The Amir and his sons were also very good in sending me occasional presents of game and fruit, the latter being sent them from other places before they were to be obtained in Kabul, and the strawberries they used to send me in the spring before the fruit in Kabul was ripe was a favour I very much appreciated. In the spring there was, as a rule, a scarcity of vegetables, the last year’s supply being finished and the new year’s not yet in, and I often had to go without potatoes for some weeks, and that is a dish I think most people would not care to be without at dinner; however, when I became accustomed to the place I made arrangements which obviated going short in that respect. During the famine of 1903, when so many thousands died of starvation, most of the bazar provisions were very scarce, and some things were not to be had at any price. Flour was unobtainable in the market, and I had to buy a supply of wheat for myself and the servants from the Government, and have it ground. The Government opened a depôt and sold a stipulated quantity every day to the people, as there was none to be had elsewhere, and it is the custom of the Government to keep full granaries in case of emergency. The struggles of the people to be first in getting to the depôt, in order to obtain a share of the wheat before the daily quantity allowed for sale was disposed of, were so great, and the crush so dense, that many, principally women, were killed, by being knocked off their feet and trampled to death. The distress among the poorer classes was particularly great. Parents, who had sold all there was in the house that could be sold to get money for food, had to watch their children crying of hunger, and daily getting weaker and thinner until at last they died, while they themselves, if they lived, did so only because they had more vitality and were stronger, and not because they ate food themselves and gave none to their children.