The character of the costume adopted by the average Afghan depends, in a certain measure, upon whether he is a hillsman or one who is accustomed to town-life. If he possess merely a casual acquaintanceship with the life of the towns, coming to them from some small village or in charge of a trading caravan from the border, his costume is simple although effective. Probably he is a fine-looking man: tall, with a long, blue-black beard; his head may be shaven, or his long hair may hang in ringlets over his shoulders. He will wear a small unembroidered skull-cap and wound round it a blue, coarse, cotton _lungi_. A loose vest, caught at the waist by the ample folds of a _cummerbund_, will reach the knees; and tucked within these folds there will be pistols and an array of formidable knives. His drawers of cotton and reaching only a little below the knees are very baggy. Round his shoulders there will be thrown carelessly, but with conspicuous grace, a heavy blue cotton shawl; his feet will be ornamented by leather sandals with high curving toes. The dress of a man of the better classes differs from that adopted by the hillsman. He then wears _tom-bons_ or pyjamas, gathered in at the waist and falling in tapering folds from the hip to the ankle, where they fit closely. The native shoes will be worn without socks, unless the wearer is wealthy. An embroidered _piran_ or chemise falls over the pyjamas nearly to the knees, and a waistcoat, reaching a little below the waist, with long sleeves and a slit at the hip, is also affected. The costume is completed by a loose robe. The waistcoat is of velvet or cloth, quilted and generally gold embroidered. The coat is of thin native cloth. The Kabul man-about-town usually amplifies the native costume with European innovations; as a rule the higher he rises in the social scale the more Europeanised he becomes in costume. [Illustration: PLAYGROUND OF AMIR’S SCHOOL, KABUL]