Under the absolute Amir

The first thing that strikes one on seeing a regiment of Afghan soldiers is their irregular, slovenly appearance and slouching gait. Their clothes, for they have no uniforms for regular use, are of any sort and pattern as the wearer may desire or his purse can afford. Some have old English army or railway coats; others have coats of various colours and materials which have been made in the bazar; and coats made by the bazar tailors fit where they touch. Some have cloth trousers, some cotton ones, and some the Afghan tombons. Many wear the Afghan tombons with the shirt outside, as is usual in Eastern countries, and a sheepskin jacket, and this is the dress more generally worn, particularly among those regiments which are composed of hillmen. All of them, of course, have leather belts with pouches on either side, for neither soldiers nor civilians consider themselves dressed without them, and an Afghan soldier or civilian who was seen without a belt would certainly look undressed to any one who had been some time in the country. For headgear the turban is commonly worn; but there are different varieties of caps and hats, of which one that is liked by many is similar to the Russian military peaked cap. Cavalry soldiers, or sowars as they are called, wear long boots of the Russian pattern, with very high heels, which give the wearers a curious perched-up appearance; and these boots are much bepatched and mended. As I do not remember seeing a sowar with new boots on at any time, I fancy they must all be bought secondhand. The clothes the soldiers wear are generally old and much worn, but I have at times seen a havildar (sergeant) with a new coat, and as the man has to save up for many days before he can afford one, he pays great care in the selection of the cloth, and usually gets it of a vivid colour, light yellow or blue for preference, which soon looks the worse for wear, and necessitates the man spending many a half-hour when off duty in cleaning it. His old coat he sells to one of the men of his company.

When a regiment is drawn up in line the rifles are held at all angles, for the men are not drilled as drilling is understood in other countries, and on the march a regiment looks like an armed mob rather than soldiers. In order to obtain a good appearance during the two annual reviews, the regiments are marched on to the review ground, and the officers then move the men singly into their proper places, pulling one man forward here and pushing another back there, until they form a double line of somewhat varying straightness, and when the review is finished (the review consists of the Amir, or the prince as his deputy, riding past the different regiments), the men are again pushed into place to form fours, and are then marched off, all keeping their own step, back to the barracks, and on the road one man or another joins the four in front or behind in order to speak to a comrade, so that the little formation they had is soon upset, and the regiment goes along as it likes best, and that is—anyhow. The men, after review or parade, which latter is the same as the review, except that one regiment only is placed in line and inspected by its officers, seem to consider that they have taken part in manœuvres of considerable intricacy, and appear to be rather proud of themselves. The men of the Amir’s bodyguard, however, are drilled. The drill consists in the men, having already been taught to form themselves into fours, marching slowly in time to a drum-beat, and swinging each leg in turn high up in the air in front of them before bringing the foot down. This drill, which takes place on the main road outside the Arak palace, is witnessed by a large number of admiring citizens, but the spectacle of a regiment solemnly swinging their legs well up as they march, taking four or five seconds to each step, reminds one of a batch of recruits doing the goose-step.

Regiments are occasionally drawn up on parade and fire volleys of blank cartridges; but there are no rifle ranges at which the men are trained to shoot. Some batteries of artillery occasionally have target practice: but this is more to test guns than actual training. Those artillerymen whom I have seen at practice were very erratic in their shooting, and were seldom nearer than fifty yards of the object fired at, and when their general sighted a gun himself and got the target at two thousand yards, he was so pleased that he had to walk up and down for a few minutes. The reason men are not trained in shooting is, I think, because in Afghanistan among all classes of men a cartridge is looked upon as a cartridge, and not a thing to be used without necessity. The only good shots I have seen are the workmen who test all rifles and guns as they are turned out of the shops. I have sometimes, when practising, given the small rifle I was using to one or other of the soldiers with me to try a shot, and in no case was any man at all near the target. The hillmen who are more accustomed to shooting and are sometimes good shots, lie down and rest the rifle on a rock when firing.

The Amir’s bodyguard, foot and cavalry, are the only regiments properly uniformed, and the Amir sees that they keep their uniforms clean, and their arms too. The foot-guards are armed with Lee-Metford rifles and bayonets, and the horse-guards with revolvers, swords, and carbines. Of the other troops, a few regiments of the most trusted men are armed with Martinis, and the rest have Sniders. The artillery batteries have six and nine pounder guns, and there are some mule batteries with six and three pounders, but the guns are badly sighted and of short range, the fuzes also are unreliable, and the shells of small efficiency, so that the artillery cannot be considered very formidable. The mules and horses used for the artillery and transport are strong and sturdy, and are used to mountain paths and roads, but the transport animals are too few for the service of a large army. The rifles, which are made in the Government shops, are also badly sighted, and hardly two of them shoot alike. If they are used for firing against a large number of men massed together, the defective sighting may not make a great deal of difference; but accuracy is of first importance in a rifle, and the shooting of trained troops in action is sufficiently bad, without leaving much else to chance. Another great defect is that the powder, which is made in the country, fouls the bore after four or five rounds so badly that cleaning is necessary, for otherwise the kick of the gun prevents straight shooting, and tends to demoralize the shooter. Maxim and Gatling guns are also made in the shops, but owing to the inaccurate fitting of working parts, and the cartridges not being uniform and exact to gauge, it is seldom that a full belt of cartridges can be fired without a stop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The titles of the officers of the army are, Super Salah or Commander-in-Chief, Naib Salah, his deputy, Jinrael (general), Kernael (colonel), Kameedand (commandant), Kaftan (captain), Subadar (lieutenant of foot), Risaldar (lieutenant of horse), Havildar (sergeant of foot), Duffedar (sergeant of horse). The chief officers of the army are selected from the Amir’s family, or from among his favourites, and there is no promotion by grades, but only by favouritism. The late Amir, when forming a regiment, would have the men drawn up in front of him, and then, by simply judging the character of those he thought suitable, would select from among them those who were to be the officers.

There are several bands, some with string and some with wind instruments, and the music the brass bands bring forth is something to be remembered, for all the instruments seem to keep their own time, and each man apparently plays a tune of his own, and does his best to make what he plays over heard above the others. The result is rather staggering when they are close to one. There is a bagpipe band, too, and snatches of their music would make it appear that they try to play Scotch airs; and the men of this band imitate the Highland dress, the skirt being represented by a check print shirt, which hangs below the tunic and outside the trousers, which latter are often dirty white calico ones. This band is a tribute to the fighting qualities of the Highlanders, whom the Afghans look upon as superior to all others, and say they are real devils.

I was told by one man that during the fighting on the Sher Darwaza heights by the city of Kabul, one day the English had to retire, and he saw among the last to go one of the Highlanders running leisurely back carrying his rifle under his arm, with the muzzle pointing behind, and, as he ran, slipping cartridges into the breach, and firing back at the enemy. The man said he could see that the Highlander’s heart was not in his running away. On this day’s fighting many of the citizens turned out to take part in it, and the man who told me the foregoing was one of them.

The Afghans appear to judge music by the volume of sound created, for on one of the festivals, when I went with some others to salaam the Queen-Sultana, we were entertained in an open pavilion in the garden, and three bands were sent to play to us. They did so, stationing themselves on three sides of the pavilion and loudly playing different things at once, and it was rather trying, for they don’t get tired soon, but the people round about seemed to think it quite all right.

The Afghan Army, regarded as a fighting machine matched against civilized troops, could not be considered efficient. The Afghan, as a soldier, has many good qualities; he can live for days on a few handfuls of grain, and endure considerable fatigue at the same time; he can sleep in the open on the coldest night, wrapped in his sheepskin, and do no more than he is accustomed to; over mountains he is untiring; and he is plucky and would fight well, provided he had confidence in his officers. He also appreciates pluck, and Lieutenant Hamilton, who was with Cavagnari, and was one of those massacred, is to this day spoken of as the brave Feringhee. His own officers, however, are no better than himself in their knowledge of the art of war, and being chosen mostly from among the men, they have little authority as officers, and the influence of those who are looked up to by the men is entirely due to their own individuality. There is very little discipline, and unless an officer exerts his personality to make the men carry out his orders, he will find that they take very little notice of them, or him; for the soldiers are quick to judge who is their master, and leniency or consideration is looked upon by them as one of two things—fear of themselves, or the act of a fool.

None of the generals have any knowledge of modern warfare, for their experience has been confined to the wild tribes of those countries brought under the rule of the Afghans of late years, and of those who fought against the English during the last war there are few, if any, living. When they talk of fighting any foreign power, they rely on the number of soldiers and hillmen that the preaching of the Jihad will influence to fight for their country; and another thing they look upon as advantageous to themselves is that the country is so broken up and mountainous, it would offer considerable difficulty to the effective and rapid movement of invading troops, and it is this which forms one of the Amir’s chief objections to the introduction of railways in his country. The Afghans rarely care to risk a pitched battle, and are besides more accustomed to guerilla warfare, and in the event of invasion it is the latter method of fighting which would, no doubt, be adopted, and among the mountain passes there are places where a few determined men, properly armed, could keep back an army. For an invading army there would be great difficulty in getting heavy artillery moved about in most parts of the country, and mule batteries would be required; but in the plains around Kabul, Jelalabad, and Kandahar, big guns would be wanted, at least equal in range to the Afghan guns, and to get these to the Kabul plains, except by two roundabout routes, would be very difficult.

The Afghan authorities have now more confidence in the efficiency of their army, and consider it quite different and superior to what it was when Lord Roberts was there, and it is possible, in the event of another war with them, that they would offer battle in force, but if the day went against them, the rest of the fighting would probably be of the guerilla sort, to which they are more accustomed, unless they considerably outnumbered the enemy at any time. In their own fighting, one against the other, there is generally one pitched battle, and whosoever is routed runs away and fights no more; they say themselves, that a defeated army runs, and does not stop running, under three days.

In time of war women carry supplies to the men, and then the laws of “purdah” are suspended, and being a case of necessity, they are allowed to show their faces without shame. It is well known that the women, during the wars with the English, used to go out at night after a battle, and mutilate the bodies of the dead, and kill the wounded and dying. Many also took part in the fighting. As an illustration of one side of the Afghan character, I may mention an incident told me by a man, who belonged to the Kandahar district. His cousin owned a house some miles out of Kandahar (I have mentioned that houses are protected by high walls), and after one of the battles fought by the English against the tribes about, there were many stragglers following the main army back towards Kandahar. One day his cousin was told by one of his men that an Englishman was outside the walls shouting, and on going to the roof, whence he could look over the wall, he saw a Highlander carrying a rifle, who called out to give him some food. The cousin ran back to his room, and brought out a rifle, and climbing up to the roof again, knelt behind the wall, and aiming carefully at the soldier, fired. The man dropped, but was not killed, as a movement could now and then be observed, and the cousin feared to go out to get the rifle, for which he had shot him; so they kept watch for two days before it was decided that life must be extinct, and during that time the soldier called often and piteously for water, but no one went near, fearing vengeance as long as there was life left in him.