One day I came across an abandoned gold mine, which I had previously heard the people speak of as yielding large quantities of gold in its time. A huge hole had been blasted out of the mountain-side, and heaps of _débris_ were scattered about, in some parts entirely filling up previous excavations. The quartz veins had been mined in all directions, but the gold had evidently been in a “pocket,” and there was nothing further to be had. I had a great desire for an opportunity of thoroughly trying the place myself, and while I pottered about the sowar escort with me broke up lumps of quartz to see what they might find. Gold exercises a fascination over most people. A sowar escort of seven men, with their duffedar (sergeant), had been appointed to attend me wherever I went from the day I crossed the frontier, and, as the penalty, should a fanatic attack and kill me, was death to themselves, they kept very close to me and left nothing whatever to chance. The prince spent about a month in Kandahar and was getting rather gloomy at the thought of being kept there for the winter, for it was getting on towards the end of November, when one evening I went to pay my compliments, or salaam him, as they call it, and met him coming into the durbar room as I got there. I saw that he was very pleased and excited, and he called out, “How do you do?” (almost all the English he knew) when he saw me, and shook hands, which was a thing he seldom did, and then told me that the Amir’s firman had been received, and he was to go on at once to Kabul. I made a remark about it being rather cold weather for travelling, and he assured me pleasantly that on the march it would be twenty times colder than in Kandahar. As the water in my tent froze every night I saw nothing to congratulate myself upon; however, the prospect of being on the move again was exhilarating. That evening the prince had some musicians brought in. They played upon instruments made of some sort of cane or bamboo, which rather resemble the flute, and although Afghan music is not usually soothing to the Western ear, I found the music these men played rather pleasant and lively. The instruments they used are peculiar to Kandahar, I was told, and the prince wanted one of the men to accompany him to Kabul; but the man was not attracted by the idea, and managed to evade the invitation.