THE BIRDS OF KOHAT AND THE KURRAM VALLEY. 171 



traders and others passing up the valley from India to Afghanistan, had 

 become highly suspicious of our movements and credited us with all sorts of 

 nefarious deeds. We were supposed to be agents of the Government sent 

 up to poison their-water-supply and to spread the plague. We were said to 

 stalk abroad at night catching and inoculating rats, in order to disseminate the. 

 pestilence. Colour was lent to this ingenuous theory by the fact that we had 

 trapped a few Mole-rats, Gerbilles, and Dormice. Curiously enough we could 

 see no signs of hostility in the villagers themselves, in fact we found them 

 invariably friendly, and our tribal escort seemed to know nothing of these 

 rumours. We were now anxious to shift camp and to move up the slopes of 

 Sikaram, as the snow, under the influence of the summer sun, was gradually 

 receding. But, in face of the rumours related above, the Political Agent did 

 not think it advisable for us to do so, and even considered that our presence 

 at Peiwar might lead to some act of violence towards us, and be the cause of 

 administrative complications in the valley. We were, therefore, asked to 

 return to Parachinar, where a meeting was called of the leading Maliks, on 

 the result of which our fate with respect to being allowed to continue collect- 

 ing would depend. Unfortunately and much to our chagrin the verdict of the 

 " Jirga " was against us, and the Political Agent called on us and informed us 

 that, owing to the popular excitement, it would be quite unsafe for us to go 

 in to camp and that we could only work in the immediate vicinity of 

 Parachinar. Our expedition thus came to an untimely end, and, as there was 

 nothing more to be done in the bird-line at Farachinar, we returned to Thall, 

 whence a few days later Whitehead took his departure for England, and I to 

 places where ignorance and superstition would cease from troubling. 



I may mention that soon after we arrived in Parachinar from Peiwar news 

 was brought in by a native officer of the local militia, who had been on leave 

 to his village, that we had left Peiwar just in time. Had we remained another 

 night, we were, like the Babes in the Wood, to have been foully murdered. All 

 arrangements had been made, assassins hired, and our pleasant little camp 

 was to have been converted into a shamble ! This was a most amusing yarn 

 which tickled us immensely ! Gladly would we have accepted these small 

 risks if only we had been allowed to continue our expedition. 



A glance at the accompanying map* will give a good idea of the 

 geography of this portion of the N.«W. Frontier of India. Situated between 

 the 32nd and 35th parallels of latitude and the 69th and the 72nd meridians of 

 longitude it is in shape somewhat like a pipe, the District of Kohat forming 

 the bowl and the Kurram Valley the stem and mouthpiece. Its northern 

 boundary proceeding from east to west, consists of the bare and rocky hills 

 lying between it and the Peshawar District, the Samana Eange ( barren hills, 

 inhabited by independent Orakzai and Afridi tribes") and the Safed-Koh Range. 

 This rugged barrier of hills is on the east as low as 3,000 feet above sea-level, 



This Map (Plate III) has not been reproduced.— Eds. 



