of a great
+scientific department of State, such as the Indian Survey Department
+undoubtedly is, as a mere ornamental section of the huge and complicated
+machinery of that gigantic Empire called India, is but too often repeated
+by a department and its official heads in regarding the merits of the
+living and the dead who sacrifice their lives to its achievements; but
+in this one instance, at least, it cannot be said that the head of a
+department fell beneath his opportunities for doing himself and his
+subordinate due honour. It is not always from official neglect, or human
+pride and indifference, that this want of sympathy for human labour and
+human devotion arises, but rather from the infinite preoccupations and
+monotonous overwork of the faculties of all public servants of any
+position of importance in that vast continent of swarming bees intent on
+their day's labour and nothing else. It is a good token for the future
+that men shall feel their labour is appreciated, although a desire for
+official recognition may be no incentive to the devotion itself. It is
+certain that William McNair always valued the appreciation of his
+official superiors, and that nothing could have given him greater
+pleasure or more comfort, in his review of his own brief labours, than to
+have known he would be thus remembered by the head of his own department.
+To natures that regard the daily associations of an arduous career as
+giving a sanctification all their own, the testimony of colleagues--and,
+most of all, of the responsible mouthpiece of those colleagues--is
+specially and naturally dear. Within this period of twenty-two years'
+faithful service to the State occurred the remarkable exploit, the
+account of which, as read in a paper before the Royal Geographical
+Society of London, on the 10th December, 1883, I transcribe into this
+memoir direct from the proceedings of that society, published in the
+number for January, 1884, in the following words, giving the substance
+of what was said by the President of the society, who introduced the
+lecturer, and the several speakers who raised a discussion on the subject
+of the paper after it had been read.
+
+PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.[1]
+
+ _A Visit to Kafiristan_. By W.W. MCNAIR.
+
+(Read at the Evening Meeting, December 10th, 1883.)
+
+[1] In order to let the reader see how perfect was the disguise of
+McNair during his Kafiristan expedition, I have prefixed to this Memoir
+a portrait of McNair, taken a year or two before his death, and to the
+paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, the group attired as
+on their journey, with McNair in the centre, and his Mahommedan friends
+around him.
+
+In introducing Mr. McNair to the meeting, the President (Lord Aberdare)
+said that the paper he was about to read was an account of a visit he
+had recently made to Kafiristan. Mr. McNair had resided in India for a
+long time previous to his adventurous journey, and whilst in the
+service of the Topographical Department in the North-west of India, had
+been employed in surveys beyond the frontier of Afghanistan. His
+attention was thus directed to the interesting country which the paper
+would describe. Kafiristan was a country of very peculiar interest. The
+name Kafiristan, or the "country of infidels," was a nick-name given by
+the surrounding Mahommedans, and was not that by which it was called by
+the natives. It had long been a reproach to English geographers that
+the only accounts of Kafiristan had been obtained through Orientals
+themselves, whose statements had never been tested by the actual visit
+of Europeans to the country. The consequence was that a sort of mystery
+surrounded Kafiristan,--so much so that Colonel Yule, when discussing
+an interesting paper by Colonel Tanner, on a visit he made to the
+borders of the Kafir country three years ago, said that when Kafiristan
+was visited and explored the Royal Geographical Society might close the
+doors, because there would be no more new work to be done. The veil had
+at last been drawn aside. It might be asked why the country had been so
+long held inaccessible. The explanation was that the inhabitants were
+always at war with their Mahommedan neighbours, by whom they were
+surrounded on all sides, and who had been extremely jealous of their
+communication with European travellers. Mr. McNair had penetrated
+Kafiristan in disguise. He (the President) had had an opportunity of
+seeing the paper, and he found that Mr. McNair had not dwelt upon the
+historical geography of Kafiristan, and therefore he would say a few
+words on that subject. As long ago as 1809, Kafiristan attracted the
+attention of one of the ablest public servants that England ever sent
+out to India--Mountstuart Elphinstone--who was anxious to add to his
+"History of Kabul" something about the people of Kafiristan; and
+knowing that it was inaccessible to Europeans, he employed an Indian, a
+man of learning and intelligence, to travel there and obtain all the
+information he could. It was curious to notice how faithful the report
+of his emissary was. The people of the country were described in the
+following words: "The Kafirs were celebrated for their beauty and their
+European complexions. They worshipped idols, drank wine in silver cups
+or vases, used chairs and tables, and spoke a language unknown to their
+neighbours." Their religion seems to have been a sort of debased Deism:
+they believed in a God; at the same time they worshipped a great number
+of idols, which they said represented the great men that had passed
+from among them; and he described a scene at which he had been present,
+when a goat or a cow was sacrificed, and the following prayer, pithy
+and comprehensive, although not remarkable for charity, was offered up:
+"Ward off fever from us. Increase our stores. Kill the Mussulmans.
+After death admit us to Paradise." Killing the Mussulman was a
+religious duty which the Kafirs performed with the greatest fidelity
+and diligence. In fact, no young man was allowed to marry until he had
+killed a Mussulman. They attached the same importance to the killing of
+a Mussulman as the Red Indians did to taking the scalp of an enemy.
+Their number did not appear to exceed 250,000. They inhabited three
+valleys, and small as their number was they were constantly at war with
+each other, and seized upon the members of kindred tribes in order to
+sell them as slaves. The women were remarkable for their beauty; and
+Sir Henry Rawlinson once said at one of their meetings that the most
+beautiful Oriental woman he ever saw was a Kafir, and that she had,
+besides other charms, a great mass of golden hair, which, let loose and
+shaken, covered her completely from head to foot like a veil. In order
+to show what was the state of our knowledge of the country down to
+1879, he would read part of a paper by Mr. Markham on "The Upper Basin
+of the Kabul River." "This unknown portion of the southern watershed of
+the Hindu Kush is inhabited by an indomitable race of unconquered
+hill-men, called by their Muslim neighbours the Siah-posh
+(black-clothed) Kafirs. Their country consists of the long valleys
+extending from the Hindu Kush to the Kunar river, with many secluded
+glens descending to them, and intervening hills affording pasturage for
+their sheep and cattle. The peaks in Kafiristan reach to heights of
+from 11,000 to 16,000 feet. The valleys yield crops of wheat and
+barley, and the Emperor Baber mentions the strong and heady wine made
+by the Kafirs, which he got when he extended his dominion to
+Chigar-serai in 1514. The Kafirs are described as strong athletic men
+with a language of their own, the features and complexions of
+Europeans, and fond of dancing, hunting, and drinking. They also play
+at leap-frog, shake hands as Englishmen, and cannot sit cross-legged on
+the ground. When a deputation of Kafirs came to Sir William Macnaghten
+at Jalalabad, the Afghans exclaimed: 'Here are your relations coming!'
+From the days of Alexander the Great the Siah-posh Kafirs have never
+been conquered, and they have never embraced Islam. They successfully
+resisted the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni, and the campaign which Timur
+undertook against them in 1398 was equally unsuccessful. But the Muslim
+rulers of Kabul continued to make inroads into the Siah-posh country
+down to the time of Baber and afterwards. Our only knowledge of this
+interesting people is from the reports of Mahommedans, and from an
+account of two native missionaries who penetrated into Kafiristan in
+1865. Elphinstone obtained much information respecting the Kafirs from
+one Mullah Najib in 1809; and Lumsden from a Kafir slave named
+Feramory, who was a general in the Afghan service in 1857. Further
+particulars will be found in the writings of Burnes, Wood, Masson,
+Raverty, Griffith, and Mohun Lal." In recent years, Major Biddulph
+entered from Kashmir, through Gilgit, and made his way to Chitral, and
+Colonel Tanner advanced from Jalalabad a short distance into
+Kafiristan, among a portion of the people who had been converted to
+Mahommedanism, but who still retained many of the peculiarities of the
+Kafir race. Dr. Leitner had also taken great pains to obtain
+information about this ancient and unconquered people but Mr. McNair
+was the first European who had ever penetrated into Kafiristan.
+
+Mr. McNair then read as follows:--
+
+In the September number of this Society's "Proceedings," p. 553, under
+the heading "An Expedition to Chitral," allusion is made to my being
+accompanied by a native explorer known "in the profession" as the
+Saiad; it is to this gentleman that I am indebted for the partial
+success that attended our undertaking. I say partial advisedly,
+inasmuch as the original programme we had marked out, of penetrating
+into the heart of Kafiristan, fell through, for reasons that will
+appear as I proceed with the narrative.
+
+The Saiad, whose name I need not mention, had been made over to me more
+than a year ago by Major Holdich to instruct. This led to a mutual
+friendship, and on his explaining to me that he had a plan of getting
+into the Kafir country, which was by accompanying Meahs Hosein Shah and
+Sahib Gul (who yearly go to Chitral either through Dir or via the Kunar
+Valley) as far as Birkot and then following up the Arnawai stream,
+crossing the hills to the westward and returning to Jalalabad either by
+the Alingar or Alishang rivers, I suggested accompanying him in the
+guise of a Hakim or Tabib, _i.e._, native doctor. He was to be
+accompanied by Meah Gul, a Kafir convert. The two Meahs of course had
+to be consulted, and after some difficulty I succeeded in getting their
+consent, having convinced them that the undertaking was entirely at my
+own risk, and that in the event of my detection they would be freed
+from all responsibility. I next sent in my papers for a year's furlough
+with permission to spend the first half in India. This was granted, and
+my leave commenced from March 27th. By April 9th I was at Nowshera, and
+by three o'clock on the following morning, with head shaved, a weak
+solution of caustic and walnut juice applied to hands and face, and
+wearing the dress peculiar to the Meahs or Kaka Khels, and in company
+with Hosein Shah, I sallied out as Mir Mahomed or Hakim Sahib.
+
+It may not be out of place if I here mention that the Kaka Khel section
+of Pathans, to which the two Meahs belong, are not only very
+influential, but are respected throughout both Afghanistan and
+Badakshan. The Kafirs also pay them a certain amount of respect, and
+will not knowingly attack them, owing to an epidemic of cholera which
+once broke out amongst them immediately after they had returned from
+murdering a party of Kaka Khels, and which they superstitiously
+attributed to their influence. They number in all a few short of 3,500;
+this includes menials and followers. Though really considered spiritual
+advisers they are virtually traders, and I do not think I am far wrong
+in saying that they have the monopoly of the trade from Kabul eastward
+to the borders of Kashmir territory. If you say that you are a Meahgan
+or Kaka Khel, words signifying one and the same thing, you have not
+only access where others are questioned, and a sort of blackmail levied
+on them, but you are treated hospitably, and your daily wants supplied
+free of cost--as was often the case with us. Of course the Meaghans
+have to make some return. It is done in this wise: a fair lasting from
+five to seven days is yearly held at Ziarat, a village five miles
+south-west of Nowshera, the resting-place of the saint Kaha Sahib; it
+is resorted to by thousands from across our north and east frontiers,
+and all comers are housed and fed by the Meahs collectively. Offerings,
+it is true, are made to the shrine, but I am told the amount collected
+is utilised solely for the keeping up of the shrine.
+
+What follows is taken from my diary, which I stealthily managed to keep
+up during my journey. It was not till April 13th that we were fairly
+across the British frontier. The interval of four days was spent in
+getting together all necessaries. The rendezvous was for the 13th at
+Ganderi, and true to appointment all were present, our party then
+consisting of forty, including muleteers, and fifteen baggage animals.
+In the shape of provisions, we had nothing but sugar and tea. The
+contents of our loads (I should say goods, only that we got very little
+in return) were cloths of English manufacture, musical boxes,
+binoculars, time-pieces, a spare revolver or two with a few rounds of
+ammunition, salt, glass beads, shells, needles, country-made
+looking-glasses, shoes, and lungis, as well as several phials and
+galipots of medicines. In addition to these I had secreted a prismatic
+and magnetic compass, a boiling point and aneroid thermometer, and a
+plane-table which I had constructed for the occasion. The
+last-mentioned instrument answered famously the purpose for which it
+was intended, and was in use from the beginning to almost the end of my
+journey. It answered, in case of a surprise, to pass off for a tabib
+book of prescriptions; all that was necessary was to slip off the paper
+that was in use inside one of the folds and expose to the gaze of the
+inquisitive individual merely a book or rather the outer case of one,
+in which I had written several recipes in Urdu. The instruments were
+either carried by the Saiad or myself in a _gooda, i.e._, untanned skin
+of goat or sheep invariably used by travellers in this region.
+
+The Malakand Pass (elevation 3,575 feet) is well wooded with brushwood
+and stunted oak; grass and a goodly supply of water from springs are
+procurable all through the year. The ascent is easy, and practicable
+for heavy baggage. The descent into the Swat Valley is not nearly so
+easy; beasts of burden as well as foot passengers have to pick out
+their way, but a company of Bengal or Madras sappers would in a few
+hours clear all difficulties sufficiently well to allow a mule battery
+to keep up with infantry. When once in the plains this state of things
+changes; where previously one had to avoid loose rocks and boulders, we
+had now to search for a dry spot on which to alight. Both banks of the
+rivers are irrigated; the soil is very rich, and well adapted for rice
+cultivation. The valley has the reputation of being very unhealthy,
+owing, I have no doubt, to the effluvia arising from the damp soil. A
+Swatie is easily recognised by the sallow appearance he presents--a
+striking contrast to his nearest neighbours.
+
+The Swat river is about 50 feet wide, from three to four deep, and
+flush with its banks. We crossed over in _jalas_ (_i.e._ inflated
+skins) opposite the large village of Chakdara; the loads were taken
+off, and our animals forded the stream with little or no difficulty.
+Almost due north of our crossing, and distant eight miles, lay the
+village of Kotigram. The valley, known as the Unch Plain, is somewhat
+open, narrowing as we neared the village. Midway, about Uncha, we
+passed several topes, or Buddhist remains. These topes are very
+numerous, at least twenty were visible at one time, and some of great
+size and in a very good state of preservation--more than one quite as
+large as the famous tope of Mani Kiyala. A little further up the valley
+towards the Katgola Pass, to the left of our route, there were numerous
+excavated caves, in the side of the hill, in one of which the traveller
+could take shelter during a passing shower. The assent to the Laram
+Kotal is easy, and though the south face of this range is somewhat
+denuded of both fir and pine, yet the soil is sufficiently rich to
+allow of cultivation on its slopes. On this pass, whilst taking some
+plane-table observations, I was within an ace of being detected from an
+unexpected quarter. Four men armed with matchlocks showed themselves.
+Much quicker than it takes me to record it, the rule or sight vane was
+run up my long and open sleeve, and I began to pretend to be looking
+about for stray roots; the intruders were thrown off the scent, and
+after a while assisted the Saiad in looking for odd roots for the
+supposed native doctor.
+
+The descent from the pass, which registered 7,310 feet, to Killa Rabat
+(3,900 feet) in the Panjkhora Valley, was for the first half of the
+distance by a long and densely wooded spur, within an easy slope, but
+on nearing the foot we found it very stony. Our party was met at the
+entrance by the khan, and later on we were invited to dinner by him.
+Long before this I had got quite used to eating with my fingers, but on
+this occasion I must admit I found it unpleasant diving the fingers
+into a richly made curry floating in grease, and having at the next
+mouthful to partake of honey and omelet. The banquet lasted for an hour
+or more, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable sitting on the
+ground in the one position so peculiar to Eastern nations, when the
+hookah came to my rescue, and allowed of a change in position.
+
+We forded the Panjkhora a little above the fort, and by 5 p.m. reached
+Shahzadgai.
+
+We found the chief busy with a durbar he was holding under a large
+chinar tree, and discussing the plan of attack on Kunater Fort. Our
+introduction was somewhat formal, except in the case of Hosein Shah,
+who was very cordially received and publicly thanked for having
+responded to the chief's request to bring a doctor from India for him.
+
+Rahmatullah Khan, chief of Dir, is an Eusafzai, ruler of a population
+exceeding 600,000. In appearance he is anything but prepossessing--small
+of stature and very dark in complexion for a Pathan; with not a tooth in
+his head, and the skin on his face loose and wrinkled, he presents the
+appearance of an aged man, though really not more than fifty-five.
+
+I was at Shahzadgai seven days, and during that time succeeded in
+bringing round the chief, who was suffering from an ordinary cold and
+cough. I cannot say my stay was a pleasant one, for from early morn
+till dusk our hut was surrounded by patients, and inasmuch as the chief
+had recovered, it was considered a sufficient guarantee that, no matter
+what the ailment or disease might be, if only the tabib would
+prescribe, all would come right. Men with withered arms and legs,
+others totally blind, were expected to be cured, and no amount of
+persuasion would convince those who had brought such unfortunates that
+the case was a hopeless one. It was here that I got as a fee the
+antique seal which I have brought for exhibition to the meeting. The
+man who brought it had found it across the Panjkhora, opposite
+Shahzadgai, whilst throwing up some earthworks; it was then encased in
+a copper vessel. General Cunningham, to whom I showed the seal at Simla
+about three months ago, writes as follows:--"I am sorry to say that I
+cannot make out anything about your seal. At first I thought that the
+man standing before a burning lamp might be a fire-worshipper, in which
+case the seal would be Persian. I _incline_, however, to think that it
+may be an Egyptian seal. I believe that each symbol is one of the
+common forms on Egyptian monuments; this can be determined by one
+versed in Egyptian hieroglyphics." Since my arrival here I have
+submitted the seal to Sir Henry Rawlinson. The fact of its having been
+dug up in the Panjkhora Valley adds great interest to the relic.
+
+On the 24th we left for Kumbar. Whilst here it got abroad that my
+friend Hosein Shah was accompanied by two Europeans in disguise. The
+originator of this report was no other than Rahat Shah Meah, a native
+in the confidence of our Indian Government, and enjoying the benefits
+of a _jagir_ or grant of land in the district of Nowshera, given him
+for loyal services, but a sworn enemy of my two friends. He had sent
+letters to Asmar, Chitral, Swat, and Bijour, urging on the people to
+track out the Kafirs who were in company with the Meagans, and destroy
+them, as they could have gone with no other purpose than to spy out the
+land. Shao Baba took up the matter, and not until the Dir chief had
+written contradicting the statement and certifying that he had asked my
+companions to bring from India a hakim, were suspicions allayed.
+Unfortunately, in a country like Afghanistan, where fanaticism is so
+rampant, once let it be even surmised that outsiders, and these the
+detested Kafirs, are about, the bare contradiction does not suffice,
+and the original idea only lies dormant, as our future progress showed.
+
+Two marches took us from Kumbar (elevation 4,420 feet) to Dir (5,650
+feet). Crossed _en route_ the Barawal range; height of the pass is
+8,340 feet, by a very fair road, which can be ridden up. Here our party
+was joined by the Dir chief, who having settled his disputes, was
+proceeding to his capital.
+
+The fort of Dir is of stone, but in decay; it has an ancient aspect,
+but this applies still more to the village of Ariankot, which occupies
+the flat top of a low spur detached from the fort by a small stream.
+The spurs fall in perpendicular cliffs of some 20 feet in height, and
+in these are traces of numerous caves similar to those already spoken
+of, and some of which are still used as dwellings by the Balti people,
+who come to take service as porters between Dir and Chitral. The
+population of the fort and valley exceeds 6,000 souls.
+
+Four more days were wasted by our party at Dir procuring carriers, as
+the Lowarai Pass (called Lohari by some) was not sufficiently clear of
+snow to admit of our baggage animals crossing it, and from all accounts
+brought in would not be so for another month. This decided us on
+procuring the services of Baltis, who had come from Daroshp and
+Chitral, and who preferred their wages being paid in cloths or salt to
+sums of money. I should here add that my companions had in the
+meanwhile received letters from the neighbourhood of Asmar, advising
+them not to pay a visit to Arnawai just then, as the rumours concerning
+us were not very favourable; so, rather than remain where we were, I
+suggested visiting Chitral. The idea was adopted, the loads were made
+over to the men we had engaged, and the following morning we bade adieu
+to Rahmatullah Khan, and started for Mirga, elevation 8,400 feet.
+Though the distance from Mirga to Ashreth is not more than ten miles,
+yet it took us almost as many hours to accomplish it. From Mirga to the
+Lowarai Kotal (elevation 10,450 feet) the route lay over snow. It is
+quite true what has formerly been related of the number of cairns on
+this pass, marking the burial of Mahommedan travellers who have been
+killed by the Kafir banditti, who cross the Kunar river and attack
+travellers on the road. Travellers as they pass throw stones upon those
+cairns, a method universal among the Pathans in such cases. But many
+bodies were still visible in various stages of decay and imperfectly
+covered. There is no habitation for about six miles on either side of
+the pass, and it is only when information reaches a village that they
+send out to cover the remains of the true believer. The only village
+between the pass and the Kunar river is Ashreth. The people of this
+village pay tribute to Dir as well as Chitral, and this tribute is
+rendered in the form of escort to travellers ascending the pass. But
+the people themselves are Shias and recently converted Kafirs, and are
+known to be in league with the Kafir banditti, giving notice to the
+latter of the approach of travellers rather than rendering effective
+aid against them. Fortunately the ascent was easy and gradual. The
+descent is steeper, and in parts very trying. We had to cross and
+recross the frozen stream several times, owing to the sides of the hill
+rising almost perpendicularly from its base. To add to our
+difficulties, we had to pick our way over deep snow (even in May), not
+only over branches, but tolerably large sized trunks of trees that had
+been uprooted. I was told that during the winter months a regular
+hurricane blows up this valley, carrying everything before it. The Pass
+(Kotal) forms the northern boundary of Dir territory.
+
+Ashreth to Chitral (5,151 feet) was done by us in three marches. It is
+at the head of the Shushai Valley that the village of Madalash lies,
+the inhabitants of which are alluded to by Major Biddulph, in his
+"Tribes of the Hindu Kush," as being a clan speaking amongst themselves
+the Persian tongue. They keep entirely to themselves, and enjoy certain
+privileges denied to their surrounding neighbours, and from what I
+learnt are credited as having come, over a couple of hundred years ago,
+from across the Hindu Kush, _viâ_ the Dura Pass.
+
+Between Daroshp and Chitral the passage by the river contracts to a
+narrow gorge, over which a wall was built more than two centuries ago
+to resist an attempted invasion by the troops of Jehangir. Up to this
+point the Mogul force are said to have brought their elephants, but
+finding it here impracticable to pass they turned back: this force came
+over the Lowarai Pass. The ascent from Jalalabad is impracticable,
+because the river runs in various places between Asmar and Chigar Serai
+in almost impassable gorges.
+
+It was late in the evening when we arrived at Chitral, but as the
+Badshah was not feeling very well, beyond the usual salutations
+exchanged with Hosein Shah and Sahib Gul, all introductions were
+deferred till the following morning.
+
+The following morning, before presenting ourselves to Aman ul Mulk, we
+sent him the following presents, viz., a Waziri horse, two revolvers, a
+pair of binoculars, several pieces of chintz and linen, twenty pounds
+of tea, sugar, salt, and several pairs of shoes of Peshawar
+manufacture, as well as trinkets for his zenana. After the preliminary
+and formal inquiries as to our health, the Mehter Sahib, or Badshah,
+alluded to the rumours regarding me, and wound up by saying that as he
+was a friend to the British, and his country at their disposal, I was
+at liberty to go about and do as I pleased, provided none of my
+followers accompanied me. Fortunately, our Indian Government think
+differently, and judge his character more correctly. This was not
+exactly what we had expected, but rather than be thwarted in the one
+object I had come for, a consent was given to his proposal; but before
+we had fairly got back to our quarters, a message was sent us, saying
+that the passes into Kafiristan were not open just then; our reply was
+that in that case we should return immediately to India. He then sent
+for Sahib Gul, and eventually it was decided that I should defer my
+visit to the Kafirs till some of their leading men should arrive, and
+_ad interim_ I might pay a visit to the Dura Pass. No European had
+hitherto been along this route, and thinking some information might be
+collected, and notes on the geography of the route taken, I agreed,
+though affecting disgust, and started on the 13th of May for Shali.
+
+Andarthi was our next halting place; the fort commands the entrance
+into the Arkari Valley; at the head of the valley are the three passes,
+Agzam, Khartiza, and Nuksan, over the Hindu Kush, leading into
+Badakshan, and a little below the Ozur Valley, which takes its rise
+from the Tirach Mir Mountain, whose elevation is deduced
+trigonometrically by Colonel Tanner to be 25,426 feet, presenting a
+magnificent view.
+
+The dorsal ridge of the Hindu Kush has here a mean elevation of some
+16,000 feet, and this great mountain of Tirach Mir stands on a
+southward spur from the main range from which it towers up thus 9,000
+feet above the latter. The head of the Dura Pass, which leads to Zebak
+and Ishkashim, is a little over 14,000 feet, the ascent being very
+gradual and quite feasible for laden animals; but owing to the people
+of Munjan and the Kafirs in the Bogosta Valley, traders prefer the
+route _viâ_ the Nuksan Pass, which, as its name denotes, is much more
+difficult. Neither pass is open for more than three months in the year.
+
+In this valley between Daroshp and Gobor, I noticed several detached
+oval ponds, evidently artificial, which I was told were constructed for
+catching wild geese and ducks during their annual flight to India just
+before the winter sets in, _i.e._, about the middle of October. The
+plan adopted, though rude, is unique in its way, and is this:--By the
+aid of narrow dug trenches, water from the running stream is let into
+the ponds and turned off when full; the pond is surrounded by a stone
+wall high enough to allow a man, when crouching, to be unobserved; over
+and across one-half or less of this pond a rough trellis-work of thin
+willow branches is put up: the birds on alighting are gradually driven
+under this canopy, and a sudden rush is made by those on the watch.
+Hundreds in this manner are daily caught during the season. The flesh
+is eaten, and from the down on their breasts coarse overcoats and
+gloves are made, known as _margaloon_. This method of trapping is
+borrowed from the Kafirs.
+
+A short distance beyond the village of Daroshp are some mineral springs
+that are visited by invalids from Badakshan.
+
+Having satisfied myself on my return from the Kotal by a visit up the
+Bogosta Valley that the descent into the Arnawai was not practicable
+for some weeks to come, I returned to Chitral on the 22nd of May. Some
+Kafirs had come in, and amongst them one who had just a year ago taken
+in to Kamdesh a Pathan Christian evangelist, who had unfortunately
+given out that he was sent by the Indian Government, and that his
+masters would, if he gave a favourable report of them, come to terms
+with the Kafirs, so as to secure them in future against Mahommedan
+inroads. My visit occurred inopportunely with regard to this statement
+of the evangelist, and although I stated that his utterances were
+false, the Kafir would have it that I had come on behalf of the
+Government, and that the Chief of Chitral had persuaded me into giving
+him the arms and sums of money I had brought for them. This Kafir next
+wanted me to pledge myself to aid their sect against Asmar, and on my
+refusing left my quarters in a pet, but returned after a couple of
+hours, saying that I might accompany him as doctor, and attend an aged
+relative of his.
+
+Kafirstan embraces an area of 5,000 square miles, bounded on the north
+by the Hindu Kush Mountains, on the south by the Kunar range; for its
+western limit it has the Alishang with its tributary the Alingar; its
+eastern boundary is not nearly so well defined, but taken roughly, may
+be expressed as the Kunar river from its junction with the Kabul to
+where the former receives the waters of the Kalashgum at the village of
+Ain; thence following up this last tributary to its source, a line
+drawn from that point to the Dura Pass is well within the mark. I may
+also include a small section occupying a tract north-west of the
+above-named pass, and subject to Munjan. There are three main tribes,
+viz., Ramgals, Vaigals, and Bashgals, corresponding with the three
+principal valleys in their tract of country; the last-named occupy the
+Arnawai Darra, and are divided into five clans, Kamdesh, Keshtoz,
+Mungals, Weranis, and Ludhechis. The Keshtoz, Mungals, and Weranis pay
+a nominal tribute in kind to the ruler of Chitral, but not so the other
+two clans. The Vaigal tribe are reckoned the most powerful; this
+probably is due to their occupying the largest valley. Each of the
+three principal tribes has a dialect different from the other two, but
+have several words in common, and as a rule have very little to do with
+those inhabiting the other valleys. The entire population is estimated
+at over 200,000 souls. Their country is picturesque, densely wooded,
+and wild in the extreme; the men of fine appearance, with sharp Aryan
+features and keen, penetrating eyes; blue eyes are not common but do
+occur, but brown eyes and light hair, even to a golden hue, in
+combination are not at all uncommon. The general complexion varies to
+two extremes, that of extreme fairness--pink rather than blonde, and
+the other of bronze, quite as dark as the ordinary Panjabi. The cast of
+features seems common to both these complexions, but the fairer men if
+asked will indicate the dark men as having come from the south, and
+that they themselves have come from the north and east. They are, as is
+always the case with hill tribes, short of stature, daring to a fault,
+but lazy, leaving all the agricultural work to their womenkind, and
+spending their days, when not at war, principally in hunting. They are
+passionately fond of dancing, in which both sexes join, scarcely
+letting an evening pass without indulging in it around a blasing fire.
+
+The dancing, which I on several occasions witnessed, was invariably begun
+by a single female performer appearing on the scene, and after going
+through a few graceful movements, a shrill whistle (caused by inserting
+two fingers into the month) given by one of the men is the signal for
+a change. Several performers then come forward, advancing and retiring
+on either side of a huge bonfire, at one end of which were the
+musicians--their instruments, a large drum, two kettle-drums, and a
+couple of flutes. To this music, more particularly to the beating of the
+drums, good time is kept. The whistle sounds again, when immediately the
+performers set to partners, if I may use the expression; after a while
+they disengage, and begin circling round the fire singly--men and women
+alternately. The tamasha ended by again setting to partners; each couple,
+holding a stick between them, their feet firmly planted on the ground and
+close together, spin round at a great pace, first from right to left and
+then from left to right. None objected to my taking part in this
+performance, but, for the indulgence, I had to pay as forfeit several
+strings of beads and shells, a few looking-glasses, and some needles,
+which I presented to those of the fairer sex only.
+
+The houses are generally built on the slopes of the hills; the lower
+story is of stone, from 12 to 15 feet high, but is not used for cattle
+even, which are kept apart in stone byres. Timber is stored in these
+lower stories, as also the ordure of cattle, which is used as fuel,
+especially for smoking their cheeses. This cheese is made daily, and is
+of the nature of cream cheese, and when fresh is not bad. On the roof of
+this lower story, leaving a space all round to walk, rises the actual
+habitation, which is of wood entirely, and contains only one or two
+rooms; these are neat enough, but very dark. The door and door-frames are
+roughly carved with figures and scrolls. There is little furniture, but
+all use low wooden chairs or wicker stools to sit upon. The food, either
+bread, which is ordinarily of very thick cakes, but when guests are
+entertained of very thin broad cakes, like Indian chapatties, or meat
+boiled in a large iron cauldron, is served in large deep circular wooden
+vessels, hollowed from a trunk or thick branch of a tree, without any
+table, though tables were seen occasionally on which drinking vessels
+were set. The bread cakes were served to guests, with slices of cheese
+between two such cakes, imbedded in hot butter. Their beds are very rude
+fixtures, consisting of poles, one end of which rests in the walls and
+the other on two legs: it is remarkable that they call them _kat_. The
+object of the lower story seems chiefly to raise the house above the snow
+in winter; it is ascended by a ladder outside, which can be drawn up.
+Sometimes there is a third story, which is, of course, like the second,
+of timber, but is also surrounded by a platform. The roof of flat stones,
+laid on beams and covered with mud.
+
+The temples are square chambers of timber, with doorways carved and
+coloured; inside there are set several stones, apparently boulders from
+the river bed, but no images were seen, except those connected with
+funeral rites, which were temporarily set up in the temples. The use
+of these temples seemed to be chiefly in connection with funeral rites.
+The coffins were carried there and sacrifice performed before the bodies
+were carried off to the place of eventual deposit.
+
+The men shave the whole of the head, except a circular patch on the
+crown, where the hair is allowed to grow, seldom, if ever, cutting
+it--never wearing a covering. Almost all the men I saw wore the Indian
+manufactured cotton clothes, similar to the Afghans, and on their feet
+had strips of hide tied with strings of hide. The dress of the women is
+merely a single garment, not unlike a very loose dressing or morning
+gown, gathered up at the waist. The hair, which as a rule is very long,
+is worn plaited and covered over with a broad cap with lappets, and
+just over the crown stick up two tufts (some have one only) which from
+a distance appear like horns. A sample of this head-dress as well as of
+three or four other articles of interest I have brought for exhibition
+to the meeting.
+
+It is purely due to no blood-feuds existing among themselves that they
+have succeeded in holding their own against the Mahommedans by whom they
+are hemmed in on all sides. They have nothing in common with them, and,
+in fact, are incessantly engaged in petty warfare with the Mahommedans.
+They are exceedingly well disposed towards the British: I may venture
+further and state that they would not hesitate to place their services,
+should occasion require, at our disposal, and steps might be taken to
+secure this. Slavery exists to a certain extent amongst them; this
+nefarious trade, however, would fall through if slaves did not command
+so ready a sale at Jalalabad, Kunar, Asmar, and Chitral. Polygamy is
+the exception and not the rule; for infidelity on the part of a wife,
+mild corporal punishment is inflicted, and a fine of half-a-dozen or
+more heads of cattle imposed, according to the wealth of the male
+offender. The dead are not buried, but put into coffins and deposited
+either in an unfrequented spot on a hill-side, or carried to a sort of
+cemetery and there left, the coffins being in neither case interred.
+I visited one of these cemeteries, and saw over a hundred coffins in
+different stages of decay; resting against the heads of some of these
+I noticed carved wooden figures of both sexes, and was told that this
+was an honour conferred only on persons of rank and note. As regards
+their religion, one Supreme Being (Imbra) is universally acknowledged.
+Priests preside at their temples, in which stones are set up, but
+to neither priests nor idols is undue reverence paid. Unforeseen
+occurrences are attributed to evil spirits, in whose existence they
+firmly believe, giving no credit to a spirit for good.
+
+I have noticed that several mention the Kafirs as being great
+wine-bibbers. The beverage brought to me on several occasions nothing
+more nor less than the pure grape-juice, neither fermented nor
+distilled, but in its simple form. During the season, the fruit, which
+grows in great abundance, is gathered, the juice pressed out, and put
+into jars either of wood or earthenware, and placed underground for
+future use. I obtained some, which I put into a bottle for the purpose
+of bringing away, but after it had been exposed to the air a short time
+it turned into a sort of vinegar. To the Kafir chief who took me in I
+offered some whisky, and poured about half a wine-glass into a small
+Peshawar cup, but before I had time to add water to it, the chief had
+swallowed the pure spirit. I shall never forget the expression depicted
+on his countenance. After a while all he could give utterance to was,
+"We have nothing so strong."
+
+Their arms consist merely of bows and arrows and daggers; a few
+matchlocks of Kabul manufacture have found their way into the country,
+but no attempts have been made to imitate them. At a distance of about
+50 yards, with their bows and arrows they seldom fail to hit an object
+smaller than a man. The string of the bow is made of gut. Their wealth
+is reckoned by the number of heads of cattle (goats, sheep, and cows)
+they possess. There are eighteen chiefs in all; selection is made for
+deeds of bravery, some allowance also being made for hereditary
+descent. Wheat is their staple food, and with the juice of the grape
+they make a kind of bread, which is eaten toasted, and is not then
+unlike a Christmas plum-pudding.
+
+To resume the narrative: once again, unaccompanied by my two friends, I
+left Chitral on the morning of May 23rd, and struck off from Urguch,
+spending the first night at Balankaru, in the Rumbur Valley. The people
+are the Kalash section of the Kafirs, inferior in appearance, manner,
+and disposition to their neighbours situated westwards; they pay a small
+tribute in kind to Chitral, and are allowed to retain their own manners
+and customs. To Daras Karu, in the Bamburath Vale, famed for its pears,
+I next proceeded; here also are Kalash Kafirs, and some Bashgali
+settlers. The valley is very narrow, and the cultivation restricted
+principally to terraced fields on the hill-slopes. Kakar was the next
+march; beyond it no trace of habitation. After a short stay we proceeded
+up the valley till dusk, and spent the first part of the night under
+some rocks. All beyond was snow, interminable snow. Starting at midnight
+for the head of the pass (the difference in elevation between our
+night's encampment and the crest was 7,000 feet) it took us an hour to
+do every thousand perpendicular feet. The view on the Kotal as the sun
+was rising was a sight never to be forgotten; near and around us the
+hills clad in white with different tinges of red showing, and clouds
+rising in fantastic shapes, and disclosing to view the blue and purple
+of the distant and lower ranges. I was very fortunate in having a clear
+morning, as it enabled me to bring my plane-table into great use. As the
+descent was very tedious, owing to the upper crust of the snow having
+melted under the rays of the morning sun, we decided on adopting a
+sort of "tobogging" system by sitting ourselves on the snow, raising
+the feet, at the same time giving the body a reclining position; a
+jerk, and then we were off, following in each other's wake, bringing
+ourselves up every now and again by embedding our feet in the snow.
+By this means we got down almost to the base of the hill in a very
+short time, and on arriving at the Ludhe villages were well received.
+
+Going out was abandoned, but whilst thus inactive so far as going
+about went, my time was spent in examining closely into their manners
+and customs, when an urgent message was brought from the Aman ul
+Mulk, desiring me to return immediately, owing to some unfavourable
+news that was abroad. Thinking of my two friends, whom I had left at
+Chitral, being involved in some difficulties, I hurried back, only to
+learn that the chief had sent for me on the paltry excuse of having
+heard that the chief of Asmar and the Kafirs had begun their annual
+quarrels. So once again was another opportunity of penetrating further
+frustrated. During my absence on this trip that arch-fiend Rahat Shah
+had arrived at Chitral from India. As he has quite the ear of the
+ruler, all further chances of our getting on in the may of exploring
+were at an end, and so we decided on returning to India _viâ_ Kashmir.
+In return for the presents we had given Aman ul Mulk when we first
+arrived at Chitral, he gave us others, and immediately threw every
+obstacle in his power to prevent our getting away, and it was only on
+refusing to accept his presents that we were supplied with carriers.
+
+Starting on the 5th of June, on the fourth day we arrived at Drasan
+(6,637 feet). The fort of Drasan commands the entrance to the Turikho
+and Tirach valleys, whose waters meet a few miles north-west of the
+fort. Both these valleys are very fertile; in the latter one, and just
+before its junction with the former, are several yellow arsenic mines,
+but the working of these is not encouraged by the present ruler. Gold
+also, I was told, is to be found in the streams about Chitral; this
+statement proved correct, as I was able to work up some with the aid of
+mercury, and on having the ore tested by a goldsmith's firm in India,
+it was pronounced by them to be 21 carat; but this washing is seldom
+permitted, the reason assigned by the chief being that if once it were
+known that Chitral produced gold, his country would be lost to him.
+
+Mastuj (elevation 7,289 feet) is on the main or Chitral stream, and
+commands the entrance to the Laspur Valley, which leads more directly
+to Gilgit _viâ_ Gupis and Gakuch, and was the route traversed by Major
+Biddulph. On reaching Gazan, we left the main route and followed up the
+smaller one along a stream taking its rise at the Tui Pass (14,812
+feet). The ascent to it is easy, but the descent exceedingly difficult,
+a nasty piece of glacier having to be traversed, over which we were
+unfortunate enough to lose two horses, and had several of our followers
+severely frost-bitten about the feet. Two marches further and Gilgit
+was reached, and from there in eleven double marches we arrived at
+Srinagar, where my disguise was thrown off. To dwell on these last
+stages of our journey would be merely repeating what has been so ably
+handled by such authorities as Drew, Tanner, and Biddulph.
+
+In conclusion, I would here record that whatever success has attended
+this undertaking is due in a great measure to my faithful companions
+and allies, Hosein Shah, Sahib Gul, and the Saiad.
+
+The following discussion ensued on the reading of the above paper:--
+
+Colonel Yule said he had for thirty or forty years looked with intense
+interest at the dark spot of Kafiristan on the map of Asia, and had
+therefore listened with great pleasure to Mr. McNair's modest account of
+one of the most adventurous journeys that had ever been described before
+the Society. Twenty or twenty-four years ago we had nothing but the
+vaguest knowledge of Kafiristan, but the country had been gradually
+opened out by General Walker and Colonel Montgomery's pundits in
+disguise. Foreign geographers had sometimes cast it in the teeth of
+Englishmen that their discoveries beyond the frontiers of India had been
+made vicariously, but in this case it was an Englishman who had performed
+the journey. He believed he was right in saying that no Englishman before
+Mr. McNair had ever visited the Swat Valley. It was now inhabited by a
+most inhospitable race, who had become Afghanised, but rumours had often
+been heard about the Buddhist there. Eighteen or twenty centuries ago it
+was one of the most sacred spots of Buddhism, filled with Buddhist
+monasteries and temples, but, as far as he knew, no European except Mr.
+McNair had ever seen those remains. If further explorations were carried
+out there probably most interesting discoveries would result. Passing on
+to the Panjkhora river and to Dir, there was very little doubt that those
+valleys were the scene of some of Alexander's exploits on his way to
+India. Many scholars supposed that Dir was one of the fortresses which
+Alexander took, and incidentally the place was mentioned by Marco Polo as
+the route of a Mongol horde from Badakshan into Kashmir. He believed that
+the earliest distinct notice of the Kafirs was the account of the country
+being invaded by Timour on his march to India. When he arrived at Andaráb
+he received complaints by the Mussulman villagers of the manner in which
+they were harassed by the infidels, and a description was given of how
+the great Ameer himself was slid down snow slopes in a sort of toboggin
+of wickerwork. He captured some of the Kafir forts, but could not
+penetrate into the country. After that very little mention was made of
+them in history, till Major Rennell referred to them in his great memoir
+on the map of Hindostan, and Mountstuart Elphinstone, who, the Afghans
+used to say, could see on the other side of a hill. He always seemed able
+to collect items of knowledge which further research proved to be
+correct. He (Colonel Yule) rejoiced that had lived to see Kafiristan
+partially revealed by an Englishman and not by a Russian.
+
+Dr. Leitner said it was well that travellers, however naturally
+accurate in their observations, should submit their results to the
+criticism of learned societies, for, after all it was in such centres
+that information from various quarters could be best collected, sifted,
+and compared. The task of a pioneer is proverbially ungrateful, but he
+is sufficiently rewarded if he collects facts for the examination of
+scholars, and if some of these facts stand that test. On the other
+hand, it was essential that, as a rule, no one should be sent out on a
+geographical, anthropological, or ethnographical mission who was not
+something of a linguist or who was not accompanied by a linguist, and
+who had not given proof of sympathy with alien races. Hayward fell a
+victim as much to his temper as to the greed and treachery of Mir Wali,
+whom he had insulted. An Arabic proverb says that "the traveller even
+when he sees is blind," and if, in addition to this artificial
+blindness, he is practically both deaf and dumb owing to his ignorance
+of the language of the people among whom he moves, it is almost certain
+that he will make many mistakes, if not insure failure. Now few results
+are apt to be more delusive than a mere collection of words, or even of
+short sentences. The instances of "a dead policeman" as a Non-aryan
+equivalent for the abstract term "death" which the inquirer wanted; of
+the rejoinder of "what do you want?" for the repeated outstretching of
+the "middle finger," a special term for which was sought, and numerous
+other mistakes, are often perfectly avoidable, and it was therefore
+desirable that the traveller, armed with an inexhaustible patience,
+should not content himself with a collection of words, but also add the
+sentences in which they occur, and, if possible, also collect fables,
+songs, and legends. The process in dealing with a race whose language
+one does not know at all is more difficult, but, even in initial
+stages, the procedure of pointing to objects that are required will not
+only generally give their native equivalents, but will also elicit the
+orders or imperatives for these objects being brought, whilst the use
+of these imperatives by the traveller will often elicit the indicative
+or future in the assent or dissent of those to whom the imperatives are
+addressed, or else an ejaculatory affirmative or negative. The early
+training in, at least, two languages will also enable the inquirer to
+discriminate between the substance of a fact or thought, if he might
+use such a term, and the sound that represents it, for, if he has only
+studied his own language early in life, he will never be able to
+emancipate himself completely from the confusion which is naturally
+engendered between the idea and his special manner of expressing it.
+Adaptation, again, even more than translation, is what is required, and
+in order that the adaptation, should be practised successfully,
+geographical inquiry cannot be altogether dissociated from philology,
+nor can philology be dissociated, as it so often is, from ethnography,
+history, and anthropology, which throw either a full light or at least
+a side-light or half-light on linguistic problems, as has been pointed
+out by Dr. Abel. The gestures too of a race are of importance in
+eliciting correct information, for it is obvious that where, on rugged
+mountain sides, ascent or descent can only be practised by the aid of
+the hands as well as of the feet, the terms for "up" and "down" may be
+significant of surrounding topography, just as, to reverse the
+argument, where many meet only to fight, the putting of the fingers of
+both hands together will mean "collision," instead of its being the
+more usual sign for "multitude," or the limit of computation which a
+savage race may have reached. Finally, in this age of subdivision of
+labour on a basis of general knowledge, the present practice of
+explorers working separately without the co-operation of colleagues in
+the same or kindred branches, and sometimes even without a knowledge of
+the material that already exists, should be discouraged. The first step
+to be taken is the compilation of travellers' handbooks, dialogues, and
+vocabularies for the various districts of the so-called "neutral zone,"
+so as to give to these travellers the key of information and to the
+sympathy of the people, and our Government of India especially might
+with advantage steadily collect both old and new information, not at
+the time _when_, but long _before_, an emergency arises, so that it may
+be dealt with by a wealth of knowledge when it does arise. Had this
+view obtained when the "poor relatives of the European" were seen by
+Sale, Macnaghten, Wood, and others, thousands of Kafir men and women
+would not have been carried into slavery by the Afghans, hundreds of
+Kafir villages would not have been destroyed, and the area of Kafir
+traditions would not have been both corrupted and narrowed by the
+broadening of the belt of "Nimchas," or converted Kafirs, which so
+increases the difficulties of an exhaustive inquiry into at least the
+_past_ of an interesting race. Above all should we have had a faithful
+ally in our operations against Kabul, for even as it was, the tardy
+knowledge of that war by the Kafirs sufficed to bring thousands into
+the field ready to be let loose on their hereditary foe, whilst it put
+a stop, at any rate temporarily, to the internecine feuds, which, as
+much as Muslim encroachments, reduced the number of Kafirs. He hoped
+that the visit of Mr. McNair and of the native Christian missionaries
+recently in Kafiristan, might be another step towards the future union
+and civilisation of a race that, whether in part descended from the
+colonies planted by Alexander the Great or not, should no longer be
+treated as "poor relatives" by their European brethren, for whom the
+interposition of friendly and vigorous tribes of mountaineers, along
+with the Dards with whom they have so much in common, between the
+British and Russian possessions in Asia, cannot fail to be an advantage
+in the interests of peace. As to the various routes to and through
+Kafiristan, he would add nothing to-night to what had been so ably
+stated, but as regards the languages, he could not forbear mentioning
+that there are at least five distinct dialects spoken by the tribes,
+which differ as much as Italian does from French, if not from German,
+although based on Aryan roots common to them all. Their religious
+beliefs and customs also show great divergencies as well as
+similarities. The members of various Kafir and kindred tribes, of whom
+he submitted a few photographs to the meeting, and whose measurements
+have been taken, have supplied an amount of information which may be
+laid before the Society in due course, along with, he hoped, a very
+full account of a neighbouring race that is anthropologically and
+linguistically perhaps even more interesting than the Kafirs, who are
+mainly Dards; he meant the people of Hunza (Hun-land?), who language
+is, if not a prehistoric remnant, at any rate like no other that has
+hitherto been discovered, in which the pronouns form an inseparable
+part of numerous substantives and verbs, and in which gutturals are
+still in a state of transition to vowels. This people practise a code
+of religion and of quaint immorals fortunately confined to themselves,
+but which is not without some bearing on the question of the "Mahdi,"
+now giving us some trouble in Africa. As some Kafirs call themselves
+"Kureishis," wnich favours a Shia notion in opposition to their Sunni
+persecutors, he might incidentally observe that the expectation of a
+"Mahdi" is a singular importation of a Shia notion, not entirely
+without our aid, into the orthodox Sunni Mahommedan world, which has so
+long been content with the _de jure_ Khalifa, the Sultan, belonging to
+the category of "imperfect" Khalifas, as a chief and representative who
+is admittedly a "defender of the faith" only so long as he has power to
+enforce his decrees and is accepted by the general _consensus_ of the
+faithful, the very essence of Sunni-ism, the "al-sunnat wa jamáat".
+This view is in bold contradiction to the _hereditary_ principle,
+represented, by the "Mahdi" of the "Imam's" descent from the Kureish
+tribe of Arabia, which caused the very separation of the Shia sect from
+the Sunnis, which is the very essence of Shia belief, and which has
+among other fictions, led to the assumption of the name of "Kureishi"
+by some of the Kafirs.
+
+Sir Henry Rawlingson was glad of the opportunity of expressing his high
+appreciation of the value of Mr. McNair's exploration. His journey was
+not a mere holiday trip, or an every-day reconnaissance survey; on the
+contrary, it was a serious undertaking, and opened up what he (Sir
+Henry), for twenty years had maintained to be the great natural
+highroad from India to Central Asia. The route to the north of the
+Kabul river and along the Chitral Valley was by far the most direct and
+the easiest line of communication between, the Punjab and the upper
+valley of the Oxus; and although native explorers had, as Colonel Yule
+had observed, already traversed the route and brought back a good-deal
+of general information concerning it, Mr. McNair was the first European
+who had ever crossed the Hindu Kush upon this line, or had gained such
+an acquaintance with the different ranges as would enable geographers
+to map the country scientifically, and delineate its physical features.
+The seal which Mr. McNair had exhibited to the meeting was of
+Babylonian workmanship, and although relics of the same class were of
+no great rarity in Persia and Mesopotamia, it was a curious
+circumstance to find one in such a remote locality as the Swat Valley,
+and could only be explained by supposing it to have belonged to one of
+Alexander's soldiers who brought it from Babylon. Eldred Pottinger had
+found a similar relic at Oba on his journey through the mountains from
+Herat to Kabul. The tradition in the country had always been that the
+Kafirs whom Mr. McNair visited, were descended from Alexander's
+soldiers; but there was not in reality the slightest foundation for
+such a belief. Neither in language nor religion, nor manners and
+customs, was there the least analogy between the Kafirs and Greeks. The
+various dialects spoken by the tribes of the Hindu Kush, including the
+Kafir tongues, were all of the Perso-Indian branch of the Aryan family,
+and showed that the mountains must have been colonised during the
+successive migrations of the Aryan tribes from Central Asia to the
+southward. It might perhaps be possible some day to affiliate the
+various tribes, when the vocabularies had all been collected and
+compared by a good philological scholar, but at present there was much
+uncertainty on the subject. Colonel Yule had expressed his pride and
+satisfaction at Mr. McNair's success, and had congratulated the Society
+on the great feat of exploring Kafiristan for the first time having
+been accomplished by an English rather than by a Russian geographer. He
+(Sir Henry) would furnish a further source of gratulation by remarking
+on the fact that on the very day when Mr. McNair had related to the
+meeting the incidents of his most remarkable journey, intelligence had
+been received from the Indian frontier of another surprising
+geographical feat having been achieved by a British officer who was
+already well known to the Society, and who was, in fact, the chief of
+the department to which Mr. McNair belonged. He alluded to the
+successful ascent of the great mountain of Takht-i-Suliman, overlooking
+the Indus Valley, by Major Holdich, of the Indian Survey Department.
+This mountain, from its inaccessible position beyond our frontier, and
+in the midst of lawless Afghan tribes, had long been the despair of
+geographers, but Major Holdich with a small survey party had at length
+succeeded in ascending it, and was said to have triangulated from its
+summit over an area of 50,000 square miles. The Survey Department might
+well be proud of holding in its ranks two such adventurous and
+accomplished explorers as Major Holdich and Mr. McNair. The President
+said that Mr. McNair agreed with Sir Henry Rawlinson that the route he
+had described would undoubtedly be the best into Central Asia, but the
+account of the journey did not inspire him (the President) with any
+confidence as to immediate results in the future. Mr. McNair had to
+disguise himself as a Mahommedan who was acceptable to the Kafirs, and
+it did not appear that he had in any way facilitated the entrance into
+the country of any one who could not conceal his nationality. The
+reports, famished by native explorers sent from India, had, however,
+been fully established by Mr. McNair, and it would therefore appear
+that the best way of solving the problem was to send educated natives
+into Kafiristan. He was sure the meeting would heartily join in giving
+a vote of thanks to Mr. McNair for his interesting paper.
+
+It will be noticed by those who read the paper closely flow remarkably
+absent from it are all allusions to personal experiences, such as
+fatigue, weariness, physical discomfort, sense of disappointment, or
+other of the necessary incidents of so toilsome an effort and long
+sacrifice. As was the character of the man, so is his paper, simple,
+direct, without any of the exaggerations of peculiar features in the
+exploration or rhetorical artifices of description to enhance the
+effect of the discoveries of the traveller, and with an entire
+suppression of himself. For all that appears in the paper, he might
+have been engaged in the most enjoyable pursuit, free from all personal
+risk or daily discomfort.
+
+I desire to testify rather to what I knew of the man himself during a
+close friendship of over eighteen years.
+
+In youth he was very ardent and affectionate, but as he advanced in
+years the hardships of his life and the long periods of solitude he
+passed through seemed to mellow the natural demonstrativeness of his
+nature, and he appeared to me to have suffered that chastening which
+all men derive as their blessed portion from communion with Nature in
+her loving and silent moods; the very ruggedness of mountain solitudes
+speaking to the heart of man with a solemnity no tongue can reach. A
+subtle writer in the London _Spectator_ of the 14th September last, in
+the course of an article on "Clouds," has attempted to describe the
+idealising lesson of her works to the spirit of man as "the tranquil
+rhythm of this fair Nature, the hurrying throb of the human interests
+it measures, there is the eternal poem of human life." In this wise, a
+subdued sweetness in William McNair's nature remained, which was a
+transfiguration of his ardent, buoyant, somewhat impulsive early
+manhood.
+
+On the cricket-field he was in his heartiest element. Men would make a
+scratch team at the sound of his voice, just to be led by him as
+captain. No mean field or batsman, he excelled in bowling. His resource
+in taking wickets was only equalled by the good temper with which
+adversaries walked away from the field with their bats after that
+terrible McNair had done for their score, or their hopes of one. I have
+seen him demoralise a whole team by the way in which he would take
+wicket after wicket, within an hour, by the artful way in which he
+adapted the style of his bowling to the character of the man who fenced
+him at the wicket. Boys were simply enamoured of him, for, by that
+instinct which never fails the young, he won their heartfelt devotion
+by his quick discernment of the weaknesses and proclivities of all the
+young with whom he ever came in contact. I have seen my youngest son--a
+lad of eleven--after years of separation from him, when the boy met him
+in London, in 1884, nestle on his knee quite spontaneously, to listen
+to some of his Kafiristan exploits not touched on in his paper. His
+beaming, manly laugh of amusement and tender compassion over the boy's
+simplicity when asked by my ingenuous lad why he did not kill a lot of
+those fellows during those days of danger, I fancy I see while I write.
+Indeed, this keen participation in the nature and delights of the young
+was the secret of his success during the Kafiristan exploration. It was
+the touchstone of his sympathy with the various barbaric tribes with
+whom he had to come in contact, and whose nature he did not require to
+learn, for he had already sounded all that was human in its touching
+variety. Love and sympathy for man as man, could alone give this
+knowledge and furnish this magic key to hearts in wilds unknown. No
+human system of mental training could ever do it. In this connection I
+smile somewhat at Dr. Leitner's profound German dialectic in the
+discussion on the paper read by McNair over the preliminary preparation
+in language and terms required by an explorer to do his work
+effectively. Where man is equipped by that instinctive faculty of
+accommodating himself to the men of all nations with their physical
+attributes and surroundings, I think he may dispense, in a large
+measure, with the science of language as an open sesame. Nature has her
+own methods.
+
+This being more in the nature of a memoir purely personal in its
+details, giving the characteristics of the man who performed an exploit
+deemed by the Royal Geographical Society worthy of the Murchison Grant,
+I may be pardoned for adding a few private particulars of the events
+leading to the death of one so young, and whose career was so full of
+promise at its earthly close.
+
+During the summer of the year 1888, McNair met with a very serious
+horse accident, one, indeed, that might with complete natural sequence
+have terminated his life on the spot. The vicious horse of a friend he
+was riding to tame the brute (for he was a skilful horseman as well as
+good at sports), reared and fell over on him. By the display of
+personal alacrity he managed to avoid vital injuries, but sufficient of
+the animal's body came on his own to render it necessary that he should
+be carried home in a "jhampan," or Sedan chair, used in the mountain
+sanitaria of India for the conveyance of ladies. A friend's house in
+the neighbourhood of the spot where the accident occurred was of great
+use in restoring him somewhat from the effects of the accident. The
+kind friends who helped him to undertake the journey to his house,
+about a mile distant (carried in this way on men's shoulders), did Mr.
+McNair one of those services for which India is renowned as a land of
+friendly help. The injuries sustained internally nevertheless kept the
+patient in bed for a month, and the nursing of a mother and sister
+brought him round sufficiently to enable him to do his work as usual to
+all appearance. During the ensuing winter he had very hard work, which
+involved much exposure, and he suffered exceedingly from the effects of
+that accident. Immediately after he felt indisposition of any kind he
+complained of a return of the pains due to the accident, and there can
+be but little doubt that the inward injuries then sustained had left
+their mark, though nominally healed. 1888-9 was a severe winter in the
+mountain regions of our frontier, and a letter I had from McNair in
+April, 1889 (the last letter I ever received from him), gave some
+description of the vicissitudes of temperature he had to undergo. I
+give the letter in his own words in the Appendix, as a facsimile of his
+handwriting, to show how precise a hand he wrote, and as a memento of
+himself which some of his many friends might wish to cherish, for I
+believe that in many respects handwriting bears marked characteristics
+of the qualities of the individual. Here I will only extract the
+following description of the trials my friend had to undergo in the
+matter of temperature. In camp, away from Quetta and all means of
+procuring supplies on the spot, he writes under date the 2nd of April,
+1889: "For the past fortnight I have had a rough time of it with rain,
+wind, and haze. Since yesterday there has been a change for the better,
+so now I hope to push along with my observations. Just at present I am
+in a low valley, and consequently the heat is somewhat trying, but in
+another fortnight I expect I shall be complaining of it being a _little
+bit_ too cold, at an elevation of 10,000 and odd. I have little or no
+news to give, as it is now some time since I saw a pale face, but
+somehow or another solitude has its charms for me." The writer of that
+letter soon after applied for three months' leave, having experienced
+broken health for some time previously, in constant returns of fever,
+but owing to the delay that occurs in getting post letters despatched
+from the frontier away from posting stations, and the circumlocution
+which is a feature in all great departments of State, McNair did not
+get his leave sanctioned till sometime in July, 1889, and he was not
+able to start from Quetta for his mountain home in Mussooree, a
+distance of several days' trying journey, until the early days of
+August. The fond hearts of a mother and sister that awaited him there
+had no knowledge of the dangerous character of the fever from which he
+had been suffering for nearly a fortnight before he started from
+Quetta.
+
+Within a very few days after his arrival at Mussooree, the doctors held
+a consultation over his case, as the fever could not be subdued by any
+treatment tried, and then the truth that it was typhoid had to be
+acknowledged. All that medical skill and affectionate nursing of
+devoted relatives, friends, and a qualified nurse, could do towards
+saving the patient was done, and hopes were entertained of recovery
+till almost the last; but three days before the fatal end, hemorrhage
+of the intestines set in, and then the medical attendants despaired.
+McNair himself spoke soon after his arrival at Mussooree of the hour of
+separation having come, and asked for his brother George. The
+suddenness of the end gave all his friends a painful shock, for many
+had not even heard that he was dangerously ill; and, as to the
+relatives, silent consternation for the moment are the only words that
+can adequately describe their desolation and sorrow. A fervently
+attached younger brother George, a popular member of the well-known
+firm of Messrs. Morgan and Company, the solicitors for the East Indian
+Railway Company, hurried up from Calcutta, on a telegram to join his
+family at Mussooree, but when he left he did not know of his brother's
+death. It was only when he reached the foot of the mountains, at a
+place called "Rajpore," within two hours' ride of Mussooree, where he
+inquired of the hotel manager if any recent news had been received of
+his brother's condition, that he got news not only of his brother's
+death, but of his burial. The railway journey from Calcutta to
+Mussooree is a long one of about a thousand miles; but Indian Railways,
+travelling even at express speed, do not exceed twenty-five miles an
+hour. The sympathy experienced by the sorrowing family from near and
+distant friends was beyond mere conventional words of condolence. I
+have it, from the members of the family themselves, that they were
+comforted in a very real and essential manner by the tender and
+extremely touching devotion of their friends, the depth of whose regard
+was then for the first time in many cases discovered. Rising above and
+beyond this general sympathy, two proofs came with a binding and
+enduring force that mark them out for special mention. They typify the
+two extremes of human life and the complexity of human relations. On
+the one hand there was the perfect knowledge of every detail of daily
+life and sacrifice, and the loyalty and enthusiasm that made such a
+life possible, which _sharing_ a life to the full means. On the other,
+there was the tender reverence bred of looking up to something that
+seemed better and higher than the common lot of men. The two extremes I
+refer to were centered in the man who had most scientific knowledge of
+William McNair's worth, and the closest sympathy with his life, namely,
+Colonel Holdich, of the Royal Engineers, under whom McNair served, and
+for whom I know McNair had the highest admiration and the warmest
+personal regard, and native subordinates McNair had under him, who
+loved as only Asiatics can love Europeans whom they revere. An intrepid
+explorer himself, _vide_ the announcement made regarding Colonel
+Holdich by Sir Henry Rawlinson at the close of the discussion on the
+paper read by McNair, Colonel Holdich has added year by year to his
+many signal scientific services rendered to the Indian Government; and
+recently he has added to his many accomplishments the rarer merit among
+men of that love of worth in others, which culminates in human
+brotherhood. His words of appropriate Oriental metaphor, in writing to
+the family, that his sense of personal loss in the man with whom he had
+for years, in the wildest solitudes and the most prolonged hardships,
+eaten "bread and salt" together, made it difficult for him to say all
+he felt, were emphasised by the human grief he could not repress at the
+funeral; where, owing to the suddenness with which everything had
+happened, he was indeed the "chief mourner"--in touching emotion that
+bore witness to the depth and susceptibility of the man's noble nature.
+The other testimony, which kindled great comfort in the desolate
+household, came from the scene of McNair's latest exploit, far away, at
+and near Quetta, when his native companions and friends heard of his
+death. The grief felt was so profound, that it seemed irreparable to
+the men who mourned their beloved friend, as the leader who was also
+their constant companion, and always cheerful with them under every
+adversity. The Oriental may be unappreciated by the Saxon till the
+latter knows the sentimental side of every Asiatic character, but then
+the floodgates of human sympathy are opened, and the very counterpart
+of characteristics and qualities exhibited by Saxon and Asiatic,
+conduce and contribute to a closer and more romantic union between
+them. It is on the principle which Bagehot so profoundly illustrated
+when he said that no age is just to the age immediately preceding it,
+because of their similarity and proximity. The appreciation of Colonel
+Holdich for his valued coadjutor and the executant of many of his plans
+was based on the contrary principle acutely observed on by George Henry
+Lewes, when he remarked that surprise, like appreciation, can only have
+for foundation of any worth, a background of close observation and
+exact perception.
+
+I state the simple truth when I record that the testimonies, received
+in this way from the two extremes of highest knowledge and most diverse
+social and national conditions, remain the most grateful and enduring
+memorials of a life's work to those who must ever cherish the memory of
+what this memoir is precluded from touching on, namely, the more sacred
+domestic endearments of the life-long devotion to family ties of a son
+and a brother. This much I may be permitted to reveal without any
+intrusion on the hallowed reserves of the family circle. A more united
+or more tenderly-knit family, of strong religious feeling, I have never
+known. I had the privilege twenty-one years ago, of knowing a younger
+brother of the deceased, named John, who in less than three years
+attained to an honoured position in the Finance Department of the
+Indian Government. He was preternaturally grave and philanthrophic, and
+died at the age of a youth in England (I think he was not 23 years old)
+of small-pox contracted at Lahore, in the Punjab, where he was
+stationed at the time. He had for some time, although but a lad in
+years, spent his leisure hours in attending the hospital, and reading
+to sick soldiers, where it is believed he contracted the disease. Of
+the living, conventional usage forbids all mention, but I have deemed
+it right to reproduce as appendices to this skeleton and imperfect
+memoir the notices that appeared in the principal Indian papers of
+William McNair's death, as also the obituary notices taken from the
+proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for October and November,
+1889.
+
+The extract reprinted from the _Pioneer_ editorial gives the most
+complete and faithful description of Mr. McNair's achievements during a
+too brief day of usefulness. Portions of that editorial need a passing
+word so far as the subject of this memoir is concerned. With regard to
+the disapproval of the Indian Government of McNair's venture in
+entering Kafiristan without the permission of his Government, I never
+heard a word from his lips by way of complaint, although no doubt the
+paper accurately describes the facts.
+
+Nor did I ever hear a syllable from the brave, unselfish man of
+disappointment at the way in which his worldly prospects were never
+advanced in the slightest by the nobly adventurous work he had done. By
+nature he was too bent on doing the work in hand to theorise about
+anything. By character he was too loftily absorbed in loyalty and
+reverence for the law of obedience as a root-principle of his life, to
+deplore any want of appreciation of his worth on the part of the
+Government which he had so loyally served. It is true, as the "Pioneer"
+points out, that on the Russian side such a man would have had honours
+and distinctions showered upon him. He would have been dragged out of
+his retirement and made to feel he was the favourite of the monarch,
+for the risk to life he had undertaken in spontaneous devotion to the
+State. Not only is such warmth and enthusiasm not the English method,
+but the Indian Government is a huge machine which goes grinding on in
+its mechanical way, and is besides, a bureaucracy which has a good deal
+of pride in regarding any new departure as a dangerous token of
+disrespect to its old and consecrated tradition of simple obedience to
+written orders and codified instructions. The highest originality is
+smothered in a secretariat as its fitting cabinet. McNair knew these
+attributes of the Indian Government, and never troubled his head about
+preferment or official promotion. It is said he was on the eve of it,
+and the State is believed to somewhat deplore the loss of an
+opportunity for rewarding a servant it prized, doubtless, in its own
+dull, routine sort of way. But he is now beyond earthly rewards or
+distinctions, and neither the praise nor the blame of men can touch
+him. In life he was very sensitive to kindness or coldness, but he was
+of too masculine a fibre to allow the natural sweetness and contentment
+of his disposition to be alloyed or marred by any such influence from
+without. He loved his work for its own sake. It became his sole
+occupation and serious aim in life. He deplores the weather in his very
+last letter to me, most characteristically, because it interfered with
+his "observations," which, with "the change" he hoped for and partly
+realized, he would "_push_ along."
+
+The epithet describes the simple, practical side of his character. His
+later love of solitude was the natural outcome of that closer contact
+with nature which made to him a living daily reality the command, "Thou
+shalt have no other gods but Me." His last hours were ministered to
+faithfully by a chaplain of the English Church in Mussooree. The
+religious life of the family resigned itself speedily to that sovereign
+will of heaven which means to all who have tasted of its majesty and
+glory, and have seen glimpses of the wisdom and foresight that put
+man's desires to shame, the submission of heart and mind in all their
+integrity. Nay, more, as one from that inner circle very beautifully
+put it in a letter to the writer of this memoir, "It was 'infinite
+love' alone that permitted his return to us to die, surrounded by our
+love," and in a lovely mountain region where for many years he spent
+his annual summer and autumn "recess," working out the results of the
+observations made during the rough winter's campaign, he lies buried
+near the home of his loved ones. There the eternal stars give a more
+brilliant light to the pure air surrounding his last resting place, and
+the solemn pines and firs pointing heavenwards with their venerable age
+and sighing their constant hymn give an everlasting pathos to the story
+of man's day on earth. The hill sides, terraced into beds of
+flowers--many wild and more cultivated, especially dahlias, which grow
+in great luxuriance and richness of colour in the hills of India--form
+the beautiful ground-work of an Indian cemetery in a sanitarium like
+Mussooree. On that spot, as it lies, the visitor will behold on one
+side, to the south, the dark shadow of a mountain elevation, called the
+"Camel's Back," by reason of its shape and sheer projection upwards,
+typifying the wall of human sense at sight of death; and on the other
+he will look out upon the ever-changing, though distant line of
+perpetual snow. The snow view in India, on mountain regions, is beyond
+description. No word-painting could give an idea of it; and few artists
+have been able to reproduce the magical effects of sunrise and sunset
+on the snows during the varying seasons of the year. The roseate tints
+of dawn blush on their peaks till they become a flame, and pale into
+iciest marble; and the evening splendours of purple and violet and
+death-like blue are the phantasmagoria which no human hand has ever
+made a living picture. Like the human life, it grows into beauty,
+coruscates, and then passes into darkness.
+
+Looked at from the purely materialistic side, doubtless, the lives of
+men are mere seaweed thrown up by the mighty ocean of Creation on the
+shores of Time. But from the Christian's higher standpoint, the broken
+arc is made a magic circle on the side we cannot see.
+
+_There_, let us trust, all lives which seem to us to have snapped
+asunder here, in imperfect fruition of bright promise, may find their
+perfect fulfilment of desire. As Faber poetically says:--"Death, after
+all, is a darkening and disappearance of those we love, and we must be
+content to take it so. It is only a question of more or less, where the
+darkness shall begin, and what it shall eclipse first. To the others
+who have loved the dying, and have gone before him, it is not a
+darkening, but a dawning. Perhaps to them it is the brightest dawn when
+it has been the most opaque and colourless sunset on the side of the
+earth." Or as Keble, with divine humility of richest spiritual
+imaginativeness, expresses it--
+
+"Ever the richest tenderest glow
+  Sets round the autumnal sun--
+But there sight fails: no heart may know
+  The bliss when life is done."
+
+J.E.H.
+
+20, Earl's Court Square, South Kensington, London,
+October 20th, 1889.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE DELHI GAZETTE," _August 19th_, 1889.
+
+A LIFE OF PROMISE ABRUPTLY ENDED.--It was with feelings of deep sorrow
+that we read in _The Pioneer_ of Friday last the death notice of Mr.
+William McNair, the Kafiristan explorer. A man singularly frank and
+genial, he was 33 years of age when he undertook the venture that won
+for him the medal and fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society
+which were conferred in 1884. In that year he had the satisfaction of
+lecturing before British audiences on the results of his travels, and
+as it was the first time he had visited the land of his fathers the
+pleasure of seeing the old country under circumstances so honourable to
+himself was doubly keen.
+
+The story of his adventures may be briefly told. Every one knows that
+the Government of India issued strict injunctions against allowing any
+European to cross the Afghan frontier. Nevertheless that restless
+spirit Sir Charles McGregor, Quartermaster-General, was naturally
+anxious to know something of the debateable land that lies north of the
+Kabul river and south of the Hindoo Koosh, and which tradition alleges
+to have been colonised by the soldiers of the Great Alexander himself.
+We have no doubt, that McGregor prompted the enterprise, though McNair
+never distinctly said that he had been urged by so high an officer to
+break the orders of his official superiors. The affair was arranged in
+this way. McNair took furlough, and ceased for the moment to be a
+servant of Government. He disappeared across the frontier and was not
+heard of again till his safe return was assured. Of course he had
+confederates; one in particular, a tribal chief whose friendship he had
+secured in the Afghan campaigns of 1878-79. His disguise was, however,
+pretty complete, walnut juice being, we believe, the material that
+converted a florid complexion into the tan so natural to Afghan
+mountaineers. He had the wisdom to confine his words to a language he
+understood as well as English, viz., Urdu, and posed as a _Hukeem_ from
+India impelled by a spirit of benevolence to visit unknown lands for
+the sake of caring the ailments of his fellew creatures. Had he
+attempted to talk Pushtoo, his foreign intonation would have been
+detected, while his knowledge of that tongue enabled him to detect the
+drift of any conversation that was carried on in his presence. Once, we
+believe, he was in imminent danger, a proposal having been set on foot
+to put an end to the wanderings of the _Hukeem_, as an English spy. A
+rapid change of quarters averted the danger, and he afterwards fell in
+with the people he came to see, viz., the Kafirs, who whether,
+descending from Alexander's Greeks or not, received him kindly. We
+believe the _Hukeem_ was aided in his researches by a big book supposed
+to contain medical receipts, but which was in reality a box of
+surveying instruments, its outside covered with cabalistic signs
+bearing a family resemblance to a plane-table! The _Hukeem_ was much
+given to solitary meditation, and generally sought mountain peaks for
+that purpose. On such occasions the plane-table afforded him invaluable
+assistance.
+
+But we have said almost enough of poor McNair's adventure. On his
+return he was ordered to Simla and officially reprimanded by the
+Viceroy, Lord Ripon, for disobedience of orders! He was consoled,
+however, by being told by the same nobleman at a private interview that
+his pluck was admired, while his fast friend, Sir Charles McGregor,
+received him with open arms. Such was the bright opening of a career
+that was so soon to be cut short at Mussooree by typhoid fever.
+
+McNair was a favourite with both sexes. By the men he was adored on the
+cricket-field, where his bowling was most effective, while the girls,
+who always possess second sight in the way of detecting a good fellow
+when they see him, loved him _en masse_. It may be some consolation to
+the widowed mother now robbed of her darling boy, to know that there
+are heavy hearts in other homes besides her own--the purest tribute
+that can be laid on the grave of one who was a good son as well as a
+gallant explorer.
+
+We note that the fever of which he died was contracted at Quetta.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "The Pioneer," _August 20th,_ 1889.
+
+THE LATE MR. McNAIR.--The lives of some men are so intimately connected
+with certain phases in the general development of knowledge that their
+biographies afford short but useful pages in the history of progress
+which may well be read in connection with more stirring national
+records. Thus it was with the life of a man who quietly passed from the
+subordinate branch of the Survey Department into the land of shadows on
+the 13th of this month at Mussoorie. At the commencement of the year of
+grace 1879, a little over ten years ago, we were groping our way across
+the borderland which separates India from Turkistan, in unhappy
+ignorance of all but two or three partially illustrated lines of
+advance which might land us either at Kabul or Kandahar. Considering
+the vital importance that it always has been to India that at least a
+creditable knowledge of the countries separating her from Russia should
+exist, the geographical mist which enveloped the highlands of
+Afghanistan and the deserts of Baluchistan in 1879 was certainly
+remarkable. It is true that the war of 1839-43 had brought to the front
+one or two notable geographers, amongst whom North, Broadfoot, and
+Durand were conspicuous, but it had also developed a host of inferior
+artists, whose hazy outlines and indefinite sketches tended most
+seriously to obscure the really trustworthy work of better men. More, a
+good deal, was known about Kandahar and Kabul than of our present
+frontier opposite Dera Ismail, or of the passes leading from Bannu
+across the border only a few miles distant. Indeed, so far as that
+frontier was concerned, from Peshawar to Sind, no military knowledge of
+it existed whatever. It is with the gradual evolution of light over
+these dark places that McNair's name is so closely associated. For many
+years previous to the Afghan war he had been making himself thoroughly
+acquainted with modern survey instruments of precision, which are to
+the scientific weapons of our forefathers of fifty years ago what the
+Gatling and Henry-Martini are to the old Brown Bess. He was one of the
+first to grasp the true principles of using the plane-table when rapid
+action is necessary, and right well he turned his knowledge to account.
+It was the advance on Kabul in 1879 that first introduced him to the
+notice of military authorities, and in the course of that year's
+campaign he had added more to our map information than all the
+geographers of the "old" Afghan war put together.
+
+Some of his exploits were remarkable, as for instance when he explored
+the Adrak Badrak pass leading from the Lughman valley to Jugdalak with
+no military escort whatever, trusting only to the tender mercies of an
+"aboriginal" guard. He thus made himself acquainted with every detail
+of the direct road from Kabul, _viâ_ the Kabul river, to Jalalabad; and
+with him our practical acquaintance with that important route has
+passed away. No sooner had he left Afghanistan than he was attached to
+the frontier party then working in the Kohat district; there he was
+Major Holdich's right-hand man. If there was a specially hard frontier
+nut to be cracked, McNair's powers of assimilating himself to Pathan
+manners, and of winning the confidence of all classes of natives, which
+had already carried him through many a perilous undertaking, were most
+fully utilised for the purpose of cracking it. From Kohat to Dera
+Ismail he was incessantly engaged in quiet little unobtrusive
+excursions (with full political sanction _bien entendu_) which resulted
+in a very complete map of the border, a map which it will be hard to
+supersede. There is one particularly awkward corner of our
+frontier--awkward from a military as well as geographical point of
+view--which thrusts itself forward over the general line into British
+territory, and which can never fail to attract the attention of the
+frontier traveller. This is the rocky fastness of Kafir Koh. From red
+salt hills south of Bahadur Khel the three-headed peak of Kafir Koh is
+seen standing up like a monument in the southern distance: nor is it
+less a conspicuous feature when viewed to the north from the Bannu
+road. At the back of it, to the west, is the direct road connecting the
+upper Meranzai valley with the Bannu district, of which the existence
+was known, but not the nature, when McNair took it in hand. Up the
+sheer face of that square-cut peak, composed chiefly of shifting sand
+and pebbles, which overtops the rest, McNair did his best to climb. He
+did not succeed for the reason that no living thing without wings has
+probably ever succeeded in surmounting it, although there is a legend
+to the effect that a specially active Waziri robber did once contrive
+to reach the top--and there remained to starve; but the English
+explorer at least got far up enough to obtain the clear view he
+required, and he came back richer in wisdom to the extent of many
+square miles of most remarkable mapping. His name soon became well
+known on the border, especially amongst the Waziris, and so much did
+they appreciate his own appreciation of themselves, that there is a
+story current that one well-known Mahsud chieftain stopped a Punjab
+Cavalry detachment near the border line and demanded a passport order
+from McNair. Perhaps his best achievement about this part of his career
+was the mapping of all the approaches to, and the general features of
+the lower Tochi valley.
+
+In 1883 he conceived the bold scheme of taking leave and exploring
+Kaffiristan in disguise, trusting to the good fellowship of certain
+Pathan friends, amongst whom two members of the Kakur Khel were chief.
+It was a bold scheme for many reasons. The physical difficulties of the
+project were many. The impossibility of keeping up a continuous
+disguise was well known to him, and last, but not least, "What would
+Government say?" For fear of involving others in any venture of his
+own, he resolved to cut himself adrift from his department for the time
+being and take his chance. In order to appreciate properly the spirit
+of enterprise which animated the man, critics of his actions should put
+themselves in his place. He was well aware that the information which
+he could obtain would be of the highest value; further, he knew that
+probably there was not another man in India who could obtain it as
+successfully as himself, and he judged that some slight exception might
+be made in his favour if he took on himself the responsibility of
+accepting a most favourable opportunity of doing most valuable work at
+the expense of infringing certain rules about crossing the border.
+These rules were, to say the least, vague and indefinite, and had never
+been officially promulgated. Reward or recognition of service he
+rightly never expected. It must fairly be conceded that the conditions
+under which such a spirit of enterprise was shown made that spirit
+especially honourable--for the Government of India has never been in a
+position to encourage any such ventures. On the contrary, the possible
+gain in information has always been held to be more than
+counterbalanced by the chance of "complications." Lord Lytton, ever
+ready to bewail the decadence of a soldierly spirit of enterprise
+amongst our officers, was yet never quite able to see his way to making
+such enterprise possible to a man who valued his commission. Lord
+Ripon, under whose rule indeed more geographical work was completed
+than under any previous Viceroy, was apt to regard the line of frontier
+peaks and passes much as a careful gardener regards a row of
+beehives--as subjects of tender treatment and watchful care: whilst
+Lord Dufferin has lately with one wide sweep removed the great
+incentment to all exploration enterprise by making the results thereof
+"strictly confidential." These are cloudy conditions under which to
+grow a true spirit of enterprise, and where it here and there crops up
+and flourishes in spite of circumstances it is surely all the more to
+be commended.
+
+The story of McNair's journey to Kaffiristan need not be told here. It
+was not made strictly confidential in those days, and it will be found
+in the chronicles of the Royal Geographical Society. For this
+performance he obtained the Murchison grant of the Society, and on the
+strength of it he may be said to have taken his place amongst the first
+geographers of the day. His frontier work did not end here. For the
+last two years he was engaged on the most trying work of carrying a
+"first class" triangulation series from the Indus at Dera Ghazi Khan,
+across the intervening mountain masses, to Quetta, thence to be
+extended to the Khojak, a work which involved continuous strain of
+mountain climbing, of residence with insufficient cover in intensely
+cold and high elevated spots, and the unending worry of keeping up the
+necessary supplies both of food and water for his party. No doubt it
+tried his constitution severely, and a hot weather at Quetta is,
+unfortunately, not calculated to restore an impaired constitution.
+Although very ill he determined to leave Quetta when his leave became
+due, and he made his way with difficulty to Mussoorie to die amongst
+his own people.
+
+McNair belonged to a department which is not great in distinctions and
+decorations, and is connected with no celestial brotherhood. Indeed, it
+has no dealings with stars but such as are of God's own making--and he
+belonged to what by grace of official courtesy is called the
+"subordinate" branch. Out of it he never rose, though had he lived on
+the Russian side of the border his career might well have brought him
+high military rank and decorations in strings across his uniform. They
+say that decorations are "cheap" there. Yet it should be remembered
+that zeal, industry, enterprise, and patriotism are "cheap," too, if
+they are to be won by them. Perhaps we manage better. The good old
+copybook maxim, "Virtue is its own reward," must be McNair's epitaph,
+whilst we cannot help feeling that India could have better spared many
+a "bigger" man.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE STATESMAN," _August 27th_, 1889.
+
+By the death of Mr. McNair, of the Survey Department, a most valuable
+officer has been lost to the Government of India, and a contributor to
+our geographical knowledge of Afghanistan. It is difficult to estimate
+the value of his services, as they have never been brought prominently
+into notice like those of others who have lived in the sunshine of
+official favour. We believe that, as in many similar cases, the public
+record of his work was nothing to what he really did in the service of
+geography, without any official publicity or recognition of the fact
+whatever. From what we know of his life's work, we can gather
+information that is amply sufficient to entitle Mr. McNair to being
+placed in the front rank of geographers, in respect, as a contemporary
+remarks, of that "borderland which separates India from Turkestan," It
+is said of Mr. McNair, that in the course of the Afghan campaign in
+1879, he added more to the sum of our knowledge of Afghanistan than all
+the geographers of the "old" Afghan war put together, while some of his
+exploits in surmounting what appeared to be absolutely insuperable
+difficulties, make him take rank with the great geographers of his day.
+His work in the Kohat district was especially valuable, although it
+never, we believe, received the official recognition it deserved.
+Thanks to his excursions and observations, we have, as the _Pioneer_
+justly observes, a complete map of the border, a map which it will be
+hard to supersede. His journey to Kaffirstan resulted in some valuable
+contributions to our knowledge of that region, but the conditions of
+Government service unfortunately prevented his receiving the reward,
+which he would have secured as a matter of course, had he been the
+servant of a power more quick and more liberal in its recognition of
+merit. As the _Pioneer_ happily remarks, "Mr. McNair belonged to a
+department which is not great in distinctions and decorations, and is
+connected with no celestial brotherhood. Indeed, it has no dealings
+with stars, but such as are of God's own making--and he belonged to
+what by grace of official courtesy is called the 'subordinate' branch.
+Out of it he never rose, though had he lived on the Russian side of the
+border, his career might well have brought him high military rank, and
+decorations in strings across his uniform." By his death, India loses a
+valuable public servant, and that loss, we venture to say, will be more
+deeply felt should complications arise on the frontier, when the
+knowledge, experience, and ability of men like Mr. McNair will be the
+primary condition of success in any operations in that quarter. We do
+not know whether we should regret of any man that he did hot receive
+the full meed of the success achieved by him in his life career amongst
+his fellows. Certain it is that it is but deferred to the general audit
+of every man's claims, for the hard and thorough work he has done to
+the generation from which he has passed away, but to which and to its
+successors he has left an example for them to emulate, and if they
+can--surpass.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE TIMES," _10th September_, 1889.
+
+The Indian mail brings intelligence of the death of Mr. William Watts
+McNair, of the Indian Survey. In 1883 Mr. McNair, disguised as a
+Mahomedan doctor, succeeded in reaching the outlying valleys of
+Kafiristan, travelling by way of the Swat Valley and Chitral. For this
+adventurous journey, in the course of which he obtained much valuable
+information regarding the passes of the Hindoo Khoosh and about the
+manners and customs of the Sirjah Push Kafirs, the Royal Geographical
+Society awarded the Murchison Grant. Mr. M'Nair, in whom the Indian
+Government has lost an able and zealous servant, died at Mussoorie on
+August 13 of fever contracted at Quetta.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "UNITED SERVICES GAZETTE," _19th October, 1889._
+
+Mr. W.W. McNair.--The death is announced of Mr. McNair, a distinguished
+member of the Indian Survey, who expired at Mussoree of typhoid fever.
+He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department, and had rendered
+signal service, especially during the Afghan War of 1878-79. In the
+disguise of a native doctor he made a journey into Kafiristan in 1883,
+and this achievement gained for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal
+Geographical Society. This expedition was, up to the time,
+unparalleled. Mr. McNair ascended to the Dora Pass over the Hindoo
+Khoosh Mountains, which he found to be over 14,000 feet high, but with
+an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden animals.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for
+October, 1889._
+
+Obituary.
+
+W.W. McNAIR.--We are sorry to have to record the death of this
+distinguished member of the Indian Survey, who has died at Mussooree of
+typhoid fever. He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department,
+and had done good service, particularly during the Afghan war of
+1878-79, when his work lay along the valley of the Kabul river, and
+during the last two years, in which he has been extending a series of
+triangles from the British frontier at Dera, Ghazi Khan, by the direct
+route across the Suliman Mountains to Quetta and the Khojak Amran. But
+his most conspicuous piece of work was his journey (in the disguise of
+a native doctor) into Kafiristan in 1883, an achievement which gained
+for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal Geographical Society, and
+which stands quite alone, as unless Russian explorers have recently
+succeeded in entering the country, there is no record of any other
+European ever having done so. Major Biddulph had visited Chitral, but
+Mr. McNair had not only reached that town by way of the Swat river and
+Dir, but crossed the mountains to the west, which divide the valley of
+the Kashkar or Chitral river from that of the Arnawai. He reported that
+he was kindly received by the villagers of the Lut-dih district, who
+belong to the Bashgal tribe of Kafirs. The valley is important, for
+along it there runs a direct and comparatively easy route from
+Badakshan to Jelalabad. No doubt he would have explored the country
+more fully, but owing to the conduct of a native, who maliciously
+spread about the report of his being a British spy, Mr. McNair was
+forced to abandon further attempts. He ascended, however, to the Dora
+Pass over the Hindu Kush Mountains, which he found to be a little over
+14,000 feet in height, with an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden
+animals. This pass had been previously explored by the "Havildar" on
+his return journey to India in 1870-71. Mr. McNair returned by way of
+Mastuj, Yasin, Gilghit, and Srinagar. The account of his adventurous
+and important journey was read by him before the Royal Geographical
+Seciety on the 10th December, 1883, but official permission to publish
+the map could not be obtained.
+
+
+
+
+_From the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," November,_
+1889.
+
+Obituary.
+
+The late Mr. W.W. McNair.--Colonel T. H. Holdich, R.E., sends us from
+India the following additional details regarding the career of Mr.
+McNair, briefly noticed in our last issue:--Amongst the many practical
+geographers who have passed away during the year 1889 is Mr. W. McNair,
+of the Indian Survey Department. His career was very closely connected
+with a new phase of military exploration carried out on the frontier of
+India, which had gradually superseded the older forms of
+reconnaissance, and was rendered possible by late improvements in the
+smaller classes of instruments, and a wider knowledge of the use of the
+plane-table. For about ten years previous to the Afghan War of 1879,
+McNair was attached to the topographical branch of the Indian Survey,
+and he had always shown a special aptitude for that class of work,
+which consists in acquiring a comprehensive grasp of a wide field of
+geographical detail in the shortest possible space of time. When war
+broke out, Afghanistan no longer afforded a field for such simple
+geographical exploration as had already been accomplished during the
+campaign of 1839-43. A completer military survey of all important
+districts was required, which would furnish detailed information of
+routes and passes which were far removed from the beaten tracks of
+previous armies. At the same time the conditions under which such a
+survey was to be made were exactly the same as those under which the
+rough reconnaissances of the former campaign were obtained. The
+surveyor was under the same urgent restrictions, both as to time and as
+to the limits of his own movements off the direct line of march.
+McNair, with one or two others, was selected for this topographical
+duty with the Afghan field force, and right good use he made of his
+opportunities. He was present during the fighting which took place
+before Kabul in the winter of 1879-80, and was shut up with the
+garrison of Sherpur during the fortnight's siege. His energy and
+determination carried him through the campaign with more than
+credit--he was able to illustrate modern methods of field topography in
+a manner which threw new light on what was then but a tentative and
+undeveloped system. He was one of the first to prove the full value of
+the plane-table in such work as this, for it must be remembered that he
+was working in a country peculiarly favourable to the application of a
+system of graphic triangulation, and very different to the densely
+forest-clad mountains of the eastern frontier into which the
+plane-table had been carried before, with advancing brigades. At the
+close of the war, which brought no recognition of his exceptional
+services, he was appointed to the Kohát survey party, which was
+primarily raised for the mapping of the Kohát district, but which
+afforded occasional opportunities for extending topography across the
+border. When this party was first raised our frontier maps were of the
+most elementary character; there was many a wide blank in the
+topography of the lower borderland, and geographical darkness shrouded
+nearly the whole line of frontier mountains. The hostility of the
+border people had always been such that it was a matter of considerable
+risk to approach them, but the temper of the tribes was then rapidly
+changing with the times, and McNair rapidly succeeded in establishing
+himself on a friendly footing with frontier robber chiefs, whose
+assistance was invaluable in arranging short excursions across the
+line, by means of which he was able to complete a fairly accurate map
+of most of the border country. No work that ever he accomplished has
+been of more value to the Government of India than this unobtrusive
+frontier mapping. It was whilst he was thus occupied between Peshawur
+and Dera Ismail Khan that he made the acquaintance of certain
+influential men of the Kaken Khel, who offered to see him safely
+through the dangerous districts outlying Kaffirstan, and give him the
+opportunity of being the first European to set his foot in that land of
+romance. The snow-capped summits of some of the more southerly peaks of
+Kaffirstan had been seen and fixed by McNair during the progress of the
+Afghan campaign, and it had ever been a dream with him to reach those
+mighty spurs, and torn those peaks to account by using them as the
+basis of a topographical map of the country. He did reach them, as the
+records of the R.G.S. sufficiently show, and he may fairly claim to be
+the first Englishman to lift even a corner of the veil of mystery which
+has ever shrouded that inaccessible country so far as its topographical
+conformation is concerned. This excursion won for him the Murchison
+Grant of the Society, and established his position as a leading
+practical geographer. For the last few years of his life he has been
+almost incessantly occupied in the rough work of frontier surveying,
+which his knowledge of frontier people and power of winning their
+confidence and help especially fitted him to undertake. At the time of
+his death he was employed in the Baluchistan Survey party in the
+completion of a triangulation series which should carry the great
+Indian system to the Kojak range, and furnish a scientific and highly
+accurate base for future extension into Afghanistan. This was a duty
+which severely taxed even his vigorous constitution. It involved
+incessant labour in examining lofty mountain peaks in order to select
+suitable sites for stations, and subsequently days and nights of
+anxious watching during the progress of the observations, whilst food
+and water (when snow was not lying on the ground) were scarce, and
+mists and clouds hung round the mountains. No doubt it tried him hard,
+and when typhoid attacked him at Quetta he seemed unable to make a good
+fight for his life. He was able, however, to reach Mussoorie, where he
+died on the 13th August, leaving a gap in the Department which he
+served so well which it will be exceedingly hard to fill.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of William Watts McNair, by J. E. Howard
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir of William Watts McNair, by J. E. Howard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir of William Watts McNair
+
+Author: J. E. Howard
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2003 [EBook #10382]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIR OF WM WATTS MCNAIR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Gail J. Loveman, David Starner, Luis Flavio Rocha and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Memoir of
+WILLIAM WATTS McNAIR,
+_Late of "Connaught House" Mussooree,
+Of the_
+INDIAN SURVEY DEPARTMENT,
+The First European Explorer of Kafiristan.
+
+_BY J.E. HOWARD._
+
+
+
+
+INSCRIBED TO
+THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
+IN REMEMBRANCE OF
+A LIFE MADE HAPPIER BY ITS
+RECOGNITION OF RARE AND MODEST WORTH.
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR.
+
+William Watts McNair, who was born on the 13th September, 1849, joined
+the great Indian Survey Department in September, 1867, when he was
+only eighteen years old, and served the Government of Her Majesty the
+Queen and Empress of India faithfully unto the day of his death, on
+the 13th of August, 1889. In the official proceedings or notes of the
+Surveyor-General of India, for August, 1889, will be found the
+following more than merely formal notice of the services of the
+deceased officer of a great but scarcely sufficiently recognised
+scientific department of the magnificent Indian Empire of Her Majesty
+the Queen-Empress. "The Surveyor-General deeply regrets to announce
+the death of Mr. W.W. McNair, Surveyor, 3rd grade, from fever
+contracted at Quetta while attached to the Baluchistan Survey Party.
+He was granted leave to proceed to Mussooree, where he died on 13th
+August. Mr. McNair joined the department on the 1st September, 1867,
+and was posted to the Rajputana Topographical Party. The first twelve
+years of his service were passed on topographical duty with this party
+under Major G. Strahan, R.E., and in the Mysore Party under Majors G.
+Strahan and H.R. Thuillier, R.E. From the very first he showed special
+aptitude as a plane-tabler, and was soon recognised in the department
+as an accomplished surveyor. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected to
+accompany the Khyber Column of the Afghan Field Force, and was present
+with that force during the severe fighting that occurred before Kabul
+in the winter of 1879-80, and the subsequent defence of Sharpur.
+Whilst in Afghanistan he mapped a very large portion of hitherto
+unknown country, including the Lughman Valley and approaches to
+Kafiristan, and the Logar and Wardak Valleys to the south of Kabul. He
+explored the Adrak-Badrak Pass with a native escort, and made himself
+acquainted with the route from Kabul to Jalalabad, _via_ Lughman,
+which was explored by no other European officer. At the close of the
+war he was attached to the Kohat Survey, under Major Holdich, R.E.,
+and was specially employed in the risky work of mapping the frontier
+line from Kohat to Bannu, including a wide strip of trans-frontier
+country, and much of the hitherto unmapped Tochi Valley. On the
+break-up of the Kohat Survey he was temporarily employed on geodetic
+work in one of the Astronomical parties, but was re-transferred to the
+frontier when the Baluchistan parties were formed. His chief work in
+connection with Baluchistan has been carrying a first-class series of
+triangles from the Indus, at Dehra Grhazi Khan to Quetta, which
+occupied him to the close of his career. His ability as an observer,
+his readiness of resource under unusual difficulties, and his power of
+attaching the frontier people to him personally, have been just as
+conspicuous throughout this duty as were his energy and success as a
+geographical topographer. Apart from his departmental career, he has
+won a lasting name as an explorer by his adventurous journey to
+Kafiristan in 1883, when on leave. It may be fairly claimed for him
+that he was the first European officer who set foot in that
+impracticable country, and he is still the best authority on many of
+the routes leading to it. His services to geographical science were
+recognised by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him the
+Murchison grant, and there can be little doubt that a distinguished
+career was still before him when he was suddenly cut off in the prime
+of his life."
+
+To those who know what an Indian Department means, such language of
+eulogy, no less truthful than graceful, from so respected a functionary
+as the Surveyor-General of India, who knew Mr. McNair personally, will
+carry a weight far beyond the official recognition of that deceased
+officer's worth to his department. The comparative neglect of a great
+scientific department of State, such as the Indian Survey Department
+undoubtedly is, as a mere ornamental section of the huge and complicated
+machinery of that gigantic Empire called India, is but too often repeated
+by a department and its official heads in regarding the merits of the
+living and the dead who sacrifice their lives to its achievements; but
+in this one instance, at least, it cannot be said that the head of a
+department fell beneath his opportunities for doing himself and his
+subordinate due honour. It is not always from official neglect, or human
+pride and indifference, that this want of sympathy for human labour and
+human devotion arises, but rather from the infinite preoccupations and
+monotonous overwork of the faculties of all public servants of any
+position of importance in that vast continent of swarming bees intent on
+their day's labour and nothing else. It is a good token for the future
+that men shall feel their labour is appreciated, although a desire for
+official recognition may be no incentive to the devotion itself. It is
+certain that William McNair always valued the appreciation of his
+official superiors, and that nothing could have given him greater
+pleasure or more comfort, in his review of his own brief labours, than to
+have known he would be thus remembered by the head of his own department.
+To natures that regard the daily associations of an arduous career as
+giving a sanctification all their own, the testimony of colleagues--and,
+most of all, of the responsible mouthpiece of those colleagues--is
+specially and naturally dear. Within this period of twenty-two years'
+faithful service to the State occurred the remarkable exploit, the
+account of which, as read in a paper before the Royal Geographical
+Society of London, on the 10th December, 1883, I transcribe into this
+memoir direct from the proceedings of that society, published in the
+number for January, 1884, in the following words, giving the substance
+of what was said by the President of the society, who introduced the
+lecturer, and the several speakers who raised a discussion on the subject
+of the paper after it had been read.
+
+PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.[1]
+
+ _A Visit to Kafiristan_. By W.W. MCNAIR.
+
+(Read at the Evening Meeting, December 10th, 1883.)
+
+[1] In order to let the reader see how perfect was the disguise of
+McNair during his Kafiristan expedition, I have prefixed to this Memoir
+a portrait of McNair, taken a year or two before his death, and to the
+paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, the group attired as
+on their journey, with McNair in the centre, and his Mahommedan friends
+around him.
+
+In introducing Mr. McNair to the meeting, the President (Lord Aberdare)
+said that the paper he was about to read was an account of a visit he
+had recently made to Kafiristan. Mr. McNair had resided in India for a
+long time previous to his adventurous journey, and whilst in the
+service of the Topographical Department in the North-west of India, had
+been employed in surveys beyond the frontier of Afghanistan. His
+attention was thus directed to the interesting country which the paper
+would describe. Kafiristan was a country of very peculiar interest. The
+name Kafiristan, or the "country of infidels," was a nick-name given by
+the surrounding Mahommedans, and was not that by which it was called by
+the natives. It had long been a reproach to English geographers that
+the only accounts of Kafiristan had been obtained through Orientals
+themselves, whose statements had never been tested by the actual visit
+of Europeans to the country. The consequence was that a sort of mystery
+surrounded Kafiristan,--so much so that Colonel Yule, when discussing
+an interesting paper by Colonel Tanner, on a visit he made to the
+borders of the Kafir country three years ago, said that when Kafiristan
+was visited and explored the Royal Geographical Society might close the
+doors, because there would be no more new work to be done. The veil had
+at last been drawn aside. It might be asked why the country had been so
+long held inaccessible. The explanation was that the inhabitants were
+always at war with their Mahommedan neighbours, by whom they were
+surrounded on all sides, and who had been extremely jealous of their
+communication with European travellers. Mr. McNair had penetrated
+Kafiristan in disguise. He (the President) had had an opportunity of
+seeing the paper, and he found that Mr. McNair had not dwelt upon the
+historical geography of Kafiristan, and therefore he would say a few
+words on that subject. As long ago as 1809, Kafiristan attracted the
+attention of one of the ablest public servants that England ever sent
+out to India--Mountstuart Elphinstone--who was anxious to add to his
+"History of Kabul" something about the people of Kafiristan; and
+knowing that it was inaccessible to Europeans, he employed an Indian, a
+man of learning and intelligence, to travel there and obtain all the
+information he could. It was curious to notice how faithful the report
+of his emissary was. The people of the country were described in the
+following words: "The Kafirs were celebrated for their beauty and their
+European complexions. They worshipped idols, drank wine in silver cups
+or vases, used chairs and tables, and spoke a language unknown to their
+neighbours." Their religion seems to have been a sort of debased Deism:
+they believed in a God; at the same time they worshipped a great number
+of idols, which they said represented the great men that had passed
+from among them; and he described a scene at which he had been present,
+when a goat or a cow was sacrificed, and the following prayer, pithy
+and comprehensive, although not remarkable for charity, was offered up:
+"Ward off fever from us. Increase our stores. Kill the Mussulmans.
+After death admit us to Paradise." Killing the Mussulman was a
+religious duty which the Kafirs performed with the greatest fidelity
+and diligence. In fact, no young man was allowed to marry until he had
+killed a Mussulman. They attached the same importance to the killing of
+a Mussulman as the Red Indians did to taking the scalp of an enemy.
+Their number did not appear to exceed 250,000. They inhabited three
+valleys, and small as their number was they were constantly at war with
+each other, and seized upon the members of kindred tribes in order to
+sell them as slaves. The women were remarkable for their beauty; and
+Sir Henry Rawlinson once said at one of their meetings that the most
+beautiful Oriental woman he ever saw was a Kafir, and that she had,
+besides other charms, a great mass of golden hair, which, let loose and
+shaken, covered her completely from head to foot like a veil. In order
+to show what was the state of our knowledge of the country down to
+1879, he would read part of a paper by Mr. Markham on "The Upper Basin
+of the Kabul River." "This unknown portion of the southern watershed of
+the Hindu Kush is inhabited by an indomitable race of unconquered
+hill-men, called by their Muslim neighbours the Siah-posh
+(black-clothed) Kafirs. Their country consists of the long valleys
+extending from the Hindu Kush to the Kunar river, with many secluded
+glens descending to them, and intervening hills affording pasturage for
+their sheep and cattle. The peaks in Kafiristan reach to heights of
+from 11,000 to 16,000 feet. The valleys yield crops of wheat and
+barley, and the Emperor Baber mentions the strong and heady wine made
+by the Kafirs, which he got when he extended his dominion to
+Chigar-serai in 1514. The Kafirs are described as strong athletic men
+with a language of their own, the features and complexions of
+Europeans, and fond of dancing, hunting, and drinking. They also play
+at leap-frog, shake hands as Englishmen, and cannot sit cross-legged on
+the ground. When a deputation of Kafirs came to Sir William Macnaghten
+at Jalalabad, the Afghans exclaimed: 'Here are your relations coming!'
+From the days of Alexander the Great the Siah-posh Kafirs have never
+been conquered, and they have never embraced Islam. They successfully
+resisted the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni, and the campaign which Timur
+undertook against them in 1398 was equally unsuccessful. But the Muslim
+rulers of Kabul continued to make inroads into the Siah-posh country
+down to the time of Baber and afterwards. Our only knowledge of this
+interesting people is from the reports of Mahommedans, and from an
+account of two native missionaries who penetrated into Kafiristan in
+1865. Elphinstone obtained much information respecting the Kafirs from
+one Mullah Najib in 1809; and Lumsden from a Kafir slave named
+Feramory, who was a general in the Afghan service in 1857. Further
+particulars will be found in the writings of Burnes, Wood, Masson,
+Raverty, Griffith, and Mohun Lal." In recent years, Major Biddulph
+entered from Kashmir, through Gilgit, and made his way to Chitral, and
+Colonel Tanner advanced from Jalalabad a short distance into
+Kafiristan, among a portion of the people who had been converted to
+Mahommedanism, but who still retained many of the peculiarities of the
+Kafir race. Dr. Leitner had also taken great pains to obtain
+information about this ancient and unconquered people but Mr. McNair
+was the first European who had ever penetrated into Kafiristan.
+
+Mr. McNair then read as follows:--
+
+In the September number of this Society's "Proceedings," p. 553, under
+the heading "An Expedition to Chitral," allusion is made to my being
+accompanied by a native explorer known "in the profession" as the
+Saiad; it is to this gentleman that I am indebted for the partial
+success that attended our undertaking. I say partial advisedly,
+inasmuch as the original programme we had marked out, of penetrating
+into the heart of Kafiristan, fell through, for reasons that will
+appear as I proceed with the narrative.
+
+The Saiad, whose name I need not mention, had been made over to me more
+than a year ago by Major Holdich to instruct. This led to a mutual
+friendship, and on his explaining to me that he had a plan of getting
+into the Kafir country, which was by accompanying Meahs Hosein Shah and
+Sahib Gul (who yearly go to Chitral either through Dir or via the Kunar
+Valley) as far as Birkot and then following up the Arnawai stream,
+crossing the hills to the westward and returning to Jalalabad either by
+the Alingar or Alishang rivers, I suggested accompanying him in the
+guise of a Hakim or Tabib, _i.e._, native doctor. He was to be
+accompanied by Meah Gul, a Kafir convert. The two Meahs of course had
+to be consulted, and after some difficulty I succeeded in getting their
+consent, having convinced them that the undertaking was entirely at my
+own risk, and that in the event of my detection they would be freed
+from all responsibility. I next sent in my papers for a year's furlough
+with permission to spend the first half in India. This was granted, and
+my leave commenced from March 27th. By April 9th I was at Nowshera, and
+by three o'clock on the following morning, with head shaved, a weak
+solution of caustic and walnut juice applied to hands and face, and
+wearing the dress peculiar to the Meahs or Kaka Khels, and in company
+with Hosein Shah, I sallied out as Mir Mahomed or Hakim Sahib.
+
+It may not be out of place if I here mention that the Kaka Khel section
+of Pathans, to which the two Meahs belong, are not only very
+influential, but are respected throughout both Afghanistan and
+Badakshan. The Kafirs also pay them a certain amount of respect, and
+will not knowingly attack them, owing to an epidemic of cholera which
+once broke out amongst them immediately after they had returned from
+murdering a party of Kaka Khels, and which they superstitiously
+attributed to their influence. They number in all a few short of 3,500;
+this includes menials and followers. Though really considered spiritual
+advisers they are virtually traders, and I do not think I am far wrong
+in saying that they have the monopoly of the trade from Kabul eastward
+to the borders of Kashmir territory. If you say that you are a Meahgan
+or Kaka Khel, words signifying one and the same thing, you have not
+only access where others are questioned, and a sort of blackmail levied
+on them, but you are treated hospitably, and your daily wants supplied
+free of cost--as was often the case with us. Of course the Meaghans
+have to make some return. It is done in this wise: a fair lasting from
+five to seven days is yearly held at Ziarat, a village five miles
+south-west of Nowshera, the resting-place of the saint Kaha Sahib; it
+is resorted to by thousands from across our north and east frontiers,
+and all comers are housed and fed by the Meahs collectively. Offerings,
+it is true, are made to the shrine, but I am told the amount collected
+is utilised solely for the keeping up of the shrine.
+
+What follows is taken from my diary, which I stealthily managed to keep
+up during my journey. It was not till April 13th that we were fairly
+across the British frontier. The interval of four days was spent in
+getting together all necessaries. The rendezvous was for the 13th at
+Ganderi, and true to appointment all were present, our party then
+consisting of forty, including muleteers, and fifteen baggage animals.
+In the shape of provisions, we had nothing but sugar and tea. The
+contents of our loads (I should say goods, only that we got very little
+in return) were cloths of English manufacture, musical boxes,
+binoculars, time-pieces, a spare revolver or two with a few rounds of
+ammunition, salt, glass beads, shells, needles, country-made
+looking-glasses, shoes, and lungis, as well as several phials and
+galipots of medicines. In addition to these I had secreted a prismatic
+and magnetic compass, a boiling point and aneroid thermometer, and a
+plane-table which I had constructed for the occasion. The
+last-mentioned instrument answered famously the purpose for which it
+was intended, and was in use from the beginning to almost the end of my
+journey. It answered, in case of a surprise, to pass off for a tabib
+book of prescriptions; all that was necessary was to slip off the paper
+that was in use inside one of the folds and expose to the gaze of the
+inquisitive individual merely a book or rather the outer case of one,
+in which I had written several recipes in Urdu. The instruments were
+either carried by the Saiad or myself in a _gooda, i.e._, untanned skin
+of goat or sheep invariably used by travellers in this region.
+
+The Malakand Pass (elevation 3,575 feet) is well wooded with brushwood
+and stunted oak; grass and a goodly supply of water from springs are
+procurable all through the year. The ascent is easy, and practicable
+for heavy baggage. The descent into the Swat Valley is not nearly so
+easy; beasts of burden as well as foot passengers have to pick out
+their way, but a company of Bengal or Madras sappers would in a few
+hours clear all difficulties sufficiently well to allow a mule battery
+to keep up with infantry. When once in the plains this state of things
+changes; where previously one had to avoid loose rocks and boulders, we
+had now to search for a dry spot on which to alight. Both banks of the
+rivers are irrigated; the soil is very rich, and well adapted for rice
+cultivation. The valley has the reputation of being very unhealthy,
+owing, I have no doubt, to the effluvia arising from the damp soil. A
+Swatie is easily recognised by the sallow appearance he presents--a
+striking contrast to his nearest neighbours.
+
+The Swat river is about 50 feet wide, from three to four deep, and
+flush with its banks. We crossed over in _jalas_ (_i.e._ inflated
+skins) opposite the large village of Chakdara; the loads were taken
+off, and our animals forded the stream with little or no difficulty.
+Almost due north of our crossing, and distant eight miles, lay the
+village of Kotigram. The valley, known as the Unch Plain, is somewhat
+open, narrowing as we neared the village. Midway, about Uncha, we
+passed several topes, or Buddhist remains. These topes are very
+numerous, at least twenty were visible at one time, and some of great
+size and in a very good state of preservation--more than one quite as
+large as the famous tope of Mani Kiyala. A little further up the valley
+towards the Katgola Pass, to the left of our route, there were numerous
+excavated caves, in the side of the hill, in one of which the traveller
+could take shelter during a passing shower. The assent to the Laram
+Kotal is easy, and though the south face of this range is somewhat
+denuded of both fir and pine, yet the soil is sufficiently rich to
+allow of cultivation on its slopes. On this pass, whilst taking some
+plane-table observations, I was within an ace of being detected from an
+unexpected quarter. Four men armed with matchlocks showed themselves.
+Much quicker than it takes me to record it, the rule or sight vane was
+run up my long and open sleeve, and I began to pretend to be looking
+about for stray roots; the intruders were thrown off the scent, and
+after a while assisted the Saiad in looking for odd roots for the
+supposed native doctor.
+
+The descent from the pass, which registered 7,310 feet, to Killa Rabat
+(3,900 feet) in the Panjkhora Valley, was for the first half of the
+distance by a long and densely wooded spur, within an easy slope, but
+on nearing the foot we found it very stony. Our party was met at the
+entrance by the khan, and later on we were invited to dinner by him.
+Long before this I had got quite used to eating with my fingers, but on
+this occasion I must admit I found it unpleasant diving the fingers
+into a richly made curry floating in grease, and having at the next
+mouthful to partake of honey and omelet. The banquet lasted for an hour
+or more, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable sitting on the
+ground in the one position so peculiar to Eastern nations, when the
+hookah came to my rescue, and allowed of a change in position.
+
+We forded the Panjkhora a little above the fort, and by 5 p.m. reached
+Shahzadgai.
+
+We found the chief busy with a durbar he was holding under a large
+chinar tree, and discussing the plan of attack on Kunater Fort. Our
+introduction was somewhat formal, except in the case of Hosein Shah,
+who was very cordially received and publicly thanked for having
+responded to the chief's request to bring a doctor from India for him.
+
+Rahmatullah Khan, chief of Dir, is an Eusafzai, ruler of a population
+exceeding 600,000. In appearance he is anything but prepossessing--small
+of stature and very dark in complexion for a Pathan; with not a tooth in
+his head, and the skin on his face loose and wrinkled, he presents the
+appearance of an aged man, though really not more than fifty-five.
+
+I was at Shahzadgai seven days, and during that time succeeded in
+bringing round the chief, who was suffering from an ordinary cold and
+cough. I cannot say my stay was a pleasant one, for from early morn
+till dusk our hut was surrounded by patients, and inasmuch as the chief
+had recovered, it was considered a sufficient guarantee that, no matter
+what the ailment or disease might be, if only the tabib would
+prescribe, all would come right. Men with withered arms and legs,
+others totally blind, were expected to be cured, and no amount of
+persuasion would convince those who had brought such unfortunates that
+the case was a hopeless one. It was here that I got as a fee the
+antique seal which I have brought for exhibition to the meeting. The
+man who brought it had found it across the Panjkhora, opposite
+Shahzadgai, whilst throwing up some earthworks; it was then encased in
+a copper vessel. General Cunningham, to whom I showed the seal at Simla
+about three months ago, writes as follows:--"I am sorry to say that I
+cannot make out anything about your seal. At first I thought that the
+man standing before a burning lamp might be a fire-worshipper, in which
+case the seal would be Persian. I _incline_, however, to think that it
+may be an Egyptian seal. I believe that each symbol is one of the
+common forms on Egyptian monuments; this can be determined by one
+versed in Egyptian hieroglyphics." Since my arrival here I have
+submitted the seal to Sir Henry Rawlinson. The fact of its having been
+dug up in the Panjkhora Valley adds great interest to the relic.
+
+On the 24th we left for Kumbar. Whilst here it got abroad that my
+friend Hosein Shah was accompanied by two Europeans in disguise. The
+originator of this report was no other than Rahat Shah Meah, a native
+in the confidence of our Indian Government, and enjoying the benefits
+of a _jagir_ or grant of land in the district of Nowshera, given him
+for loyal services, but a sworn enemy of my two friends. He had sent
+letters to Asmar, Chitral, Swat, and Bijour, urging on the people to
+track out the Kafirs who were in company with the Meagans, and destroy
+them, as they could have gone with no other purpose than to spy out the
+land. Shao Baba took up the matter, and not until the Dir chief had
+written contradicting the statement and certifying that he had asked my
+companions to bring from India a hakim, were suspicions allayed.
+Unfortunately, in a country like Afghanistan, where fanaticism is so
+rampant, once let it be even surmised that outsiders, and these the
+detested Kafirs, are about, the bare contradiction does not suffice,
+and the original idea only lies dormant, as our future progress showed.
+
+Two marches took us from Kumbar (elevation 4,420 feet) to Dir (5,650
+feet). Crossed _en route_ the Barawal range; height of the pass is
+8,340 feet, by a very fair road, which can be ridden up. Here our party
+was joined by the Dir chief, who having settled his disputes, was
+proceeding to his capital.
+
+The fort of Dir is of stone, but in decay; it has an ancient aspect,
+but this applies still more to the village of Ariankot, which occupies
+the flat top of a low spur detached from the fort by a small stream.
+The spurs fall in perpendicular cliffs of some 20 feet in height, and
+in these are traces of numerous caves similar to those already spoken
+of, and some of which are still used as dwellings by the Balti people,
+who come to take service as porters between Dir and Chitral. The
+population of the fort and valley exceeds 6,000 souls.
+
+Four more days were wasted by our party at Dir procuring carriers, as
+the Lowarai Pass (called Lohari by some) was not sufficiently clear of
+snow to admit of our baggage animals crossing it, and from all accounts
+brought in would not be so for another month. This decided us on
+procuring the services of Baltis, who had come from Daroshp and
+Chitral, and who preferred their wages being paid in cloths or salt to
+sums of money. I should here add that my companions had in the
+meanwhile received letters from the neighbourhood of Asmar, advising
+them not to pay a visit to Arnawai just then, as the rumours concerning
+us were not very favourable; so, rather than remain where we were, I
+suggested visiting Chitral. The idea was adopted, the loads were made
+over to the men we had engaged, and the following morning we bade adieu
+to Rahmatullah Khan, and started for Mirga, elevation 8,400 feet.
+Though the distance from Mirga to Ashreth is not more than ten miles,
+yet it took us almost as many hours to accomplish it. From Mirga to the
+Lowarai Kotal (elevation 10,450 feet) the route lay over snow. It is
+quite true what has formerly been related of the number of cairns on
+this pass, marking the burial of Mahommedan travellers who have been
+killed by the Kafir banditti, who cross the Kunar river and attack
+travellers on the road. Travellers as they pass throw stones upon those
+cairns, a method universal among the Pathans in such cases. But many
+bodies were still visible in various stages of decay and imperfectly
+covered. There is no habitation for about six miles on either side of
+the pass, and it is only when information reaches a village that they
+send out to cover the remains of the true believer. The only village
+between the pass and the Kunar river is Ashreth. The people of this
+village pay tribute to Dir as well as Chitral, and this tribute is
+rendered in the form of escort to travellers ascending the pass. But
+the people themselves are Shias and recently converted Kafirs, and are
+known to be in league with the Kafir banditti, giving notice to the
+latter of the approach of travellers rather than rendering effective
+aid against them. Fortunately the ascent was easy and gradual. The
+descent is steeper, and in parts very trying. We had to cross and
+recross the frozen stream several times, owing to the sides of the hill
+rising almost perpendicularly from its base. To add to our
+difficulties, we had to pick our way over deep snow (even in May), not
+only over branches, but tolerably large sized trunks of trees that had
+been uprooted. I was told that during the winter months a regular
+hurricane blows up this valley, carrying everything before it. The Pass
+(Kotal) forms the northern boundary of Dir territory.
+
+Ashreth to Chitral (5,151 feet) was done by us in three marches. It is
+at the head of the Shushai Valley that the village of Madalash lies,
+the inhabitants of which are alluded to by Major Biddulph, in his
+"Tribes of the Hindu Kush," as being a clan speaking amongst themselves
+the Persian tongue. They keep entirely to themselves, and enjoy certain
+privileges denied to their surrounding neighbours, and from what I
+learnt are credited as having come, over a couple of hundred years ago,
+from across the Hindu Kush, _via_ the Dura Pass.
+
+Between Daroshp and Chitral the passage by the river contracts to a
+narrow gorge, over which a wall was built more than two centuries ago
+to resist an attempted invasion by the troops of Jehangir. Up to this
+point the Mogul force are said to have brought their elephants, but
+finding it here impracticable to pass they turned back: this force came
+over the Lowarai Pass. The ascent from Jalalabad is impracticable,
+because the river runs in various places between Asmar and Chigar Serai
+in almost impassable gorges.
+
+It was late in the evening when we arrived at Chitral, but as the
+Badshah was not feeling very well, beyond the usual salutations
+exchanged with Hosein Shah and Sahib Gul, all introductions were
+deferred till the following morning.
+
+The following morning, before presenting ourselves to Aman ul Mulk, we
+sent him the following presents, viz., a Waziri horse, two revolvers, a
+pair of binoculars, several pieces of chintz and linen, twenty pounds
+of tea, sugar, salt, and several pairs of shoes of Peshawar
+manufacture, as well as trinkets for his zenana. After the preliminary
+and formal inquiries as to our health, the Mehter Sahib, or Badshah,
+alluded to the rumours regarding me, and wound up by saying that as he
+was a friend to the British, and his country at their disposal, I was
+at liberty to go about and do as I pleased, provided none of my
+followers accompanied me. Fortunately, our Indian Government think
+differently, and judge his character more correctly. This was not
+exactly what we had expected, but rather than be thwarted in the one
+object I had come for, a consent was given to his proposal; but before
+we had fairly got back to our quarters, a message was sent us, saying
+that the passes into Kafiristan were not open just then; our reply was
+that in that case we should return immediately to India. He then sent
+for Sahib Gul, and eventually it was decided that I should defer my
+visit to the Kafirs till some of their leading men should arrive, and
+_ad interim_ I might pay a visit to the Dura Pass. No European had
+hitherto been along this route, and thinking some information might be
+collected, and notes on the geography of the route taken, I agreed,
+though affecting disgust, and started on the 13th of May for Shali.
+
+Andarthi was our next halting place; the fort commands the entrance
+into the Arkari Valley; at the head of the valley are the three passes,
+Agzam, Khartiza, and Nuksan, over the Hindu Kush, leading into
+Badakshan, and a little below the Ozur Valley, which takes its rise
+from the Tirach Mir Mountain, whose elevation is deduced
+trigonometrically by Colonel Tanner to be 25,426 feet, presenting a
+magnificent view.
+
+The dorsal ridge of the Hindu Kush has here a mean elevation of some
+16,000 feet, and this great mountain of Tirach Mir stands on a
+southward spur from the main range from which it towers up thus 9,000
+feet above the latter. The head of the Dura Pass, which leads to Zebak
+and Ishkashim, is a little over 14,000 feet, the ascent being very
+gradual and quite feasible for laden animals; but owing to the people
+of Munjan and the Kafirs in the Bogosta Valley, traders prefer the
+route _via_ the Nuksan Pass, which, as its name denotes, is much more
+difficult. Neither pass is open for more than three months in the year.
+
+In this valley between Daroshp and Gobor, I noticed several detached
+oval ponds, evidently artificial, which I was told were constructed for
+catching wild geese and ducks during their annual flight to India just
+before the winter sets in, _i.e._, about the middle of October. The
+plan adopted, though rude, is unique in its way, and is this:--By the
+aid of narrow dug trenches, water from the running stream is let into
+the ponds and turned off when full; the pond is surrounded by a stone
+wall high enough to allow a man, when crouching, to be unobserved; over
+and across one-half or less of this pond a rough trellis-work of thin
+willow branches is put up: the birds on alighting are gradually driven
+under this canopy, and a sudden rush is made by those on the watch.
+Hundreds in this manner are daily caught during the season. The flesh
+is eaten, and from the down on their breasts coarse overcoats and
+gloves are made, known as _margaloon_. This method of trapping is
+borrowed from the Kafirs.
+
+A short distance beyond the village of Daroshp are some mineral springs
+that are visited by invalids from Badakshan.
+
+Having satisfied myself on my return from the Kotal by a visit up the
+Bogosta Valley that the descent into the Arnawai was not practicable
+for some weeks to come, I returned to Chitral on the 22nd of May. Some
+Kafirs had come in, and amongst them one who had just a year ago taken
+in to Kamdesh a Pathan Christian evangelist, who had unfortunately
+given out that he was sent by the Indian Government, and that his
+masters would, if he gave a favourable report of them, come to terms
+with the Kafirs, so as to secure them in future against Mahommedan
+inroads. My visit occurred inopportunely with regard to this statement
+of the evangelist, and although I stated that his utterances were
+false, the Kafir would have it that I had come on behalf of the
+Government, and that the Chief of Chitral had persuaded me into giving
+him the arms and sums of money I had brought for them. This Kafir next
+wanted me to pledge myself to aid their sect against Asmar, and on my
+refusing left my quarters in a pet, but returned after a couple of
+hours, saying that I might accompany him as doctor, and attend an aged
+relative of his.
+
+Kafirstan embraces an area of 5,000 square miles, bounded on the north
+by the Hindu Kush Mountains, on the south by the Kunar range; for its
+western limit it has the Alishang with its tributary the Alingar; its
+eastern boundary is not nearly so well defined, but taken roughly, may
+be expressed as the Kunar river from its junction with the Kabul to
+where the former receives the waters of the Kalashgum at the village of
+Ain; thence following up this last tributary to its source, a line
+drawn from that point to the Dura Pass is well within the mark. I may
+also include a small section occupying a tract north-west of the
+above-named pass, and subject to Munjan. There are three main tribes,
+viz., Ramgals, Vaigals, and Bashgals, corresponding with the three
+principal valleys in their tract of country; the last-named occupy the
+Arnawai Darra, and are divided into five clans, Kamdesh, Keshtoz,
+Mungals, Weranis, and Ludhechis. The Keshtoz, Mungals, and Weranis pay
+a nominal tribute in kind to the ruler of Chitral, but not so the other
+two clans. The Vaigal tribe are reckoned the most powerful; this
+probably is due to their occupying the largest valley. Each of the
+three principal tribes has a dialect different from the other two, but
+have several words in common, and as a rule have very little to do with
+those inhabiting the other valleys. The entire population is estimated
+at over 200,000 souls. Their country is picturesque, densely wooded,
+and wild in the extreme; the men of fine appearance, with sharp Aryan
+features and keen, penetrating eyes; blue eyes are not common but do
+occur, but brown eyes and light hair, even to a golden hue, in
+combination are not at all uncommon. The general complexion varies to
+two extremes, that of extreme fairness--pink rather than blonde, and
+the other of bronze, quite as dark as the ordinary Panjabi. The cast of
+features seems common to both these complexions, but the fairer men if
+asked will indicate the dark men as having come from the south, and
+that they themselves have come from the north and east. They are, as is
+always the case with hill tribes, short of stature, daring to a fault,
+but lazy, leaving all the agricultural work to their womenkind, and
+spending their days, when not at war, principally in hunting. They are
+passionately fond of dancing, in which both sexes join, scarcely
+letting an evening pass without indulging in it around a blasing fire.
+
+The dancing, which I on several occasions witnessed, was invariably begun
+by a single female performer appearing on the scene, and after going
+through a few graceful movements, a shrill whistle (caused by inserting
+two fingers into the month) given by one of the men is the signal for
+a change. Several performers then come forward, advancing and retiring
+on either side of a huge bonfire, at one end of which were the
+musicians--their instruments, a large drum, two kettle-drums, and a
+couple of flutes. To this music, more particularly to the beating of the
+drums, good time is kept. The whistle sounds again, when immediately the
+performers set to partners, if I may use the expression; after a while
+they disengage, and begin circling round the fire singly--men and women
+alternately. The tamasha ended by again setting to partners; each couple,
+holding a stick between them, their feet firmly planted on the ground and
+close together, spin round at a great pace, first from right to left and
+then from left to right. None objected to my taking part in this
+performance, but, for the indulgence, I had to pay as forfeit several
+strings of beads and shells, a few looking-glasses, and some needles,
+which I presented to those of the fairer sex only.
+
+The houses are generally built on the slopes of the hills; the lower
+story is of stone, from 12 to 15 feet high, but is not used for cattle
+even, which are kept apart in stone byres. Timber is stored in these
+lower stories, as also the ordure of cattle, which is used as fuel,
+especially for smoking their cheeses. This cheese is made daily, and is
+of the nature of cream cheese, and when fresh is not bad. On the roof of
+this lower story, leaving a space all round to walk, rises the actual
+habitation, which is of wood entirely, and contains only one or two
+rooms; these are neat enough, but very dark. The door and door-frames are
+roughly carved with figures and scrolls. There is little furniture, but
+all use low wooden chairs or wicker stools to sit upon. The food, either
+bread, which is ordinarily of very thick cakes, but when guests are
+entertained of very thin broad cakes, like Indian chapatties, or meat
+boiled in a large iron cauldron, is served in large deep circular wooden
+vessels, hollowed from a trunk or thick branch of a tree, without any
+table, though tables were seen occasionally on which drinking vessels
+were set. The bread cakes were served to guests, with slices of cheese
+between two such cakes, imbedded in hot butter. Their beds are very rude
+fixtures, consisting of poles, one end of which rests in the walls and
+the other on two legs: it is remarkable that they call them _kat_. The
+object of the lower story seems chiefly to raise the house above the snow
+in winter; it is ascended by a ladder outside, which can be drawn up.
+Sometimes there is a third story, which is, of course, like the second,
+of timber, but is also surrounded by a platform. The roof of flat stones,
+laid on beams and covered with mud.
+
+The temples are square chambers of timber, with doorways carved and
+coloured; inside there are set several stones, apparently boulders from
+the river bed, but no images were seen, except those connected with
+funeral rites, which were temporarily set up in the temples. The use
+of these temples seemed to be chiefly in connection with funeral rites.
+The coffins were carried there and sacrifice performed before the bodies
+were carried off to the place of eventual deposit.
+
+The men shave the whole of the head, except a circular patch on the
+crown, where the hair is allowed to grow, seldom, if ever, cutting
+it--never wearing a covering. Almost all the men I saw wore the Indian
+manufactured cotton clothes, similar to the Afghans, and on their feet
+had strips of hide tied with strings of hide. The dress of the women is
+merely a single garment, not unlike a very loose dressing or morning
+gown, gathered up at the waist. The hair, which as a rule is very long,
+is worn plaited and covered over with a broad cap with lappets, and
+just over the crown stick up two tufts (some have one only) which from
+a distance appear like horns. A sample of this head-dress as well as of
+three or four other articles of interest I have brought for exhibition
+to the meeting.
+
+It is purely due to no blood-feuds existing among themselves that they
+have succeeded in holding their own against the Mahommedans by whom they
+are hemmed in on all sides. They have nothing in common with them, and,
+in fact, are incessantly engaged in petty warfare with the Mahommedans.
+They are exceedingly well disposed towards the British: I may venture
+further and state that they would not hesitate to place their services,
+should occasion require, at our disposal, and steps might be taken to
+secure this. Slavery exists to a certain extent amongst them; this
+nefarious trade, however, would fall through if slaves did not command
+so ready a sale at Jalalabad, Kunar, Asmar, and Chitral. Polygamy is
+the exception and not the rule; for infidelity on the part of a wife,
+mild corporal punishment is inflicted, and a fine of half-a-dozen or
+more heads of cattle imposed, according to the wealth of the male
+offender. The dead are not buried, but put into coffins and deposited
+either in an unfrequented spot on a hill-side, or carried to a sort of
+cemetery and there left, the coffins being in neither case interred.
+I visited one of these cemeteries, and saw over a hundred coffins in
+different stages of decay; resting against the heads of some of these
+I noticed carved wooden figures of both sexes, and was told that this
+was an honour conferred only on persons of rank and note. As regards
+their religion, one Supreme Being (Imbra) is universally acknowledged.
+Priests preside at their temples, in which stones are set up, but
+to neither priests nor idols is undue reverence paid. Unforeseen
+occurrences are attributed to evil spirits, in whose existence they
+firmly believe, giving no credit to a spirit for good.
+
+I have noticed that several mention the Kafirs as being great
+wine-bibbers. The beverage brought to me on several occasions nothing
+more nor less than the pure grape-juice, neither fermented nor
+distilled, but in its simple form. During the season, the fruit, which
+grows in great abundance, is gathered, the juice pressed out, and put
+into jars either of wood or earthenware, and placed underground for
+future use. I obtained some, which I put into a bottle for the purpose
+of bringing away, but after it had been exposed to the air a short time
+it turned into a sort of vinegar. To the Kafir chief who took me in I
+offered some whisky, and poured about half a wine-glass into a small
+Peshawar cup, but before I had time to add water to it, the chief had
+swallowed the pure spirit. I shall never forget the expression depicted
+on his countenance. After a while all he could give utterance to was,
+"We have nothing so strong."
+
+Their arms consist merely of bows and arrows and daggers; a few
+matchlocks of Kabul manufacture have found their way into the country,
+but no attempts have been made to imitate them. At a distance of about
+50 yards, with their bows and arrows they seldom fail to hit an object
+smaller than a man. The string of the bow is made of gut. Their wealth
+is reckoned by the number of heads of cattle (goats, sheep, and cows)
+they possess. There are eighteen chiefs in all; selection is made for
+deeds of bravery, some allowance also being made for hereditary
+descent. Wheat is their staple food, and with the juice of the grape
+they make a kind of bread, which is eaten toasted, and is not then
+unlike a Christmas plum-pudding.
+
+To resume the narrative: once again, unaccompanied by my two friends, I
+left Chitral on the morning of May 23rd, and struck off from Urguch,
+spending the first night at Balankaru, in the Rumbur Valley. The people
+are the Kalash section of the Kafirs, inferior in appearance, manner,
+and disposition to their neighbours situated westwards; they pay a small
+tribute in kind to Chitral, and are allowed to retain their own manners
+and customs. To Daras Karu, in the Bamburath Vale, famed for its pears,
+I next proceeded; here also are Kalash Kafirs, and some Bashgali
+settlers. The valley is very narrow, and the cultivation restricted
+principally to terraced fields on the hill-slopes. Kakar was the next
+march; beyond it no trace of habitation. After a short stay we proceeded
+up the valley till dusk, and spent the first part of the night under
+some rocks. All beyond was snow, interminable snow. Starting at midnight
+for the head of the pass (the difference in elevation between our
+night's encampment and the crest was 7,000 feet) it took us an hour to
+do every thousand perpendicular feet. The view on the Kotal as the sun
+was rising was a sight never to be forgotten; near and around us the
+hills clad in white with different tinges of red showing, and clouds
+rising in fantastic shapes, and disclosing to view the blue and purple
+of the distant and lower ranges. I was very fortunate in having a clear
+morning, as it enabled me to bring my plane-table into great use. As the
+descent was very tedious, owing to the upper crust of the snow having
+melted under the rays of the morning sun, we decided on adopting a
+sort of "tobogging" system by sitting ourselves on the snow, raising
+the feet, at the same time giving the body a reclining position; a
+jerk, and then we were off, following in each other's wake, bringing
+ourselves up every now and again by embedding our feet in the snow.
+By this means we got down almost to the base of the hill in a very
+short time, and on arriving at the Ludhe villages were well received.
+
+Going out was abandoned, but whilst thus inactive so far as going
+about went, my time was spent in examining closely into their manners
+and customs, when an urgent message was brought from the Aman ul
+Mulk, desiring me to return immediately, owing to some unfavourable
+news that was abroad. Thinking of my two friends, whom I had left at
+Chitral, being involved in some difficulties, I hurried back, only to
+learn that the chief had sent for me on the paltry excuse of having
+heard that the chief of Asmar and the Kafirs had begun their annual
+quarrels. So once again was another opportunity of penetrating further
+frustrated. During my absence on this trip that arch-fiend Rahat Shah
+had arrived at Chitral from India. As he has quite the ear of the
+ruler, all further chances of our getting on in the may of exploring
+were at an end, and so we decided on returning to India _via_ Kashmir.
+In return for the presents we had given Aman ul Mulk when we first
+arrived at Chitral, he gave us others, and immediately threw every
+obstacle in his power to prevent our getting away, and it was only on
+refusing to accept his presents that we were supplied with carriers.
+
+Starting on the 5th of June, on the fourth day we arrived at Drasan
+(6,637 feet). The fort of Drasan commands the entrance to the Turikho
+and Tirach valleys, whose waters meet a few miles north-west of the
+fort. Both these valleys are very fertile; in the latter one, and just
+before its junction with the former, are several yellow arsenic mines,
+but the working of these is not encouraged by the present ruler. Gold
+also, I was told, is to be found in the streams about Chitral; this
+statement proved correct, as I was able to work up some with the aid of
+mercury, and on having the ore tested by a goldsmith's firm in India,
+it was pronounced by them to be 21 carat; but this washing is seldom
+permitted, the reason assigned by the chief being that if once it were
+known that Chitral produced gold, his country would be lost to him.
+
+Mastuj (elevation 7,289 feet) is on the main or Chitral stream, and
+commands the entrance to the Laspur Valley, which leads more directly
+to Gilgit _via_ Gupis and Gakuch, and was the route traversed by Major
+Biddulph. On reaching Gazan, we left the main route and followed up the
+smaller one along a stream taking its rise at the Tui Pass (14,812
+feet). The ascent to it is easy, but the descent exceedingly difficult,
+a nasty piece of glacier having to be traversed, over which we were
+unfortunate enough to lose two horses, and had several of our followers
+severely frost-bitten about the feet. Two marches further and Gilgit
+was reached, and from there in eleven double marches we arrived at
+Srinagar, where my disguise was thrown off. To dwell on these last
+stages of our journey would be merely repeating what has been so ably
+handled by such authorities as Drew, Tanner, and Biddulph.
+
+In conclusion, I would here record that whatever success has attended
+this undertaking is due in a great measure to my faithful companions
+and allies, Hosein Shah, Sahib Gul, and the Saiad.
+
+The following discussion ensued on the reading of the above paper:--
+
+Colonel Yule said he had for thirty or forty years looked with intense
+interest at the dark spot of Kafiristan on the map of Asia, and had
+therefore listened with great pleasure to Mr. McNair's modest account of
+one of the most adventurous journeys that had ever been described before
+the Society. Twenty or twenty-four years ago we had nothing but the
+vaguest knowledge of Kafiristan, but the country had been gradually
+opened out by General Walker and Colonel Montgomery's pundits in
+disguise. Foreign geographers had sometimes cast it in the teeth of
+Englishmen that their discoveries beyond the frontiers of India had been
+made vicariously, but in this case it was an Englishman who had performed
+the journey. He believed he was right in saying that no Englishman before
+Mr. McNair had ever visited the Swat Valley. It was now inhabited by a
+most inhospitable race, who had become Afghanised, but rumours had often
+been heard about the Buddhist there. Eighteen or twenty centuries ago it
+was one of the most sacred spots of Buddhism, filled with Buddhist
+monasteries and temples, but, as far as he knew, no European except Mr.
+McNair had ever seen those remains. If further explorations were carried
+out there probably most interesting discoveries would result. Passing on
+to the Panjkhora river and to Dir, there was very little doubt that those
+valleys were the scene of some of Alexander's exploits on his way to
+India. Many scholars supposed that Dir was one of the fortresses which
+Alexander took, and incidentally the place was mentioned by Marco Polo as
+the route of a Mongol horde from Badakshan into Kashmir. He believed that
+the earliest distinct notice of the Kafirs was the account of the country
+being invaded by Timour on his march to India. When he arrived at Andarab
+he received complaints by the Mussulman villagers of the manner in which
+they were harassed by the infidels, and a description was given of how
+the great Ameer himself was slid down snow slopes in a sort of toboggin
+of wickerwork. He captured some of the Kafir forts, but could not
+penetrate into the country. After that very little mention was made of
+them in history, till Major Rennell referred to them in his great memoir
+on the map of Hindostan, and Mountstuart Elphinstone, who, the Afghans
+used to say, could see on the other side of a hill. He always seemed able
+to collect items of knowledge which further research proved to be
+correct. He (Colonel Yule) rejoiced that had lived to see Kafiristan
+partially revealed by an Englishman and not by a Russian.
+
+Dr. Leitner said it was well that travellers, however naturally
+accurate in their observations, should submit their results to the
+criticism of learned societies, for, after all it was in such centres
+that information from various quarters could be best collected, sifted,
+and compared. The task of a pioneer is proverbially ungrateful, but he
+is sufficiently rewarded if he collects facts for the examination of
+scholars, and if some of these facts stand that test. On the other
+hand, it was essential that, as a rule, no one should be sent out on a
+geographical, anthropological, or ethnographical mission who was not
+something of a linguist or who was not accompanied by a linguist, and
+who had not given proof of sympathy with alien races. Hayward fell a
+victim as much to his temper as to the greed and treachery of Mir Wali,
+whom he had insulted. An Arabic proverb says that "the traveller even
+when he sees is blind," and if, in addition to this artificial
+blindness, he is practically both deaf and dumb owing to his ignorance
+of the language of the people among whom he moves, it is almost certain
+that he will make many mistakes, if not insure failure. Now few results
+are apt to be more delusive than a mere collection of words, or even of
+short sentences. The instances of "a dead policeman" as a Non-aryan
+equivalent for the abstract term "death" which the inquirer wanted; of
+the rejoinder of "what do you want?" for the repeated outstretching of
+the "middle finger," a special term for which was sought, and numerous
+other mistakes, are often perfectly avoidable, and it was therefore
+desirable that the traveller, armed with an inexhaustible patience,
+should not content himself with a collection of words, but also add the
+sentences in which they occur, and, if possible, also collect fables,
+songs, and legends. The process in dealing with a race whose language
+one does not know at all is more difficult, but, even in initial
+stages, the procedure of pointing to objects that are required will not
+only generally give their native equivalents, but will also elicit the
+orders or imperatives for these objects being brought, whilst the use
+of these imperatives by the traveller will often elicit the indicative
+or future in the assent or dissent of those to whom the imperatives are
+addressed, or else an ejaculatory affirmative or negative. The early
+training in, at least, two languages will also enable the inquirer to
+discriminate between the substance of a fact or thought, if he might
+use such a term, and the sound that represents it, for, if he has only
+studied his own language early in life, he will never be able to
+emancipate himself completely from the confusion which is naturally
+engendered between the idea and his special manner of expressing it.
+Adaptation, again, even more than translation, is what is required, and
+in order that the adaptation, should be practised successfully,
+geographical inquiry cannot be altogether dissociated from philology,
+nor can philology be dissociated, as it so often is, from ethnography,
+history, and anthropology, which throw either a full light or at least
+a side-light or half-light on linguistic problems, as has been pointed
+out by Dr. Abel. The gestures too of a race are of importance in
+eliciting correct information, for it is obvious that where, on rugged
+mountain sides, ascent or descent can only be practised by the aid of
+the hands as well as of the feet, the terms for "up" and "down" may be
+significant of surrounding topography, just as, to reverse the
+argument, where many meet only to fight, the putting of the fingers of
+both hands together will mean "collision," instead of its being the
+more usual sign for "multitude," or the limit of computation which a
+savage race may have reached. Finally, in this age of subdivision of
+labour on a basis of general knowledge, the present practice of
+explorers working separately without the co-operation of colleagues in
+the same or kindred branches, and sometimes even without a knowledge of
+the material that already exists, should be discouraged. The first step
+to be taken is the compilation of travellers' handbooks, dialogues, and
+vocabularies for the various districts of the so-called "neutral zone,"
+so as to give to these travellers the key of information and to the
+sympathy of the people, and our Government of India especially might
+with advantage steadily collect both old and new information, not at
+the time _when_, but long _before_, an emergency arises, so that it may
+be dealt with by a wealth of knowledge when it does arise. Had this
+view obtained when the "poor relatives of the European" were seen by
+Sale, Macnaghten, Wood, and others, thousands of Kafir men and women
+would not have been carried into slavery by the Afghans, hundreds of
+Kafir villages would not have been destroyed, and the area of Kafir
+traditions would not have been both corrupted and narrowed by the
+broadening of the belt of "Nimchas," or converted Kafirs, which so
+increases the difficulties of an exhaustive inquiry into at least the
+_past_ of an interesting race. Above all should we have had a faithful
+ally in our operations against Kabul, for even as it was, the tardy
+knowledge of that war by the Kafirs sufficed to bring thousands into
+the field ready to be let loose on their hereditary foe, whilst it put
+a stop, at any rate temporarily, to the internecine feuds, which, as
+much as Muslim encroachments, reduced the number of Kafirs. He hoped
+that the visit of Mr. McNair and of the native Christian missionaries
+recently in Kafiristan, might be another step towards the future union
+and civilisation of a race that, whether in part descended from the
+colonies planted by Alexander the Great or not, should no longer be
+treated as "poor relatives" by their European brethren, for whom the
+interposition of friendly and vigorous tribes of mountaineers, along
+with the Dards with whom they have so much in common, between the
+British and Russian possessions in Asia, cannot fail to be an advantage
+in the interests of peace. As to the various routes to and through
+Kafiristan, he would add nothing to-night to what had been so ably
+stated, but as regards the languages, he could not forbear mentioning
+that there are at least five distinct dialects spoken by the tribes,
+which differ as much as Italian does from French, if not from German,
+although based on Aryan roots common to them all. Their religious
+beliefs and customs also show great divergencies as well as
+similarities. The members of various Kafir and kindred tribes, of whom
+he submitted a few photographs to the meeting, and whose measurements
+have been taken, have supplied an amount of information which may be
+laid before the Society in due course, along with, he hoped, a very
+full account of a neighbouring race that is anthropologically and
+linguistically perhaps even more interesting than the Kafirs, who are
+mainly Dards; he meant the people of Hunza (Hun-land?), who language
+is, if not a prehistoric remnant, at any rate like no other that has
+hitherto been discovered, in which the pronouns form an inseparable
+part of numerous substantives and verbs, and in which gutturals are
+still in a state of transition to vowels. This people practise a code
+of religion and of quaint immorals fortunately confined to themselves,
+but which is not without some bearing on the question of the "Mahdi,"
+now giving us some trouble in Africa. As some Kafirs call themselves
+"Kureishis," wnich favours a Shia notion in opposition to their Sunni
+persecutors, he might incidentally observe that the expectation of a
+"Mahdi" is a singular importation of a Shia notion, not entirely
+without our aid, into the orthodox Sunni Mahommedan world, which has so
+long been content with the _de jure_ Khalifa, the Sultan, belonging to
+the category of "imperfect" Khalifas, as a chief and representative who
+is admittedly a "defender of the faith" only so long as he has power to
+enforce his decrees and is accepted by the general _consensus_ of the
+faithful, the very essence of Sunni-ism, the "al-sunnat wa jamaat".
+This view is in bold contradiction to the _hereditary_ principle,
+represented, by the "Mahdi" of the "Imam's" descent from the Kureish
+tribe of Arabia, which caused the very separation of the Shia sect from
+the Sunnis, which is the very essence of Shia belief, and which has
+among other fictions, led to the assumption of the name of "Kureishi"
+by some of the Kafirs.
+
+Sir Henry Rawlingson was glad of the opportunity of expressing his high
+appreciation of the value of Mr. McNair's exploration. His journey was
+not a mere holiday trip, or an every-day reconnaissance survey; on the
+contrary, it was a serious undertaking, and opened up what he (Sir
+Henry), for twenty years had maintained to be the great natural
+highroad from India to Central Asia. The route to the north of the
+Kabul river and along the Chitral Valley was by far the most direct and
+the easiest line of communication between, the Punjab and the upper
+valley of the Oxus; and although native explorers had, as Colonel Yule
+had observed, already traversed the route and brought back a good-deal
+of general information concerning it, Mr. McNair was the first European
+who had ever crossed the Hindu Kush upon this line, or had gained such
+an acquaintance with the different ranges as would enable geographers
+to map the country scientifically, and delineate its physical features.
+The seal which Mr. McNair had exhibited to the meeting was of
+Babylonian workmanship, and although relics of the same class were of
+no great rarity in Persia and Mesopotamia, it was a curious
+circumstance to find one in such a remote locality as the Swat Valley,
+and could only be explained by supposing it to have belonged to one of
+Alexander's soldiers who brought it from Babylon. Eldred Pottinger had
+found a similar relic at Oba on his journey through the mountains from
+Herat to Kabul. The tradition in the country had always been that the
+Kafirs whom Mr. McNair visited, were descended from Alexander's
+soldiers; but there was not in reality the slightest foundation for
+such a belief. Neither in language nor religion, nor manners and
+customs, was there the least analogy between the Kafirs and Greeks. The
+various dialects spoken by the tribes of the Hindu Kush, including the
+Kafir tongues, were all of the Perso-Indian branch of the Aryan family,
+and showed that the mountains must have been colonised during the
+successive migrations of the Aryan tribes from Central Asia to the
+southward. It might perhaps be possible some day to affiliate the
+various tribes, when the vocabularies had all been collected and
+compared by a good philological scholar, but at present there was much
+uncertainty on the subject. Colonel Yule had expressed his pride and
+satisfaction at Mr. McNair's success, and had congratulated the Society
+on the great feat of exploring Kafiristan for the first time having
+been accomplished by an English rather than by a Russian geographer. He
+(Sir Henry) would furnish a further source of gratulation by remarking
+on the fact that on the very day when Mr. McNair had related to the
+meeting the incidents of his most remarkable journey, intelligence had
+been received from the Indian frontier of another surprising
+geographical feat having been achieved by a British officer who was
+already well known to the Society, and who was, in fact, the chief of
+the department to which Mr. McNair belonged. He alluded to the
+successful ascent of the great mountain of Takht-i-Suliman, overlooking
+the Indus Valley, by Major Holdich, of the Indian Survey Department.
+This mountain, from its inaccessible position beyond our frontier, and
+in the midst of lawless Afghan tribes, had long been the despair of
+geographers, but Major Holdich with a small survey party had at length
+succeeded in ascending it, and was said to have triangulated from its
+summit over an area of 50,000 square miles. The Survey Department might
+well be proud of holding in its ranks two such adventurous and
+accomplished explorers as Major Holdich and Mr. McNair. The President
+said that Mr. McNair agreed with Sir Henry Rawlinson that the route he
+had described would undoubtedly be the best into Central Asia, but the
+account of the journey did not inspire him (the President) with any
+confidence as to immediate results in the future. Mr. McNair had to
+disguise himself as a Mahommedan who was acceptable to the Kafirs, and
+it did not appear that he had in any way facilitated the entrance into
+the country of any one who could not conceal his nationality. The
+reports, famished by native explorers sent from India, had, however,
+been fully established by Mr. McNair, and it would therefore appear
+that the best way of solving the problem was to send educated natives
+into Kafiristan. He was sure the meeting would heartily join in giving
+a vote of thanks to Mr. McNair for his interesting paper.
+
+It will be noticed by those who read the paper closely flow remarkably
+absent from it are all allusions to personal experiences, such as
+fatigue, weariness, physical discomfort, sense of disappointment, or
+other of the necessary incidents of so toilsome an effort and long
+sacrifice. As was the character of the man, so is his paper, simple,
+direct, without any of the exaggerations of peculiar features in the
+exploration or rhetorical artifices of description to enhance the
+effect of the discoveries of the traveller, and with an entire
+suppression of himself. For all that appears in the paper, he might
+have been engaged in the most enjoyable pursuit, free from all personal
+risk or daily discomfort.
+
+I desire to testify rather to what I knew of the man himself during a
+close friendship of over eighteen years.
+
+In youth he was very ardent and affectionate, but as he advanced in
+years the hardships of his life and the long periods of solitude he
+passed through seemed to mellow the natural demonstrativeness of his
+nature, and he appeared to me to have suffered that chastening which
+all men derive as their blessed portion from communion with Nature in
+her loving and silent moods; the very ruggedness of mountain solitudes
+speaking to the heart of man with a solemnity no tongue can reach. A
+subtle writer in the London _Spectator_ of the 14th September last, in
+the course of an article on "Clouds," has attempted to describe the
+idealising lesson of her works to the spirit of man as "the tranquil
+rhythm of this fair Nature, the hurrying throb of the human interests
+it measures, there is the eternal poem of human life." In this wise, a
+subdued sweetness in William McNair's nature remained, which was a
+transfiguration of his ardent, buoyant, somewhat impulsive early
+manhood.
+
+On the cricket-field he was in his heartiest element. Men would make a
+scratch team at the sound of his voice, just to be led by him as
+captain. No mean field or batsman, he excelled in bowling. His resource
+in taking wickets was only equalled by the good temper with which
+adversaries walked away from the field with their bats after that
+terrible McNair had done for their score, or their hopes of one. I have
+seen him demoralise a whole team by the way in which he would take
+wicket after wicket, within an hour, by the artful way in which he
+adapted the style of his bowling to the character of the man who fenced
+him at the wicket. Boys were simply enamoured of him, for, by that
+instinct which never fails the young, he won their heartfelt devotion
+by his quick discernment of the weaknesses and proclivities of all the
+young with whom he ever came in contact. I have seen my youngest son--a
+lad of eleven--after years of separation from him, when the boy met him
+in London, in 1884, nestle on his knee quite spontaneously, to listen
+to some of his Kafiristan exploits not touched on in his paper. His
+beaming, manly laugh of amusement and tender compassion over the boy's
+simplicity when asked by my ingenuous lad why he did not kill a lot of
+those fellows during those days of danger, I fancy I see while I write.
+Indeed, this keen participation in the nature and delights of the young
+was the secret of his success during the Kafiristan exploration. It was
+the touchstone of his sympathy with the various barbaric tribes with
+whom he had to come in contact, and whose nature he did not require to
+learn, for he had already sounded all that was human in its touching
+variety. Love and sympathy for man as man, could alone give this
+knowledge and furnish this magic key to hearts in wilds unknown. No
+human system of mental training could ever do it. In this connection I
+smile somewhat at Dr. Leitner's profound German dialectic in the
+discussion on the paper read by McNair over the preliminary preparation
+in language and terms required by an explorer to do his work
+effectively. Where man is equipped by that instinctive faculty of
+accommodating himself to the men of all nations with their physical
+attributes and surroundings, I think he may dispense, in a large
+measure, with the science of language as an open sesame. Nature has her
+own methods.
+
+This being more in the nature of a memoir purely personal in its
+details, giving the characteristics of the man who performed an exploit
+deemed by the Royal Geographical Society worthy of the Murchison Grant,
+I may be pardoned for adding a few private particulars of the events
+leading to the death of one so young, and whose career was so full of
+promise at its earthly close.
+
+During the summer of the year 1888, McNair met with a very serious
+horse accident, one, indeed, that might with complete natural sequence
+have terminated his life on the spot. The vicious horse of a friend he
+was riding to tame the brute (for he was a skilful horseman as well as
+good at sports), reared and fell over on him. By the display of
+personal alacrity he managed to avoid vital injuries, but sufficient of
+the animal's body came on his own to render it necessary that he should
+be carried home in a "jhampan," or Sedan chair, used in the mountain
+sanitaria of India for the conveyance of ladies. A friend's house in
+the neighbourhood of the spot where the accident occurred was of great
+use in restoring him somewhat from the effects of the accident. The
+kind friends who helped him to undertake the journey to his house,
+about a mile distant (carried in this way on men's shoulders), did Mr.
+McNair one of those services for which India is renowned as a land of
+friendly help. The injuries sustained internally nevertheless kept the
+patient in bed for a month, and the nursing of a mother and sister
+brought him round sufficiently to enable him to do his work as usual to
+all appearance. During the ensuing winter he had very hard work, which
+involved much exposure, and he suffered exceedingly from the effects of
+that accident. Immediately after he felt indisposition of any kind he
+complained of a return of the pains due to the accident, and there can
+be but little doubt that the inward injuries then sustained had left
+their mark, though nominally healed. 1888-9 was a severe winter in the
+mountain regions of our frontier, and a letter I had from McNair in
+April, 1889 (the last letter I ever received from him), gave some
+description of the vicissitudes of temperature he had to undergo. I
+give the letter in his own words in the Appendix, as a facsimile of his
+handwriting, to show how precise a hand he wrote, and as a memento of
+himself which some of his many friends might wish to cherish, for I
+believe that in many respects handwriting bears marked characteristics
+of the qualities of the individual. Here I will only extract the
+following description of the trials my friend had to undergo in the
+matter of temperature. In camp, away from Quetta and all means of
+procuring supplies on the spot, he writes under date the 2nd of April,
+1889: "For the past fortnight I have had a rough time of it with rain,
+wind, and haze. Since yesterday there has been a change for the better,
+so now I hope to push along with my observations. Just at present I am
+in a low valley, and consequently the heat is somewhat trying, but in
+another fortnight I expect I shall be complaining of it being a _little
+bit_ too cold, at an elevation of 10,000 and odd. I have little or no
+news to give, as it is now some time since I saw a pale face, but
+somehow or another solitude has its charms for me." The writer of that
+letter soon after applied for three months' leave, having experienced
+broken health for some time previously, in constant returns of fever,
+but owing to the delay that occurs in getting post letters despatched
+from the frontier away from posting stations, and the circumlocution
+which is a feature in all great departments of State, McNair did not
+get his leave sanctioned till sometime in July, 1889, and he was not
+able to start from Quetta for his mountain home in Mussooree, a
+distance of several days' trying journey, until the early days of
+August. The fond hearts of a mother and sister that awaited him there
+had no knowledge of the dangerous character of the fever from which he
+had been suffering for nearly a fortnight before he started from
+Quetta.
+
+Within a very few days after his arrival at Mussooree, the doctors held
+a consultation over his case, as the fever could not be subdued by any
+treatment tried, and then the truth that it was typhoid had to be
+acknowledged. All that medical skill and affectionate nursing of
+devoted relatives, friends, and a qualified nurse, could do towards
+saving the patient was done, and hopes were entertained of recovery
+till almost the last; but three days before the fatal end, hemorrhage
+of the intestines set in, and then the medical attendants despaired.
+McNair himself spoke soon after his arrival at Mussooree of the hour of
+separation having come, and asked for his brother George. The
+suddenness of the end gave all his friends a painful shock, for many
+had not even heard that he was dangerously ill; and, as to the
+relatives, silent consternation for the moment are the only words that
+can adequately describe their desolation and sorrow. A fervently
+attached younger brother George, a popular member of the well-known
+firm of Messrs. Morgan and Company, the solicitors for the East Indian
+Railway Company, hurried up from Calcutta, on a telegram to join his
+family at Mussooree, but when he left he did not know of his brother's
+death. It was only when he reached the foot of the mountains, at a
+place called "Rajpore," within two hours' ride of Mussooree, where he
+inquired of the hotel manager if any recent news had been received of
+his brother's condition, that he got news not only of his brother's
+death, but of his burial. The railway journey from Calcutta to
+Mussooree is a long one of about a thousand miles; but Indian Railways,
+travelling even at express speed, do not exceed twenty-five miles an
+hour. The sympathy experienced by the sorrowing family from near and
+distant friends was beyond mere conventional words of condolence. I
+have it, from the members of the family themselves, that they were
+comforted in a very real and essential manner by the tender and
+extremely touching devotion of their friends, the depth of whose regard
+was then for the first time in many cases discovered. Rising above and
+beyond this general sympathy, two proofs came with a binding and
+enduring force that mark them out for special mention. They typify the
+two extremes of human life and the complexity of human relations. On
+the one hand there was the perfect knowledge of every detail of daily
+life and sacrifice, and the loyalty and enthusiasm that made such a
+life possible, which _sharing_ a life to the full means. On the other,
+there was the tender reverence bred of looking up to something that
+seemed better and higher than the common lot of men. The two extremes I
+refer to were centered in the man who had most scientific knowledge of
+William McNair's worth, and the closest sympathy with his life, namely,
+Colonel Holdich, of the Royal Engineers, under whom McNair served, and
+for whom I know McNair had the highest admiration and the warmest
+personal regard, and native subordinates McNair had under him, who
+loved as only Asiatics can love Europeans whom they revere. An intrepid
+explorer himself, _vide_ the announcement made regarding Colonel
+Holdich by Sir Henry Rawlinson at the close of the discussion on the
+paper read by McNair, Colonel Holdich has added year by year to his
+many signal scientific services rendered to the Indian Government; and
+recently he has added to his many accomplishments the rarer merit among
+men of that love of worth in others, which culminates in human
+brotherhood. His words of appropriate Oriental metaphor, in writing to
+the family, that his sense of personal loss in the man with whom he had
+for years, in the wildest solitudes and the most prolonged hardships,
+eaten "bread and salt" together, made it difficult for him to say all
+he felt, were emphasised by the human grief he could not repress at the
+funeral; where, owing to the suddenness with which everything had
+happened, he was indeed the "chief mourner"--in touching emotion that
+bore witness to the depth and susceptibility of the man's noble nature.
+The other testimony, which kindled great comfort in the desolate
+household, came from the scene of McNair's latest exploit, far away, at
+and near Quetta, when his native companions and friends heard of his
+death. The grief felt was so profound, that it seemed irreparable to
+the men who mourned their beloved friend, as the leader who was also
+their constant companion, and always cheerful with them under every
+adversity. The Oriental may be unappreciated by the Saxon till the
+latter knows the sentimental side of every Asiatic character, but then
+the floodgates of human sympathy are opened, and the very counterpart
+of characteristics and qualities exhibited by Saxon and Asiatic,
+conduce and contribute to a closer and more romantic union between
+them. It is on the principle which Bagehot so profoundly illustrated
+when he said that no age is just to the age immediately preceding it,
+because of their similarity and proximity. The appreciation of Colonel
+Holdich for his valued coadjutor and the executant of many of his plans
+was based on the contrary principle acutely observed on by George Henry
+Lewes, when he remarked that surprise, like appreciation, can only have
+for foundation of any worth, a background of close observation and
+exact perception.
+
+I state the simple truth when I record that the testimonies, received
+in this way from the two extremes of highest knowledge and most diverse
+social and national conditions, remain the most grateful and enduring
+memorials of a life's work to those who must ever cherish the memory of
+what this memoir is precluded from touching on, namely, the more sacred
+domestic endearments of the life-long devotion to family ties of a son
+and a brother. This much I may be permitted to reveal without any
+intrusion on the hallowed reserves of the family circle. A more united
+or more tenderly-knit family, of strong religious feeling, I have never
+known. I had the privilege twenty-one years ago, of knowing a younger
+brother of the deceased, named John, who in less than three years
+attained to an honoured position in the Finance Department of the
+Indian Government. He was preternaturally grave and philanthrophic, and
+died at the age of a youth in England (I think he was not 23 years old)
+of small-pox contracted at Lahore, in the Punjab, where he was
+stationed at the time. He had for some time, although but a lad in
+years, spent his leisure hours in attending the hospital, and reading
+to sick soldiers, where it is believed he contracted the disease. Of
+the living, conventional usage forbids all mention, but I have deemed
+it right to reproduce as appendices to this skeleton and imperfect
+memoir the notices that appeared in the principal Indian papers of
+William McNair's death, as also the obituary notices taken from the
+proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for October and November,
+1889.
+
+The extract reprinted from the _Pioneer_ editorial gives the most
+complete and faithful description of Mr. McNair's achievements during a
+too brief day of usefulness. Portions of that editorial need a passing
+word so far as the subject of this memoir is concerned. With regard to
+the disapproval of the Indian Government of McNair's venture in
+entering Kafiristan without the permission of his Government, I never
+heard a word from his lips by way of complaint, although no doubt the
+paper accurately describes the facts.
+
+Nor did I ever hear a syllable from the brave, unselfish man of
+disappointment at the way in which his worldly prospects were never
+advanced in the slightest by the nobly adventurous work he had done. By
+nature he was too bent on doing the work in hand to theorise about
+anything. By character he was too loftily absorbed in loyalty and
+reverence for the law of obedience as a root-principle of his life, to
+deplore any want of appreciation of his worth on the part of the
+Government which he had so loyally served. It is true, as the "Pioneer"
+points out, that on the Russian side such a man would have had honours
+and distinctions showered upon him. He would have been dragged out of
+his retirement and made to feel he was the favourite of the monarch,
+for the risk to life he had undertaken in spontaneous devotion to the
+State. Not only is such warmth and enthusiasm not the English method,
+but the Indian Government is a huge machine which goes grinding on in
+its mechanical way, and is besides, a bureaucracy which has a good deal
+of pride in regarding any new departure as a dangerous token of
+disrespect to its old and consecrated tradition of simple obedience to
+written orders and codified instructions. The highest originality is
+smothered in a secretariat as its fitting cabinet. McNair knew these
+attributes of the Indian Government, and never troubled his head about
+preferment or official promotion. It is said he was on the eve of it,
+and the State is believed to somewhat deplore the loss of an
+opportunity for rewarding a servant it prized, doubtless, in its own
+dull, routine sort of way. But he is now beyond earthly rewards or
+distinctions, and neither the praise nor the blame of men can touch
+him. In life he was very sensitive to kindness or coldness, but he was
+of too masculine a fibre to allow the natural sweetness and contentment
+of his disposition to be alloyed or marred by any such influence from
+without. He loved his work for its own sake. It became his sole
+occupation and serious aim in life. He deplores the weather in his very
+last letter to me, most characteristically, because it interfered with
+his "observations," which, with "the change" he hoped for and partly
+realized, he would "_push_ along."
+
+The epithet describes the simple, practical side of his character. His
+later love of solitude was the natural outcome of that closer contact
+with nature which made to him a living daily reality the command, "Thou
+shalt have no other gods but Me." His last hours were ministered to
+faithfully by a chaplain of the English Church in Mussooree. The
+religious life of the family resigned itself speedily to that sovereign
+will of heaven which means to all who have tasted of its majesty and
+glory, and have seen glimpses of the wisdom and foresight that put
+man's desires to shame, the submission of heart and mind in all their
+integrity. Nay, more, as one from that inner circle very beautifully
+put it in a letter to the writer of this memoir, "It was 'infinite
+love' alone that permitted his return to us to die, surrounded by our
+love," and in a lovely mountain region where for many years he spent
+his annual summer and autumn "recess," working out the results of the
+observations made during the rough winter's campaign, he lies buried
+near the home of his loved ones. There the eternal stars give a more
+brilliant light to the pure air surrounding his last resting place, and
+the solemn pines and firs pointing heavenwards with their venerable age
+and sighing their constant hymn give an everlasting pathos to the story
+of man's day on earth. The hill sides, terraced into beds of
+flowers--many wild and more cultivated, especially dahlias, which grow
+in great luxuriance and richness of colour in the hills of India--form
+the beautiful ground-work of an Indian cemetery in a sanitarium like
+Mussooree. On that spot, as it lies, the visitor will behold on one
+side, to the south, the dark shadow of a mountain elevation, called the
+"Camel's Back," by reason of its shape and sheer projection upwards,
+typifying the wall of human sense at sight of death; and on the other
+he will look out upon the ever-changing, though distant line of
+perpetual snow. The snow view in India, on mountain regions, is beyond
+description. No word-painting could give an idea of it; and few artists
+have been able to reproduce the magical effects of sunrise and sunset
+on the snows during the varying seasons of the year. The roseate tints
+of dawn blush on their peaks till they become a flame, and pale into
+iciest marble; and the evening splendours of purple and violet and
+death-like blue are the phantasmagoria which no human hand has ever
+made a living picture. Like the human life, it grows into beauty,
+coruscates, and then passes into darkness.
+
+Looked at from the purely materialistic side, doubtless, the lives of
+men are mere seaweed thrown up by the mighty ocean of Creation on the
+shores of Time. But from the Christian's higher standpoint, the broken
+arc is made a magic circle on the side we cannot see.
+
+_There_, let us trust, all lives which seem to us to have snapped
+asunder here, in imperfect fruition of bright promise, may find their
+perfect fulfilment of desire. As Faber poetically says:--"Death, after
+all, is a darkening and disappearance of those we love, and we must be
+content to take it so. It is only a question of more or less, where the
+darkness shall begin, and what it shall eclipse first. To the others
+who have loved the dying, and have gone before him, it is not a
+darkening, but a dawning. Perhaps to them it is the brightest dawn when
+it has been the most opaque and colourless sunset on the side of the
+earth." Or as Keble, with divine humility of richest spiritual
+imaginativeness, expresses it--
+
+"Ever the richest tenderest glow
+  Sets round the autumnal sun--
+But there sight fails: no heart may know
+  The bliss when life is done."
+
+J.E.H.
+
+20, Earl's Court Square, South Kensington, London,
+October 20th, 1889.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE DELHI GAZETTE," _August 19th_, 1889.
+
+A LIFE OF PROMISE ABRUPTLY ENDED.--It was with feelings of deep sorrow
+that we read in _The Pioneer_ of Friday last the death notice of Mr.
+William McNair, the Kafiristan explorer. A man singularly frank and
+genial, he was 33 years of age when he undertook the venture that won
+for him the medal and fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society
+which were conferred in 1884. In that year he had the satisfaction of
+lecturing before British audiences on the results of his travels, and
+as it was the first time he had visited the land of his fathers the
+pleasure of seeing the old country under circumstances so honourable to
+himself was doubly keen.
+
+The story of his adventures may be briefly told. Every one knows that
+the Government of India issued strict injunctions against allowing any
+European to cross the Afghan frontier. Nevertheless that restless
+spirit Sir Charles McGregor, Quartermaster-General, was naturally
+anxious to know something of the debateable land that lies north of the
+Kabul river and south of the Hindoo Koosh, and which tradition alleges
+to have been colonised by the soldiers of the Great Alexander himself.
+We have no doubt, that McGregor prompted the enterprise, though McNair
+never distinctly said that he had been urged by so high an officer to
+break the orders of his official superiors. The affair was arranged in
+this way. McNair took furlough, and ceased for the moment to be a
+servant of Government. He disappeared across the frontier and was not
+heard of again till his safe return was assured. Of course he had
+confederates; one in particular, a tribal chief whose friendship he had
+secured in the Afghan campaigns of 1878-79. His disguise was, however,
+pretty complete, walnut juice being, we believe, the material that
+converted a florid complexion into the tan so natural to Afghan
+mountaineers. He had the wisdom to confine his words to a language he
+understood as well as English, viz., Urdu, and posed as a _Hukeem_ from
+India impelled by a spirit of benevolence to visit unknown lands for
+the sake of caring the ailments of his fellew creatures. Had he
+attempted to talk Pushtoo, his foreign intonation would have been
+detected, while his knowledge of that tongue enabled him to detect the
+drift of any conversation that was carried on in his presence. Once, we
+believe, he was in imminent danger, a proposal having been set on foot
+to put an end to the wanderings of the _Hukeem_, as an English spy. A
+rapid change of quarters averted the danger, and he afterwards fell in
+with the people he came to see, viz., the Kafirs, who whether,
+descending from Alexander's Greeks or not, received him kindly. We
+believe the _Hukeem_ was aided in his researches by a big book supposed
+to contain medical receipts, but which was in reality a box of
+surveying instruments, its outside covered with cabalistic signs
+bearing a family resemblance to a plane-table! The _Hukeem_ was much
+given to solitary meditation, and generally sought mountain peaks for
+that purpose. On such occasions the plane-table afforded him invaluable
+assistance.
+
+But we have said almost enough of poor McNair's adventure. On his
+return he was ordered to Simla and officially reprimanded by the
+Viceroy, Lord Ripon, for disobedience of orders! He was consoled,
+however, by being told by the same nobleman at a private interview that
+his pluck was admired, while his fast friend, Sir Charles McGregor,
+received him with open arms. Such was the bright opening of a career
+that was so soon to be cut short at Mussooree by typhoid fever.
+
+McNair was a favourite with both sexes. By the men he was adored on the
+cricket-field, where his bowling was most effective, while the girls,
+who always possess second sight in the way of detecting a good fellow
+when they see him, loved him _en masse_. It may be some consolation to
+the widowed mother now robbed of her darling boy, to know that there
+are heavy hearts in other homes besides her own--the purest tribute
+that can be laid on the grave of one who was a good son as well as a
+gallant explorer.
+
+We note that the fever of which he died was contracted at Quetta.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "The Pioneer," _August 20th,_ 1889.
+
+THE LATE MR. McNAIR.--The lives of some men are so intimately connected
+with certain phases in the general development of knowledge that their
+biographies afford short but useful pages in the history of progress
+which may well be read in connection with more stirring national
+records. Thus it was with the life of a man who quietly passed from the
+subordinate branch of the Survey Department into the land of shadows on
+the 13th of this month at Mussoorie. At the commencement of the year of
+grace 1879, a little over ten years ago, we were groping our way across
+the borderland which separates India from Turkistan, in unhappy
+ignorance of all but two or three partially illustrated lines of
+advance which might land us either at Kabul or Kandahar. Considering
+the vital importance that it always has been to India that at least a
+creditable knowledge of the countries separating her from Russia should
+exist, the geographical mist which enveloped the highlands of
+Afghanistan and the deserts of Baluchistan in 1879 was certainly
+remarkable. It is true that the war of 1839-43 had brought to the front
+one or two notable geographers, amongst whom North, Broadfoot, and
+Durand were conspicuous, but it had also developed a host of inferior
+artists, whose hazy outlines and indefinite sketches tended most
+seriously to obscure the really trustworthy work of better men. More, a
+good deal, was known about Kandahar and Kabul than of our present
+frontier opposite Dera Ismail, or of the passes leading from Bannu
+across the border only a few miles distant. Indeed, so far as that
+frontier was concerned, from Peshawar to Sind, no military knowledge of
+it existed whatever. It is with the gradual evolution of light over
+these dark places that McNair's name is so closely associated. For many
+years previous to the Afghan war he had been making himself thoroughly
+acquainted with modern survey instruments of precision, which are to
+the scientific weapons of our forefathers of fifty years ago what the
+Gatling and Henry-Martini are to the old Brown Bess. He was one of the
+first to grasp the true principles of using the plane-table when rapid
+action is necessary, and right well he turned his knowledge to account.
+It was the advance on Kabul in 1879 that first introduced him to the
+notice of military authorities, and in the course of that year's
+campaign he had added more to our map information than all the
+geographers of the "old" Afghan war put together.
+
+Some of his exploits were remarkable, as for instance when he explored
+the Adrak Badrak pass leading from the Lughman valley to Jugdalak with
+no military escort whatever, trusting only to the tender mercies of an
+"aboriginal" guard. He thus made himself acquainted with every detail
+of the direct road from Kabul, _via_ the Kabul river, to Jalalabad; and
+with him our practical acquaintance with that important route has
+passed away. No sooner had he left Afghanistan than he was attached to
+the frontier party then working in the Kohat district; there he was
+Major Holdich's right-hand man. If there was a specially hard frontier
+nut to be cracked, McNair's powers of assimilating himself to Pathan
+manners, and of winning the confidence of all classes of natives, which
+had already carried him through many a perilous undertaking, were most
+fully utilised for the purpose of cracking it. From Kohat to Dera
+Ismail he was incessantly engaged in quiet little unobtrusive
+excursions (with full political sanction _bien entendu_) which resulted
+in a very complete map of the border, a map which it will be hard to
+supersede. There is one particularly awkward corner of our
+frontier--awkward from a military as well as geographical point of
+view--which thrusts itself forward over the general line into British
+territory, and which can never fail to attract the attention of the
+frontier traveller. This is the rocky fastness of Kafir Koh. From red
+salt hills south of Bahadur Khel the three-headed peak of Kafir Koh is
+seen standing up like a monument in the southern distance: nor is it
+less a conspicuous feature when viewed to the north from the Bannu
+road. At the back of it, to the west, is the direct road connecting the
+upper Meranzai valley with the Bannu district, of which the existence
+was known, but not the nature, when McNair took it in hand. Up the
+sheer face of that square-cut peak, composed chiefly of shifting sand
+and pebbles, which overtops the rest, McNair did his best to climb. He
+did not succeed for the reason that no living thing without wings has
+probably ever succeeded in surmounting it, although there is a legend
+to the effect that a specially active Waziri robber did once contrive
+to reach the top--and there remained to starve; but the English
+explorer at least got far up enough to obtain the clear view he
+required, and he came back richer in wisdom to the extent of many
+square miles of most remarkable mapping. His name soon became well
+known on the border, especially amongst the Waziris, and so much did
+they appreciate his own appreciation of themselves, that there is a
+story current that one well-known Mahsud chieftain stopped a Punjab
+Cavalry detachment near the border line and demanded a passport order
+from McNair. Perhaps his best achievement about this part of his career
+was the mapping of all the approaches to, and the general features of
+the lower Tochi valley.
+
+In 1883 he conceived the bold scheme of taking leave and exploring
+Kaffiristan in disguise, trusting to the good fellowship of certain
+Pathan friends, amongst whom two members of the Kakur Khel were chief.
+It was a bold scheme for many reasons. The physical difficulties of the
+project were many. The impossibility of keeping up a continuous
+disguise was well known to him, and last, but not least, "What would
+Government say?" For fear of involving others in any venture of his
+own, he resolved to cut himself adrift from his department for the time
+being and take his chance. In order to appreciate properly the spirit
+of enterprise which animated the man, critics of his actions should put
+themselves in his place. He was well aware that the information which
+he could obtain would be of the highest value; further, he knew that
+probably there was not another man in India who could obtain it as
+successfully as himself, and he judged that some slight exception might
+be made in his favour if he took on himself the responsibility of
+accepting a most favourable opportunity of doing most valuable work at
+the expense of infringing certain rules about crossing the border.
+These rules were, to say the least, vague and indefinite, and had never
+been officially promulgated. Reward or recognition of service he
+rightly never expected. It must fairly be conceded that the conditions
+under which such a spirit of enterprise was shown made that spirit
+especially honourable--for the Government of India has never been in a
+position to encourage any such ventures. On the contrary, the possible
+gain in information has always been held to be more than
+counterbalanced by the chance of "complications." Lord Lytton, ever
+ready to bewail the decadence of a soldierly spirit of enterprise
+amongst our officers, was yet never quite able to see his way to making
+such enterprise possible to a man who valued his commission. Lord
+Ripon, under whose rule indeed more geographical work was completed
+than under any previous Viceroy, was apt to regard the line of frontier
+peaks and passes much as a careful gardener regards a row of
+beehives--as subjects of tender treatment and watchful care: whilst
+Lord Dufferin has lately with one wide sweep removed the great
+incentment to all exploration enterprise by making the results thereof
+"strictly confidential." These are cloudy conditions under which to
+grow a true spirit of enterprise, and where it here and there crops up
+and flourishes in spite of circumstances it is surely all the more to
+be commended.
+
+The story of McNair's journey to Kaffiristan need not be told here. It
+was not made strictly confidential in those days, and it will be found
+in the chronicles of the Royal Geographical Society. For this
+performance he obtained the Murchison grant of the Society, and on the
+strength of it he may be said to have taken his place amongst the first
+geographers of the day. His frontier work did not end here. For the
+last two years he was engaged on the most trying work of carrying a
+"first class" triangulation series from the Indus at Dera Ghazi Khan,
+across the intervening mountain masses, to Quetta, thence to be
+extended to the Khojak, a work which involved continuous strain of
+mountain climbing, of residence with insufficient cover in intensely
+cold and high elevated spots, and the unending worry of keeping up the
+necessary supplies both of food and water for his party. No doubt it
+tried his constitution severely, and a hot weather at Quetta is,
+unfortunately, not calculated to restore an impaired constitution.
+Although very ill he determined to leave Quetta when his leave became
+due, and he made his way with difficulty to Mussoorie to die amongst
+his own people.
+
+McNair belonged to a department which is not great in distinctions and
+decorations, and is connected with no celestial brotherhood. Indeed, it
+has no dealings with stars but such as are of God's own making--and he
+belonged to what by grace of official courtesy is called the
+"subordinate" branch. Out of it he never rose, though had he lived on
+the Russian side of the border his career might well have brought him
+high military rank and decorations in strings across his uniform. They
+say that decorations are "cheap" there. Yet it should be remembered
+that zeal, industry, enterprise, and patriotism are "cheap," too, if
+they are to be won by them. Perhaps we manage better. The good old
+copybook maxim, "Virtue is its own reward," must be McNair's epitaph,
+whilst we cannot help feeling that India could have better spared many
+a "bigger" man.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE STATESMAN," _August 27th_, 1889.
+
+By the death of Mr. McNair, of the Survey Department, a most valuable
+officer has been lost to the Government of India, and a contributor to
+our geographical knowledge of Afghanistan. It is difficult to estimate
+the value of his services, as they have never been brought prominently
+into notice like those of others who have lived in the sunshine of
+official favour. We believe that, as in many similar cases, the public
+record of his work was nothing to what he really did in the service of
+geography, without any official publicity or recognition of the fact
+whatever. From what we know of his life's work, we can gather
+information that is amply sufficient to entitle Mr. McNair to being
+placed in the front rank of geographers, in respect, as a contemporary
+remarks, of that "borderland which separates India from Turkestan," It
+is said of Mr. McNair, that in the course of the Afghan campaign in
+1879, he added more to the sum of our knowledge of Afghanistan than all
+the geographers of the "old" Afghan war put together, while some of his
+exploits in surmounting what appeared to be absolutely insuperable
+difficulties, make him take rank with the great geographers of his day.
+His work in the Kohat district was especially valuable, although it
+never, we believe, received the official recognition it deserved.
+Thanks to his excursions and observations, we have, as the _Pioneer_
+justly observes, a complete map of the border, a map which it will be
+hard to supersede. His journey to Kaffirstan resulted in some valuable
+contributions to our knowledge of that region, but the conditions of
+Government service unfortunately prevented his receiving the reward,
+which he would have secured as a matter of course, had he been the
+servant of a power more quick and more liberal in its recognition of
+merit. As the _Pioneer_ happily remarks, "Mr. McNair belonged to a
+department which is not great in distinctions and decorations, and is
+connected with no celestial brotherhood. Indeed, it has no dealings
+with stars, but such as are of God's own making--and he belonged to
+what by grace of official courtesy is called the 'subordinate' branch.
+Out of it he never rose, though had he lived on the Russian side of the
+border, his career might well have brought him high military rank, and
+decorations in strings across his uniform." By his death, India loses a
+valuable public servant, and that loss, we venture to say, will be more
+deeply felt should complications arise on the frontier, when the
+knowledge, experience, and ability of men like Mr. McNair will be the
+primary condition of success in any operations in that quarter. We do
+not know whether we should regret of any man that he did hot receive
+the full meed of the success achieved by him in his life career amongst
+his fellows. Certain it is that it is but deferred to the general audit
+of every man's claims, for the hard and thorough work he has done to
+the generation from which he has passed away, but to which and to its
+successors he has left an example for them to emulate, and if they
+can--surpass.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "THE TIMES," _10th September_, 1889.
+
+The Indian mail brings intelligence of the death of Mr. William Watts
+McNair, of the Indian Survey. In 1883 Mr. McNair, disguised as a
+Mahomedan doctor, succeeded in reaching the outlying valleys of
+Kafiristan, travelling by way of the Swat Valley and Chitral. For this
+adventurous journey, in the course of which he obtained much valuable
+information regarding the passes of the Hindoo Khoosh and about the
+manners and customs of the Sirjah Push Kafirs, the Royal Geographical
+Society awarded the Murchison Grant. Mr. M'Nair, in whom the Indian
+Government has lost an able and zealous servant, died at Mussoorie on
+August 13 of fever contracted at Quetta.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from_ "UNITED SERVICES GAZETTE," _19th October, 1889._
+
+Mr. W.W. McNair.--The death is announced of Mr. McNair, a distinguished
+member of the Indian Survey, who expired at Mussoree of typhoid fever.
+He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department, and had rendered
+signal service, especially during the Afghan War of 1878-79. In the
+disguise of a native doctor he made a journey into Kafiristan in 1883,
+and this achievement gained for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal
+Geographical Society. This expedition was, up to the time,
+unparalleled. Mr. McNair ascended to the Dora Pass over the Hindoo
+Khoosh Mountains, which he found to be over 14,000 feet high, but with
+an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden animals.
+
+
+
+
+_Extract from Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for
+October, 1889._
+
+Obituary.
+
+W.W. McNAIR.--We are sorry to have to record the death of this
+distinguished member of the Indian Survey, who has died at Mussooree of
+typhoid fever. He had been twenty-two years in the Survey Department,
+and had done good service, particularly during the Afghan war of
+1878-79, when his work lay along the valley of the Kabul river, and
+during the last two years, in which he has been extending a series of
+triangles from the British frontier at Dera, Ghazi Khan, by the direct
+route across the Suliman Mountains to Quetta and the Khojak Amran. But
+his most conspicuous piece of work was his journey (in the disguise of
+a native doctor) into Kafiristan in 1883, an achievement which gained
+for him the Murchison Grant of the Royal Geographical Society, and
+which stands quite alone, as unless Russian explorers have recently
+succeeded in entering the country, there is no record of any other
+European ever having done so. Major Biddulph had visited Chitral, but
+Mr. McNair had not only reached that town by way of the Swat river and
+Dir, but crossed the mountains to the west, which divide the valley of
+the Kashkar or Chitral river from that of the Arnawai. He reported that
+he was kindly received by the villagers of the Lut-dih district, who
+belong to the Bashgal tribe of Kafirs. The valley is important, for
+along it there runs a direct and comparatively easy route from
+Badakshan to Jelalabad. No doubt he would have explored the country
+more fully, but owing to the conduct of a native, who maliciously
+spread about the report of his being a British spy, Mr. McNair was
+forced to abandon further attempts. He ascended, however, to the Dora
+Pass over the Hindu Kush Mountains, which he found to be a little over
+14,000 feet in height, with an easy ascent, quite practicable for laden
+animals. This pass had been previously explored by the "Havildar" on
+his return journey to India in 1870-71. Mr. McNair returned by way of
+Mastuj, Yasin, Gilghit, and Srinagar. The account of his adventurous
+and important journey was read by him before the Royal Geographical
+Seciety on the 10th December, 1883, but official permission to publish
+the map could not be obtained.
+
+
+
+
+_From the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," November,_
+1889.
+
+Obituary.
+
+The late Mr. W.W. McNair.--Colonel T. H. Holdich, R.E., sends us from
+India the following additional details regarding the career of Mr.
+McNair, briefly noticed in our last issue:--Amongst the many practical
+geographers who have passed away during the year 1889 is Mr. W. McNair,
+of the Indian Survey Department. His career was very closely connected
+with a new phase of military exploration carried out on the frontier of
+India, which had gradually superseded the older forms of
+reconnaissance, and was rendered possible by late improvements in the
+smaller classes of instruments, and a wider knowledge of the use of the
+plane-table. For about ten years previous to the Afghan War of 1879,
+McNair was attached to the topographical branch of the Indian Survey,
+and he had always shown a special aptitude for that class of work,
+which consists in acquiring a comprehensive grasp of a wide field of
+geographical detail in the shortest possible space of time. When war
+broke out, Afghanistan no longer afforded a field for such simple
+geographical exploration as had already been accomplished during the
+campaign of 1839-43. A completer military survey of all important
+districts was required, which would furnish detailed information of
+routes and passes which were far removed from the beaten tracks of
+previous armies. At the same time the conditions under which such a
+survey was to be made were exactly the same as those under which the
+rough reconnaissances of the former campaign were obtained. The
+surveyor was under the same urgent restrictions, both as to time and as
+to the limits of his own movements off the direct line of march.
+McNair, with one or two others, was selected for this topographical
+duty with the Afghan field force, and right good use he made of his
+opportunities. He was present during the fighting which took place
+before Kabul in the winter of 1879-80, and was shut up with the
+garrison of Sherpur during the fortnight's siege. His energy and
+determination carried him through the campaign with more than
+credit--he was able to illustrate modern methods of field topography in
+a manner which threw new light on what was then but a tentative and
+undeveloped system. He was one of the first to prove the full value of
+the plane-table in such work as this, for it must be remembered that he
+was working in a country peculiarly favourable to the application of a
+system of graphic triangulation, and very different to the densely
+forest-clad mountains of the eastern frontier into which the
+plane-table had been carried before, with advancing brigades. At the
+close of the war, which brought no recognition of his exceptional
+services, he was appointed to the Kohat survey party, which was
+primarily raised for the mapping of the Kohat district, but which
+afforded occasional opportunities for extending topography across the
+border. When this party was first raised our frontier maps were of the
+most elementary character; there was many a wide blank in the
+topography of the lower borderland, and geographical darkness shrouded
+nearly the whole line of frontier mountains. The hostility of the
+border people had always been such that it was a matter of considerable
+risk to approach them, but the temper of the tribes was then rapidly
+changing with the times, and McNair rapidly succeeded in establishing
+himself on a friendly footing with frontier robber chiefs, whose
+assistance was invaluable in arranging short excursions across the
+line, by means of which he was able to complete a fairly accurate map
+of most of the border country. No work that ever he accomplished has
+been of more value to the Government of India than this unobtrusive
+frontier mapping. It was whilst he was thus occupied between Peshawur
+and Dera Ismail Khan that he made the acquaintance of certain
+influential men of the Kaken Khel, who offered to see him safely
+through the dangerous districts outlying Kaffirstan, and give him the
+opportunity of being the first European to set his foot in that land of
+romance. The snow-capped summits of some of the more southerly peaks of
+Kaffirstan had been seen and fixed by McNair during the progress of the
+Afghan campaign, and it had ever been a dream with him to reach those
+mighty spurs, and torn those peaks to account by using them as the
+basis of a topographical map of the country. He did reach them, as the
+records of the R.G.S. sufficiently show, and he may fairly claim to be
+the first Englishman to lift even a corner of the veil of mystery which
+has ever shrouded that inaccessible country so far as its topographical
+conformation is concerned. This excursion won for him the Murchison
+Grant of the Society, and established his position as a leading
+practical geographer. For the last few years of his life he has been
+almost incessantly occupied in the rough work of frontier surveying,
+which his knowledge of frontier people and power of winning their
+confidence and help especially fitted him to undertake. At the time of
+his death he was employed in the Baluchistan Survey party in the
+completion of a triangulation series which should carry the great
+Indian system to the Kojak range, and furnish a scientific and highly
+accurate base for future extension into Afghanistan. This was a duty
+which severely taxed even his vigorous constitution. It involved
+incessant labour in examining lofty mountain peaks in order to select
+suitable sites for stations, and subsequently days and nights of
+anxious watching during the progress of the observations, whilst food
+and water (when snow was not lying on the ground) were scarce, and
+mists and clouds hung round the mountains. No doubt it tried him hard,
+and when typhoid attacked him at Quetta he seemed unable to make a good
+fight for his life. He was able, however, to reach Mussoorie, where he
+died on the 13th August, leaving a gap in the Department which he
+served so well which it will be exceedingly hard to fill.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of William Watts McNair, by J. E. Howard
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