ere escorted in amid
great rejoicings.

CHAPTER XIII

'ALAM GUL'S CHOICE

A farmer and his two sons--Learning the Quran--A village school--At
work and at play--The visit of the Inspector--Pros and cons of
the mission school from a native standpoint--Admission to Bannu
School--New associations--In danger of losing heaven--First night
in the boarding-house--A boy's dilemma.

Pir Badshah was a well-to-do farmer of the Bangash tribe, not far
from Kohat, and he had married a woman of the Afridi tribe from over
the border, called Margilarri, or "the Pearl."

He had not to pay for her, because it was arranged that his sister
was to marry her brother, and in cases where an exchange like this
is made nothing further is required.

They had two sons, 'Alam Gul and Abdul Majid. The father intended
that the elder should be educated, and one day he hoped would become a
great man, perhaps Tahsildar (meaning Revenue Officer) of the British
Government, so he was going to give him the best education he could
afford; while Abdul Majid was to look after the lands and become a
farmer, for which it is not supposed that any education is necessary.

Pir Badshah was very orthodox and punctilious in all the observances
of his religion, so the two boys were not to learn anything else
until they had sat at the feet of the village Mullah, and learnt to
read the Quran.

The mosque was a little building on the hillside. It was built of
stones cemented together with mud, and in the centre was a little niche
towards the setting sun, where the Mullah, with his face towards Mecca,
led the congregation in their prayers. There was a wooden verandah,
the corners of which were ornamented with the horns of the markhor,
or mountain goat. Beyond this was the open court, in which prayers
were said when the weather was fine, and either in this verandah or
the courtyard 'Alam Gul and his brother used to sit at the feet of the
old Mullah, reciting verses from the Quran in a drawling monotone,
and swaying their bodies backwards and forwards in the way that all
Easterns learn to do from the cradle when reciting or singing.

When they had finished the Quran and learnt the prayers and other
essentials of the Muhammadan religion, 'Alam Gul was sent to the
village school, while Abdul Majid began to make himself useful on
the farm.

He used to go out with his father's buffaloes to take them to pasture,
and sometimes he used to