Sir Henry Rawlinson once said at one of their meetings that the most
beautiful Oriental woman he ever saw was a Kafir, and that she had,
besides other charms, a great mass of golden hair, which, let loose and
shaken, covered her completely from head to foot like a veil. In order
to show what was the state of our knowledge of the country down to
1879, he would read part of a paper by Mr. Markham on "The Upper Basin
of the Kabul River." "This unknown portion of the southern watershed of
the Hindu Kush is inhabited by an indomitable race of unconquered
hill-men, called by their Muslim neighbours the Siah-posh
(black-clothed) Kafirs. Their country consists of the long valleys
extending from the Hindu Kush to the Kunar river, with many secluded
glens descending to them, and intervening hills affording pasturage for
their sheep and cattle. The peaks in Kafiristan reach to heights of
from 11,000 to 16,000 feet. The valleys yield crops of wheat and
barley, and the Emperor Baber mentions the strong and heady wine made
by the Kafirs, which he got when he extended his dominion to
Chigar-serai in 1514. The Kafirs are described as strong athletic men
with a language of their own, the features and complexions of
Europeans, and fond of dancing, hunting, and drinking. They also play
at leap-frog, shake hands as Englishmen, and cannot sit cross-legged on
the ground. When a deputation of Kafirs came to Sir William Macnaghten
at Jalalabad, the Afghans exclaimed: 'Here are your relations coming!'
From the days of Alexander the Great the Siah-posh Kafirs have never
been conquered, and they have never embraced Islam. They successfully
resisted the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni, and the campaign which Timur
undertook against them in 1398 was equally unsuccessful. But the Muslim
rulers of Kabul continued to make inroads into the Siah-posh country
down to the time of Baber and afterwards. Our only knowledge of this
interesting people is from the reports of Mahommedans, and from an
account of two native missionaries who penetrated into Kafiristan in