2nd Battalion, the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. 27th Regiment (1st Baluch Battalion) of Bombay (Light) Infantry.[124] 2nd Regiment of Infantry, Hyderabad Contingent.[125] Jodhpur Imperial Service Lancers. CHAPTER XIV. ORAKZAIS.[126] The tract of country inhabited by this tribe is some sixty miles long by about twenty broad. It is bounded on the north by the Shinwaris and Afridis, on the east by the Bangash and Afridis, on the south by the Bangash and the Zaimukhts, and on the west by the Kharmana River and by the country of the Chamkannis. The Orakzais also possess some settlements in British territory in the Kohat district. The Orakzai country proper is generally termed Orakzai Tirah, and it contains four principal valleys—the Khanki, the Mastura, the Kharmana and the Bara; but Holdich lays due stress upon the peculiarities of its position, when he says that “the Orakzai geographical position differs from that of the Afridis in some essential particulars.... It is through their country that the way to the heart of the Afridi mountains lies. They keep the front door to Maidan (which is near the Dargai Pass across the Samana), whilst the back door is open to Afghanistan, but they possess no back door themselves, so that once their valleys (Khanki and Mastura) are held, they are in the power of the enemy and they must submit.” [Sidenote: Origin of the Tribe] The origin of the tribe is rather obscure, and local traditions vary greatly. One version is that three brothers—Pridi, Wazir, and Warak—came from Afghanistan to the Orakzai Hills, where they quarrelled over some trifle—as their descendants have continued to do down to present times—and Pridi then went north, Wazir to the south, while Warak remained where he was. Another tradition is that they are descended from a Persian prince who was exiled (“Wrukzai” in Pushtu) and who settled in the Kohat district, marrying a daughter of the King of Kohat. Others, again, say that the original home of the Orakzais was on the slopes of the Suleiman Mountains; that they and the Bangash settled in the Zaimukht country during the invasions of Sabuktagin and Timur, and were driven thence into the Kurram, and from there, again, into the Miranzai Valley. The occupation of the Kurram by the Turis, and their gradual encroachment into the lower part of that valley, then held by the Bangash, forced these in their turn to press the Orakzais. The struggle came to an end with a great battle at Muhammadzai, near Kohat, towards the end of the sixteenth century. The story goes that after three days’ fighting the victory remained with the Bangash, the actual issue being materially assisted by the intervention of a supernatural figure garbed in spotless white raiment, which appeared between the contending forces, crying out—“the plains for the Bangash and the hills for the Orakzai.”