30

INDIA

before its exact position in the scale of importance
amongst north-western gateways can be determined.
Up to the lately demarcated frontier of Afghanistan
the Tochi is a fairly wide and well-cultivated valley, with
1 gradual but not excessive gradient, rising towards the
comparatively narrow band of stiff and rugged mountain
-idges (reaching to 12,000 feet in altitude) which intervene
Hetween the cultivated tracts of Sherannia and the uneven
plateau which lies eastward and southward of Ghazni. Its
‘mportance to us is chiefly strategical, for it dominates the
aver-restless confederation of Waziri clans to the south,
who will never cease from troubling until they find themselves
 permanently outflanked. Between Ghazni and our
advanced posts in Kuram and on the Tochi the direct
distance does not differ largely from that between Kabul
and our advanced post on the Khaibar ; one hundred and
twenty miles would cover either of them. The actual
distance of intervening route would, of course, largely
axceed this direct measurement.
South of the Waziri Switzerland, and dividing it from
the northern buttresses of the great Sulimani system of
Baluchistan, is the Gomal River, affording yet another
great open highway to the Afghan plateau. The Gomal
route is the oldest of all trade routes. Down it there
yearly pours a succession of Khafilas led and followed by
thousands of well-armed Pathan traders (called Povindahs)
from the plains of Afghanistan to India. The Povindahs
mostly belong to the Ghilzai tribes, and are not therefore
true Afghans. Leaving their women and children encamped
 within British territory on our border, and their
arms in the keeping of our frontier political officials, the
Povindah makes his way southwards with his camel-loads
of fruit and silk, bales of camel and goat hair or sheepskin
 goods, carpets and other merchandise from Kabul
and Bokhara, and conveys himself through the length and
breadth of the Indian peninsula. He may be met with
in the extreme south of Madras, or on the westernmost
edge of the western coast, but the Ghilzai Povindah does
aot leave the shores of India. He returns yearly to the