Preface. 
x 
possibly the Kafirs did not exactly understand the 
nature of a sentence, the translation of which was desired, 
as well as for the following reason : Sometimes a sentence, 
of which the Kafir translation was needed, would be 
carefully explained to the Kafirs by the Chitrali 
employed, and apparently well understood. One of them 
would give his rendering. The other would frequently 
object, stating it would not be so spoken in his village, 
etc,, etc. Thereupon a heated altercation would arise, 
lasting a long time, without any agreement being arrived 
at. In such cases the rendering which seemed more likely 
to be correct has been accepted. From these sentences, 
and from many others taken down, but not printed, a 
short Bashgali Grammar has been prepared. 
The language will be seen to resemble Urdu in con¬ 
struction. It has many Persian and Sanskrit words. 
In the following pages the transliteration is that laid 
down for the Linguistic Survey, Government of India, 
1898. Our letters, however, appear unfitted to represent 
certain Kafir sounds. 
If the language appears a simple one, owing to the 
brevity of its grammar, and sterile as to the number of 
words, it may be remarked that, as is the case in Chitrali, 
the idioms are extremely numerous. It would probably 
take any person a considerable time, under the most 
favourable circumstances, to speak the language idiomati¬ 
cally correct. 
The leisure at my disposal did not permit of my 
making the grammar more complete than it is, the mate¬ 
rial for preparing these papers beiug collected during the 
intervals of more important duties. Efforts were made, 
without success, to elucidate many principles of grammar 
