Afghanistan is a difficult country to get into, for not only is the Amir’s written permission necessary, but the Indian Government must consent also, for no European is allowed to go through the Khyber Pass and cross the frontier without a permit, and that is only granted on producing the Amir’s firman; and even then one is not allowed to start until the Afghans across the frontier have been communicated with and the escort arranged to meet the traveller on a certain day. It is also difficult to leave it, for the Amir is chary of giving leave to those who have spent some time in the country. I was there for over eight years without a break, and although I repeatedly asked for leave I was always put off on one pretext or another. When permission to leave has been given there always occurs another two or three weeks’ delay in getting together the pack-horses required for carrying luggage, and the escort of sowars (cavalry) necessary for protection on the journey, and the tents and carpets, etc. With a desire to start as soon as ever possible, the casual to-morrow-or-next-day habit of the people, to which one has got accustomed more or less, becomes of a sudden a prominent characteristic, and proportionately irritating. But as all things come to those who wait, provided they wait long enough, everything is at last ready, and one morning all the boxes and packages are fastened on the backs of the pack-animals, the servants are seated on those horses which carry the lightest loads, and the baggage is got off, and an hour or two later one mounts and starts off one’s self. It is an eight days’ journey from Kabul to Peshawar if long marches are undertaken each day, but the people who travel up and down that way usually take eleven or twelve days. I have done it in six days, but to do it in this time all the riding and pack-horses must be of the best, for the mountainous country traversed, and rough stony character of the tracks (there are no roads excepting round Kabul itself), make it very trying for the horses, and on a very long day’s march some will drop from fatigue, and cases of horses dying on the road are not at all uncommon.