PREFACE 
Pushtu literature in general is rendered so invariably in the Peshawuri ( Yusufzai) 
dialect, — the language in its purest form, — that it presents to the reader neither 
the peculiarities which characterize the speech of other divisions of the Pushtu- 
speaking family, nor even those other peculiarities which enter into the everyday 
conversation of the Yusufzai villager. 
The following collection of stories may, therefore, possibly be of some interest 
as being an attempt to contrast the dialects of the three great divisions into which 
the speakers of so-called ‘hard Pushtu’ may roughly be divided, — Orakzai, Afridi, 
Yusufzai. 
Stories Nos. 1-8 were chosen out of a number of similar tales recently taken 
down whilst up the Tochi. Simple tales of a simple folk, they are selected not for 
any pretensions to literary merit, but as being typical of the dialects of which it 
is hoped they may serve as an example. 
vStories Nos. 9-10 were first heard in the evenings at a village ‘ hujrah ’ in 
the Yusufzai country whilst on leave there in 1909. ‘ Brother Nim Kuni ’ offers 
little of humour to recommend it to the European mind, but is included on account 
of its being a universal favourite among the younger generation in Yusufzai, where 
there is hardly a child but knows, and is eager again to laugh over, the oft- related 
exploits of Nim Kuni on his cat. 
In the Pushtu script, endeavour has been made to reproduce as faithfully as 
possible the pronunciation of the tellers; and in the translation, to follow as closely 
as possible the mood and literal meaning of the original. 
Bannu : 
5 th March , 1911. 
F. H. Malyon, 
2is^ Punjabis. 
