AFRIDI

A Pathan tribe inhabiting the mountains on the Peshawar border of the North-West Frontier province of India. The Afridis are the most powerful and independent tribe on the border, and the largest with the exception of the Waziris. Their special country is the lower and easternmost spurs of the Safed Koh range, to the west and south of the Peshawar district, including the Bazar and Bara valleys. On their east -they are bounded by British districts, on the north by the Mohmands, on the west by the Shinwaris and on the south by the Orakzai and Bangash tribes. Their origin is obscure, but they are said to have Israelitish blood in their veins, and they have a decidedly Semitic cast of features. They are possibly the Aparytai of Herodotus, the names and positions being identical. If this theory is correct, they were then a powerful people, and held a large tract of country, but have been gradually driven back by the encroachments of other tribes. The tribe is divided into the following eight clans:Kuki Khel, Malikdin Khel, Kambar Khel, Kamar Khel, Zakka Rhel (the most numerous and the most turbulent), Sipah, Aka Khel and Adam Khel. The first seven clans live in the vicinity of the Khyber Pass, and migrate to Tirah in the summer months. The Adam Khel (5900 fighting men) live round the Kohat Pass, and are more settled and less migratory in their habits. In appearance the Afridi is a fine, tall, athletic highlander with a long, gaunt face, high nose and cheek-bones, and a fair complexion. On his own hillside he is one of the finest skirmishers in the world, and in the Indian army makes a first-rate soldier, but he is apt to be home-sick when removed from the air of his native mountains. In character the Afridi has obtained an evil name for ferocity, craft and treachery, but Colonel Sir Robert Warburton, who lived eighteen years in charge of the Khyber Pass and knew the Afridi better than any other Englishman, says:" The Afridi lad from his 1 So Eusebius, Syncellus says Alexander Severus.