76 Letter from Major II. C. B . Tanner on the Kafir Language . [March, 
“ Shewa is at the mouth of Dara Nur (Valley of Light ?) which 
runs into the Kund mountain. The villages up the valley are inhabited by 
Dehgans who are not Pathans, but descendants of the original people of 
this country (probably) ; and Mir Ahmad Khan has great influence among 
them. Beyond Dara Nur, there comes Mazar Dara which rises also in 
Kund, and flows S. E., falling into the Kunar River at Nurgal, and it is the 
inhabitants of this valley who are my stumbling-block. They are Pathans 
and S'afis and have never become subjects of the Amir ; and the other day, 
when the principal chief of the Kunar valley was coming in to tender his 
allegiance, they attacked him in force. Beyond Mazar Dara there flows 
Chauki Dara, also rising in Kund but having a course almost easterly (as 
I take it). The inhabitants are Safis and Momands and are not subjects 
of the Amir, and are therefore yaglii , or independent as they are termed. 
“ Now, beyond Chauki is Pech, a valley (or dara) also rising in Kund 
but flowing N. E. into the Kunar River. Of Pech I know little or no¬ 
thing ; but it is beyond Pech that the interesting and unknown tract of 
Kafiristan commences, and it is to introduce to you two of the inhabitants 
of the valley N. \Y. of Pech, that 1 have entered into this long and tedious 
preface. I had long heard of a tribe called Chuguni and I therefore sent 
the Subadar (Hussain Khan my interpreter) to bring some of them in to me. 
These Chugunis are the next door neighbours of the Kafirs and live in a 
valley, which as far as I can understand, flows from Kund northwards and 
then turning east empties itself into the Kunar near Chagar Sarai. 
“ They are a powerful clan, and can number 6000 fighting men, but are 
true wild men of the hills, and seldom come as far as Jelalabad ; and like 
all true and wild mountaineers, dislike to expose themselves to the unknown 
perils which may be experienced in travelling in an open plain. To sell 
their ghi , cheese and wood, the Chugunis cross the head waters of the val¬ 
leys I have named, and come down into the Dara Nur, at Amla (Indian 
name) ; and it was at that place that the Subadar found the two specimens 
which he brought to me. He had to give his nephew as a hostage and 
make many protestations of friendship before they would consent to come. 
"Wild ragged fellows they were, of pale complexions and thin features. Their 
legs were clothed with coarse goat’s hair socks, then an outer covering 
of goat’s hair and such curious untanned shoes tied on in a cunning fashion. 
One of them spoke nothing but his own language, but the other, who was 
described to me as being a great warrior, spoke Pushtu; so with the 
Subadar as an interpreter we got on very well together. I kept the men 
four days and during that time, when I had leisure, managed to elicit a 
good deal of information about them and their valleys. The “ warrior” in¬ 
formed me that he had been brought up amongst the Kafirs, and indeed I 
