The City Is Built In Terraces, On The Sides And Summit Of A
Limestone Cliff, About A Hundred And Fifty Feet High.
This is called
the "Shah Mirdan," and is surrounded at the base of the hill by high
mud ramparts,
With bastions at intervals, loopholed for musketry.
The "Mir," [A] or palace of the Khan, overhangs the town, and is made
up of a confused mass of buildings, which, though imposing at a
distance, I found on closer inspection to consist chiefly of mud, which
in many places had crumbled away, leaving great gaping holes in the
walls. The Mir mounts a few primitive, muzzle-loading cannon, and the
citadel is garrisoned by a thousand men, chiefly Afghans, deserters from
Cabul, Kandahar, and other parts of the Ameer's dominions. They are a
ragged, undisciplined lot. The Khan himself has a wholesome dread of
his soldiery, who break out at times, and commit great depredations
among the villages surrounding the capital, robbing and murdering the
peasants with impunity, for few dare resist them. The remainder of the
troops, three thousand in number, are quartered in barracks, or rather
mud hovels, at some distance from the palace. Each man is supposed to
receive three rupees a month and a lump sum of forty-eight rupees at
the end of each year, but pay is uncertain and mutiny frequent. When
not engaged on military duties the Khan's Baluch soldiers are put to
agricultural work on his estates, while the Afghans pass their time
in pillaging and plundering their neighbours.
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