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This, then, is the state of things existing at Kelát, not a hundred miles from the British outposts; this the enlightened sovereign who has been made "Companion of the Star of India," an order which, among his own people, he affects to look upon with the greatest contempt. The few women I saw at Kelát were distinctly good looking, far more so than those further south.
Then, with a whisk of the yellow bandanna: "I am glad I have none in Kelát!" A mark of great favour was then shown me, the Khan presenting me with his photograph, with the request that I would show it to "Parliament" when I got home. I think he was under the impression that the latter is a human being.
Theft is, according to the penal code, punished by fine and imprisonment, murder and adultery by death; but the law is subject to great modifications. In a word, the Khan is the law, and so long as a man can afford to pay or bribe him handsomely, he may commit the most heinous offences with impunity. Two instances of the way in which justice is carried out happened just before I arrived at Kelát.
In winter the cold is intense. Pottinger, the traveller, relates that on the 7th of February, 1810, when at Baghivana, five marches from Kelát, his water-skins were frozen into masses of ice, and seven days afterwards, at Kelát, he found the frost so intense that water froze instantly when thrown upon the ground.
A thorough miser, the Khan does not, like most Eastern potentates, pass the hours of night surrounded by the beauties of the harem, but securely locked in with his money-bags in a small, comfortless room on the roof of his palace. There is not the smallest doubt in my mind that Russian influence is, indirectly, being brought to bear on the Court of Kelát.
The Khan of Kelát very rarely leaves his palace, and is seldom seen abroad in the streets of Kelát except on Fridays, when he goes to the mosque on foot, attended by an escort armed to the teeth. He is said to live in constant dread of assassination, for his cruel, rapacious character has made him universally detested in and around the capital.
We were now once more on the beaten track, for though the country south of Gwarjak was, previous to our crossing it, unexplored, the journey from Kelát to Gajjar has frequently been made by Europeans during the past few years. Camp was no sooner pitched than presents of eggs, milk, rice, and tobacco were brought in, and I was cordially welcomed by the chief of the village.
After a short stay at Kelat, the two travellers, who still passed as horse-dealers, resolved to continue their journey, but instead of following the high road to Kandahar, they crossed a dreary and barren country, ill-populated, watered by the Caisser, a river which dries up during the summer; and they reached a little town, called Noschky or Nouchky, on the frontier of Afghanistan.
"Most certainly it is." "Your own countrymen told me so." At this there was a roar of laughter, in which the Khan joined. The durbar-room of Kelát reminded me of an English court of justice. When the Khan laughed his courtiers did, and vice versâ. After an interval of more snuff-taking and whispering, the Khan drew forth and examined my watch.
I was escorted to the latter the afternoon of my arrival by a guard of honour, preceded by the Djam's band half a dozen cracked English cavalry trumpets! Djam Ali Khan, the present ruler of the state of Las Beïla, is about fifty years of age, and is a firm ally of England. The Djam is a vassal of the Khan of Kelát, but, like most independent Baluch chiefs, only nominally so.
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