The _Zakha Khel_ owe their undoubted importance to their geographical position in Afridi-land, rather than to the number of armed men they can turn out—probably not less than 6000. Their holdings stretch diagonally across the Afridi country from the south-east corner of Maidan to the Khyber Pass; they are the wildest and most turbulent amongst their tribe, and their land being unproductive they depend a good deal upon raiding and blackmail for their livelihood, are “the wolves of the community,” and since—at any rate up to recent times—“they lent no soldiers to the ranks of the British army and had no pensions to lose,” the Zakha Khels have always been more ready to give trouble than the rest of their fellow-tribesmen. They hold, moreover, some five miles of the country lying on either side of the road in what Warburton calls “the real Khyber proper,” from the Shrine of Gurgurra (the sloe-tree)—where a small post is held by the Khyber Rifles—to Loargai in the Shinwari country. Of this shrine Warburton tells the following story of the manner in which the Zakha Khels managed to remove the reproach which had been levelled against them, _i.e._ that their country possessed none of the ziarats, or sacred shrines, to the memory of saints or martyrs. “The Zakha Khel Afridis,” writes Warburton, “bear a most unenviable name as being the greatest thieves, housebreakers, robbers and raiders amongst all the Khyber clans, their word or promise never being believed or trusted by their Afridi brethren without a substantial security being taken for its fulfilment. Naturally a race so little trusted were not fortunate enough to possess a holy man whose tomb would have served as a sanctuary to swear by, and thus save the necessity of the substantial security. One day, however, a Kaka Khel Mia came into their limits with the object of seeking safe conduct through their territory to the next tribe. They received him with all politeness, but finding in the course of conversation that he was of saintly character—a holy Kaka Khel Mia—they came to the conclusion that he was just the individual wanted to put their character for truthfulness on a better footing. They therefore killed him and buried him, making his tomb a shrine for all true believers to reverence, and a security for themselves to swear by.” Oliver caps this story with another of the same character: “A Mullah was caught copying the Koran. ‘You tell us these books come from God, and here you are making them yourself. It is not good for a Mullah to tell lies’; so the indignant Afridis made another ziarat for him.” It is only quite within recent years that the Zakha Khels have taken to military service, and even now the number enlisted in the regular Indian army is relatively small, the majority preferring service near their homes and joining the Khyber Rifles. In politics the Zakha Khels are Samil.