In all work there is an ustad (teacher or foreman) and his shagirds (pupils or workmen). When the shagird has learnt all he can learn from his ustad, or thinks he has, he usually casts about for a way of ousting his master and taking his place himself. This he generally sets about doing by privately reporting to the Amir that his ustad indents for much more material than his work requires, and sells the surplus to help defray his living expenses, which, as all his neighbours will testify, are far above his income. This does not always have the effect aimed at, and cause the ustad to lose his position that the shagird may jump into it; but the ustad is perhaps made a prisoner, and wears leg irons as he goes about his work as usual during the day, and at night is taken back to prison, while the mirzas set about the task of checking his accounts, and as this is a work of years, the ustad often dies before the matter is settled. In any work which is accompanied by risk, such as powder making, etc., the Afghan gets careless of precautions after a time, and the result is an occasional explosion, which kills many and unnerves the rest for a month or two, but eventually the same carelessness prevails, until another accident makes them cautious again for a time. The making of fulminate of mercury was prolific of accidents at one time, but no further accidents happened after I introduced the usual method of preparation, but some accidents occurred through roughly handling the filled percussions caps, and once sixty thousand of them exploded through carelessness on the part of one of the foremen, who took up a few of them to look at, and then threw them back into the box where the rest were; four were killed, and some others were permanently disabled, while one man was blinded, a cap entering each eye, but was otherwise uninjured. In one powder explosion twenty-one men were killed, and many others injured, chiefly through the force of the explosion bringing down a heavy roof on the men who were working underneath. There were several other accidents through carelessness, each time causing death or injury to one or two, and eventually the Amir gave me orders to draw up a list of regulations, and give full particulars of what was necessary, in order to minimize risk in the making and handling of explosives. Having sanctioned this, the necessary work was put in hand, and the regulations came into force, after which the accidents stopped.