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104 after sustaining heavy casualties. No nation or race has ever shown more dauntless courage or more indomitable energy than the Afghans in their wars with Arabs. The Arabs attacked Kabul and the Central Afghan plateau no less than six times, but all their efforts were frustrated and each time they had to fall back precipitately. In modern times the regiments of the British army which stormed triumphantly through Africa and Asia, suffered crushing defeats at the hands of the Afghans. Only the Afghans defeated the British Empire, not once, but three times and at the Britishers' game of war. The disaster of the British troops— troops long accustomed to oriental fighting, during the First Afghan War (1838—42), cannot be explained in any way other than that the British were outfought by the Afghans who were armed with but primitive weapons. The Second Afghan War (1878—1881) was another debacle. The Third Afghan War (1919) proved conclusively that the vast development of Britain's fighting methods during those four years (1914—1918) did not enable her to subdue the Afghans. The Afghan ideal of progress seems to consist in a proper balance of material advancement and spiritual renovation. It permits the assimilation of the substance of the great cultures of the world, without impairing its national individuality. The Afghans want to preserve a spiritual civilisation which is as important as material progress, realising that the Western civilisation, with all its great achievements in the field of science and art and other departments of knowledge, is lacking in this respect. The Afghans are physically a very fine people. They are of robust build, strong, stalwart and muscular. They have high