Our next march was a short one to Pingal, only about nine miles.  Here we were met by Mihrbhan Shah, the Hakim or governor of the upper part of the valley.  Mihrbhan Shah is a bit of an authority in the murder line, having been employed by the late lamented Nizam-ul-mulk 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 opposition, and therefore did all he could to place our force between them and himself.  Both at Pingal and our next halting place, Cheshi, he managed to billet all our small force in the villages, and no doubt our men were very thankful as we were getting pretty high up, and the nights were decidedly cold.  Although it was a friendly district, we had regular pickets and sentries, and a British officer on duty to see everything was correct.