ulk as chief
murderer. Mihrbhan Shah is particularly proud of one of his little jobs,
which he flatters himself he accomplished in a very neat and artistic
manner. I forget the details, but it resulted in the death of five men.
I asked him in to afternoon tea, Shah Mirza acting as interpreter. We
had a long chat, from which I gained some very useful details about the
state of the parties in Chitral, who was likely to help, and who wasn't,
also a description of the road to Killa Drasan, which I did not know.
This latter information seemed so important that I reported it that
night to Colonel Kelly, and it was then and there decided to march _via_
Killa Drasan instead of by the usual road through Buni.

I don't, think I have mentioned Shah Mirza before, so I will introduce
him now, as he was one of our most useful allies, and is now one of my
greatest friends. He belongs to the Punyal family, and is Wazir or
governor of Sai and Gor. He lives at Damot, a village in the Sai valley,
opposite Bunji, and it was during my stay there that I first got to know
him. He has an interesting history, and, among other adventures, has
travelled through the Pamirs and Chitral in disguise. He was our chief
interpreter, and he, or one of his followers, of whom he had five,
always kept near us. His followers were enlisted Levies, and one of them
had formerly been my shikaree; in fact, he only left me as he was
called out as a levy.

It is the custom of the country for the headmen of districts to come and
pay their respects to any Sahib who may travel through their country,
and the proper etiquette is to supply your visitors with tea and
sweetmeats--biscuits will do just as well, and they like plenty of
sugar. They then pay you the most barefaced compliments, and make the
startling assertion that you are their father and mother; upon which you
reply that all you have is at their disposal. If they have any
petition,--and they generally have,--they insinuate it gently in the
general conversation, so you have to be looking out for traps of this
sort. When you have suffered sufficient evil for the day, you mildly
suggest that they are probably fatigued, and would like to rest. They
take the hint, and the remainder of the biscuits, and depart. We used to
have lots of these visits, which went by the name of "political teas."

Mihrbhan Shah proved very useful to us, I fancy he knew he would get
small mercy if he fell into the hands of the oppositi