AFGHANISTAN

89

authority in the days of the great Mahmud, and the military
 base of innumerable incursions Indiawards. Nothing
now is left of the glories of the past Ghazni but one or
two minars standing erect in a wilderness of desolation,
silent witnesses to the mutability of Afghan greatness.
But the connecting road between Kabul on the one hand
and Kandahar on the other (to which latter place it is
linked by the rock fortress of Kalat-i-Ghilzai) is indestructible
 from its geographical situation. It follows the main
lines of central drainage, and the main strike of the hills
which flank it on the north.
Whilst Kabul, then, dominates all routes converging on
[India on the extreme north-west of the Punjab, it also
dominates (more or less) those which gather in by Kandahar
 and thence are directed towards the southern extremity
of our western borderland. This, doubtless, is the reason
why Kabul rather than Kandahar or Herat has held the
keys of India’s destiny so surely and so often during the
countless ages of India’s chequered history.
The three ruling Afghan cities, Kabul, Herat, and
Kandahar, differing largely in the conditions of their
population and environment, are all much of the same
construction. Each of them occupies approximately a
square mile of enclosure, and is protected by an outside
wall covering a citadel which overlooks and commands
the city. The leading feature in each is a bazaar with
four streets radiating from a central “ Charsu” or marketplace,
 covered in, and roofed for protection from sun and
rain. The markets themselves are hardly to be distinguished
 from most well-known Indian bazaars, and present
the same apparently incongruous admixture of retail
trade and manufacture ; the same busy, jostling activity
In the street, and the same indolence in the flanking lines
of open-fronted shops that we see in all Indian markets.
Piles of magnificent fruit, including melons, apples, grapes,
Pomegranates, peaches, walnuts, and apricots are a distinguishing
 feature in many of them. Workin copper, brass,
and iron, earthenware and pottery shops, eating houses
and tea shops ; silk goods from Bokhara, « pumnahs ” and