Pcshawur and the Khybcr Pass 55 



many times in one day in the whole of India it is 

 played.) We drove back to dinner feeling there might 

 be worse places in the world than Peshawur in the 

 spring. 



There are few more interesting sights than its native 

 city, which on account of its position upon the frontier, 

 surrounded by such varied types of humanity, is, 

 among all Indian native cities, unique. India, unlike 

 England, has few large towns. For instance, in 

 England and Wales, in 1891, more than half the 

 population lived in towns with upwards of twenty 

 thousand inhabitants, while in British India less than 

 one-twentieth of the people lived in such towns. 

 India, therefore, is almost entirely a rural country, and 

 many of the so-called towns are mere groups of 

 villages, in the midst of which the cattle are driven 

 afield, and ploughing and reaping go on. Many 

 millions of peasants struggle to live off half an 

 acre apiece, or one thousand two hundred and eighty 

 to the square mile ; for the peasant clings to his 

 fields and parcels them out among his children, even 

 when his family is too numerous to live upon the 

 crops, instead of migrating to tracts where spare 

 land abounds. If the rain falls short by a few 

 inches, the result is one of those terrible famines of 

 which we have heard so much lately. However, 

 Peshawur is an important city of eighty thousand 

 inhabitants, walled-in and fortified. 



We drove in at one of the few gates, and were 

 struck dumb with the infinitely picturesque scene. 



