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Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier
A Record of Sixteen Years' Close Intercourse
with the Natives of the Indian Marches
By
T. L. Pennell, M.D., B.Sc., F.R.C.S.
With an introduction by
Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, V.C., K.G.
And with 37 Illustrations & 2 Maps
Second Edition
London
Seeley & Co. Limited
38 Great Russell Street
1909
TO
MY MOTHER,
TO THE
INSPIRATION OF WHOSE LIFE AND TEACHING
I OWE MORE THAN
I CAN REALIZE OR RECORD
INTRODUCTION
This book is a valuable record of sixteen years' good work by an
officer--a medical missionary--in charge of a medical mission station
at Bannu, on the North-West Frontier of India.
Although many accounts have been written descriptive of the wild
tribes on this border, there was still plenty of room for Dr. Pennell's
modestly-related narrative. Previous writers--e.g., Paget and Mason,
Holdich, Oliver, Warburton, Elsmie, and many others--have dealt
with the expeditions that have taken place from time to time against
the turbulent occupants of the trans-Indus mountains, and with the
military problems and possibilities of the difficult regions which
they inhabit. But Dr. Pennell's story is not concerned with the clash
of arms. His mission has been to preach, to heal, and to save; and
in his long and intimate intercourse with the tribesmen, as recounted
in these pages, he throws many new and interesting sidelights on the
domestic and social, as well as on the moral and religious, aspects
of their lives and characters.
During a long career in India I myself have seen and heard a good
deal about these medical missions, and I can testify to their doing
excellent and useful work, and that they are valuable and humanizing
factors and moral aids well worthy of all encouragement and support.
No one can read Dr. Pennell's experiences without feeling that the
man who is a physician and able to heal the body, in addition to
being a preacher who can "minister to a mind diseased" as well as to
spiritual needs, wields an influence which is not possessed by him
who is a missionary only.
As the author himself writes: "The doctor finds his sphere
everywhere, and his hands are full of work as soon as he arrives
(at his station). He is able to overcome suspicion and prejudice,
and his kindly aid and sympathetic treatment disarm opposition,
while his life is a better setting forth of Christianity than his
words. There is a door everywhere which can be opened by love and
sympathy and practical service, and no one is more in a position to
have a key for every door than a doctor."
These few words fairly sum up the situation, and I fully agree with
the view they express.
On such a wild frontier as that on the North-West Border of India the
life of a doctor-missionary is beset with many perils. A perusal of
Dr. Pennell's most interesting story shows that he has had his share
of them, and that in the earnest and zealous discharge of his duties
he has faced them bravely and cheerfully. I cordially recommend his
book to all readers, and my earnest hope is that medical missions
will continue to flourish.
ROBERTS, F.M.
December 19, 1908.
PREFACE
After sixteen years of close contact with the Afghans and Pathans
of our North-West Frontier in India, I was asked to commit some
of my experiences to paper. The present book is the result. I have
used the Government system of transliteration in vernacular names
and expressions, and I beg the reader to bestow a few minutes'
consideration on the table of corresponding sounds and letters given
on p. xvi, as it is painful to hear the way in which Englishmen,
who, with their wide imperial interests, should be better informed,
mispronounce common Indian words and names of places which are in
constant use nowadays in England as much as abroad.
Nothing is recorded which has not been enacted in my own experience
or in that of some trustworthy friend. In Chapters XIII. and XIV. it
would have been unwise to give the actual names, so I have put the
experience of several such cases together into one connected story,
which, while concealing the identity of the actors, may also make the
narrative more interesting to the reader; every fact recorded, however,
happened under my own eyes. In Chapter XXII., the night adventure of
Chikki, when he met an English officer in disguise, was related by
him to me of another member of his profession, and not of himself.
I wish to thank the Church Missionary Society for allowing me
to reproduce some articles which have already appeared in their
publications, notably Chapter XX. and part of Chapter IV. I tender
my best thanks to Major Wilkinson, I.M.S., Major Watson, H. Bolton,
Esq., I.C.S., and Colonel S. Baker, for some of the photographs which
have been here reproduced; and to Dr. J. Cropper for his kindness in
reading the proofs.
We are at present engaged in building a branch dispensary at Thal,
a place on the extreme border mentioned several times in the text,
where the medical mission will have a profound influence on the
trans-border tribes, as well as on those in British India. This will
be known as the "Lord Roberts Hospital," as that place was at one
time of the 1879-80 campaign the headquarters of his column.
The Author's profits on the sale of this book will be entirely
devoted to the building of the hospital, and carrying on of the
medical mission work at Thal.
T. L. PENNELL.
P. and O. s.s. "China,"
Gulf of Suez,
September 24, 1908.
CONTENTS
Chapter I
The Afghan Character
Pages
Paradoxical--Ideas of honour--Blood-feuds--A sister's revenge--The
story of an outlaw--Taken by assault--A jirgah and its unexpected
termination--Bluff--An attempt at kidnapping--Hospitality--A midnight
meal--An ungrateful patient--A robber's death--An Afghan dance--A
village warfare--An officer's escape--Cousins 17-30