144 



THE OEPIMENT MINES OF CHITRAL. 



IN the days of Aman-ul-Mulk the Great (but not 

 the good), the two chief sources of revenue in 

 Chitral were slaves and golden orpiment. The 

 prices realised for both these commodities were 

 approximately the same per cwt., but as the 

 slaves were much more easily obtainable than 

 the orpiment, the trade in the first-named article 

 was as brisk as the other was slack. Nowadays 

 the reverse is the case : Chitrali boys and girls are 

 no longer on the market, while the mineral is 

 exported in comparatively large quantities. The 

 mines are situated in a flank of the great giant 

 Tirich Mir, a mountain peopled, as every Chitrali 

 schoolboy knows, by legions of fairies. There are 

 other minerals in the mountain beside orpiment : 

 lead, copper, sulphur, and possibly others. Orpi- 

 ment, however, is the only one that is regularly 

 worked. 



My camp happening to be near the Tirich 

 valley, at a village a few miles from where this 



