Part 20

Kandahar is approximately a square-built city, surrounded by a wall of about 3(3/4) m. circuit, and from 25 to 30 ft. high, with an average breadth of 15 ft. Outside the wall is a ditch 10 ft. deep. The city and its defences are entirely mud-built. There are four main streets crossing each other nearly at right angles, the central "chouk" being covered with a dome. These streets are wide and bordered with trees, and are flanked by shops with open fronts and verandas. There are no buildings of any great pretension in Kandahar, a few of the more wealthy Hindus occupying the best houses. The tomb of Ahmad Shah is the only attempt at monumental architecture. This, with its rather handsome cupola, and the twelve minor tombs of Ahmad Shah's children grouped around, contains a few good specimens of fretwork and of inlaid inscriptions. The four streets of the city divide it into convenient quarters for the accommodation of its mixed population of Duranis, Ghilzais, Parsiwans and Kakars, numbering in all some 30,000 souls. Of these the greater proportion are the Parsiwans (chiefly Kizilbashes).

It is reckoned that there are 1600 shops and 182 mosques in the city. The mullahs of these mosques are generally men of considerable power. The walls of the city are pierced by the four principal gates of "Kabul," "Shikarpur," "Herat" and the "Idgah," opposite the four main streets, with two minor gates, called the Top Khana and the Bardurani respectively, in the western half of the city. The Idgah gate passes through the citadel, which is a square-built enclosure with sides of about 260 yds. in length. The flank defences of the main wall are insufficient; indeed there is no pretence at scientific structure about any part of the defences; but the site of the city is well chosen for defence, and the water supply (drawn by canals from the Arghandab or derived from wells) is good.

About 4 m. west of the present city, stretched along the slopes of a rocky ridge, and extending into the plains at its foot, are the ruins of the old city of Kandahar sacked and plundered by Nadir Shah in 1738. From the top of the ridge a small citadel overlooks the half-buried ruins. On the north-east face of the hill forty steps, cut out of solid limestone, lead upward to a small, dome-roofed recess, which contains some interesting Persian inscriptions cut in relief on the rock, recording particulars of the history of Kandahar, and defining the vast extent of the kingdom of the emperor Baber. Popular belief ascribes the foundation of the old city to Alexander the Great.

Although Kandahar has long ceased to be the seat of government, it is nevertheless by far the most important trade centre in Afghanistan, and the revenues of the Kandahar province assist largely in supporting the chief power at Kabul. There are no manufactures or industries of any importance peculiar to Kandahar, but the long lines of bazaars display goods from England, Russia, Hindustan, Persia and Turkestan, embracing a trade area as large probably as that of any city in Asia. The customs and town dues together amount to a sum equal to the land revenue of the Kandahar province, which is of considerable extent, stretching to Pul-i-Sangin, 10 m. south of Kalat-i-Ghilzai on the Kabul side, to the Helmund on the west, and to the Hazara country on the north. Although Farah has been governed from Kandahar since 1863, its revenues are not reckoned as a part of those of the province. The land revenue proper is assessed in grain, the salaries of government officials, pay of soldiers, &c., being disbursed by "barats" or orders for grain at rates fixed by government, usually about 20% above the city market prices. The greater part of the English goods sold at Herat are imported by Karachi and Kandahar--a fact which testifies to the great insecurity of trade between Meshed and Herat. Some of the items included as town dues are curious. For instance, the tariff on animals exposed for sale includes a charge of 5% ad valorem on slave girls, besides a charge of 1 rupee per head. The kidney fat of all sheep and the skins of all goats slaughtered in the public yard are perquisites of government, the former being used for the manufacture of soap, which, with snuff, is a government monopoly. The imports consist chiefly of English goods, indigo, cloth, boots, leather, sugar, salt, iron and copper, from Hindustan, and of shawls, carpets, "barak" (native woollen cloth), postins (coats made of skins), shoes, silks, opium and carpets from Meshed, Herat and Turkestan. The exports are wool, cotton, madder, cummin seed, asafoetida, fruit, silk and horses. The system of coinage is also curious: 105 English rupees are melted down, and the alloy extracted, leaving 100 rupees' worth of silver; 295 more English rupees are then melted, and the molten metal mixed with the 100 rupees silver; and out of this 808 Kandahari rupees are coined. As the Kandahari rupee is worth about 8 annas (half an English rupee) the government thus realizes a profit of 1%. Government accounts are kept in "Kham" rupees, the "Kham" being worth about five-sixths of a Kandahari rupee; in other words, it about equals the franc, or the Persian "kran."

Immediately to the south and west of Kandahar is a stretch of well-irrigated and highly cultivated country, but the valley of the Arghandab is the most fertile in the district, and, from the luxuriant abundance of its orchards and vineyards, offers the most striking scenes of landscape beauty. The pomegranate fields form a striking feature in the valley--the pomegranates of Kandahar, with its "sirdar" melons and grapes, being unequalled in quality by any in the East. The vines are grown on artificial banks, probably for want of the necessary wood to trellis them--the grapes being largely exported in a semi-dried state. Fruit, indeed, besides being largely exported, forms the chief staple of the food supply of the inhabitants throughout Afghanistan. The art of irrigation is so well understood that the water supply is at times exhausted, no river water being allowed to run to waste. The plains about Kandahar are chiefly watered by canals drawn from the Arghandab near Baba-wali, and conducted through the same gap in the hills which admits the Herat road. The amount of irrigation and the number of water channels form a considerable impediment to the movements of troops, not only immediately about Kandahar, but in all districts where the main rivers and streams are bordered by green bands of cultivation. Irrigation by "karez" is also largely resorted to. The karez is a system of underground channelling which usually taps a sub-surface water supply at the foot of some of the many rugged and apparently waterless hills which cover the face of the country. The water is not brought to the surface, but is carried over long distances by an underground channel or drain, which is constructed by sinking shafts at intervals along the required course and connecting the shafts by tunnelling. The general agricultural products of the country are wheat, barley, pulse, fruit, madder, asafoetida, lucerne, clover and tobacco.

Of the mineral resources of the Kandahar district not much is known, but an abandoned gold mine exists about 2 m. north of the town. Some general idea of the resources of the Kandahar district may be gathered from the fact that it supplied the British troops with everything except luxuries during the entire period of occupation in 1879-81; and that, in spite of the great strain thrown on those resources by the presence of the two armies of Ayub Khan and of General Roberts, and after the total failure of the autumn crops and only a partial harvest the previous spring, the army was fed without great difficulty until the final evacuation, at one-third of the prices paid in Quetta for supplies drawn from India.

_History._--Kandahar has a stormy history. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni took it in the 11th century from the Afghans who then held it. In the beginning of the 13th century it was taken by Jenghiz Khan, and in the 14th by Timur. In 1507 it was captured by the emperor Baber, but shortly afterwards it fell again into Afghan hands, to be retaken by Baber in 1521. Baber's son, Humayun, agreed to cede Kandahar to Persia, but failed to keep his word, and the Persians besieged the place unsuccessfully. Thus it remained in the possession of the Moguls till 1625, when it was taken by Shah Abbas. Aurangzeb tried to take it in 1649 with 5000 men, but failed. Another attempt in 1652 was equally unsuccessful. It remained in Persian possession till 1709, when it was taken by the Afghans, but was retaken after a two years' siege by Nadir Shah. Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1749, and immediately on hearing the news of his death Ahmad Shah (Abdali) seized Nadir Shah's treasure at Kandahar, and proclaimed himself king, with the consent, not only of the Afghans, but, strange to say, of the Hazaras and Baluchis as well. He at once changed the site of the city to its present position, and thus founded the Afghan kingdom, with modern Kandahar as its capital. Ahmad Shah died in 1773, and was succeeded by his son Timur, who died in 1793, and left the throne to his son Zaman Shah. This prince was deposed by his half-brother Mahmud, who was in his turn deposed by Shah Shuja, the full brother of Zaman Shah. After a short reign Shah Shuja was compelled to abdicate from his inability to repress the rising power of Fateh Khan, a Barakzai chief, and he took refuge first with Ranjit Singh, who then ruled the Punjab, and finally secured the protection of British power. Afghanistan was now practically dismembered. Mahmud was reinstated by Fateh Khan, whom he appointed his vizier, and whose nephews, Dost Mahommed Khan and Kohn dil Khan, he placed respectively in the governments of Kabul and Kandahar. Fateh Khan was barbarously murdered by Kamran (Mahmud's son) near Ghazni in 1818; and in retaliation Mahmud himself was driven from power, and the Barakzai clan secured the sovereignty of Afghanistan. While Dost Mahommed held Kabul, Kandahar became temporarily a sort of independent chiefship under two or three of his brothers. In 1839 the cause of Shah Shuja was actively supported by the British. Kandahar was occupied, and Shah Shuja reinstated on the throne of his ancestors. Dost Mahommed was defeated near Kabul, and after surrender to the British force, was deported into Hindustan. The British army of occupation in southern Afghanistan continued to occupy Kandahar from 1839 till the autumn of 1842, when General Nott marched on Kabul to meet Pollock's advance from Jalalabad. The cantonments near the city, built by Nott's division, were repaired and again occupied by the British army in 1879, when Shere Ali was driven from power by the invasion of Afghanistan, nor were they finally evacuated till the spring of 1881. Trade statistics of late years show a gradual increase of exports to India from Kandahar and the countries adjacent thereto, but a curious falling-off in imports. The short-sighted policy of the amir Abdur Rahman in discouraging imports doubtless affected the balance, nor did his affectation of ignoring the railway between New Chaman and Kila Abdulla (on the Peshin side of the Khojak) conduce to the improvement of trade. (T. H. H.*)

KANDI, a town of British India, in Murshidabad district, Bengal. Pop. (1901), 12,037. It is the residence of the rajas of Paikpara, a wealthy and devout Hindu family. The founder of this family was Ganga Govind Singh, the banyan or agent of Warren Hastings, who was born at Kandi, and retired hither in his old age with an immense fortune. His name has acquired celebrity for the most magnificent _sraddha_, or funeral obsequies, ever performed in Bengal, celebrated in honour of his mother, at a cost, it is said, of L200,000.

KANDY, a town near the centre of Ceylon, 75 m. from Colombo by rail, formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name, situated towards the heart of the island, 1718 ft. above the sea. It lies round the margin of an artificial lake constructed by the last king of Kandy in 1806, and is beautifully surrounded by hills. The most striking objects are the temples (of which twelve are Buddhist and four Brahman), the tombs of the Kandian kings, and the various buildings of the royal residence, partly allowed to fall into disrepair, partly utilized by the government. Of the temples the Dalada Malagawa is worthy of particular mention; it claims, as the name indicates, to be in possession of a Buddha tooth.

Kandy was occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century and by the Dutch in 1763; but in both instances the native kings succeeded in shaking off the foreign yoke. The British got possession of the place in 1803, but the garrison afterwards capitulated and were massacred, and it was not till 1814-15 that the king was defeated and dethroned. The British authority was formally established by the convention of March 2, 1815. In 1848, owing to an attempt at rebellion, the town was for a time under martial law. It has been greatly improved of recent years. Sir William Gregory when governor did much to restore the ancient Kandy decorations, while the Victoria Jubilee Commemoration Building, including "Ferguson Memorial Hall," and two fine hotels, add to the improvements. The Royal Botanic Gardens are situated at Peradeniya, 3 m. distant. Kandy is a uniquely beautiful, highland, tropical town, full of interesting historical and Buddhistic associations. A water supply and electric lighting have been introduced. Roman Catholic missions are active in the work of education, for which a large block of buildings has been erected. Church of England, Wesleyan and Baptist missions are also at work. The population of the town in 1900 was 26,386; of the district, 377,591. Average annual rainfall, 81(1/2) in.; average temperature, 75.3. There is a branch railway from Kandy, north to Matale, 17 m.

KANE, ELISHA KENT (1820-1857), American scientist and explorer, was born in Philadelphia on the 20th of February 1820, the son of the jurist John Kintzing Kane (1795-1858), a friend and supporter of Andrew Jackson, attorney-general of Pennsylvania in 1845-1846, U.S. judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after 1846, and president of the American Philosophical Society in 1856-1858. Young Kane entered the university of Virginia and obtained the degree of M.D. in 1842, and in the following year entered the U.S. navy as surgeon. He had already acquired a considerable reputation in physiological research. The ship to which he was appointed was ordered to China, and he found opportunities during the voyage for indulging his passion for exploration, making a journey from Rio de Janeiro to the base of the Andes, and another from Bombay through India to Ceylon. On the arrival of the ship at its destination he provided a substitute for his post and crossed over to the island of Luzon, which he explored. In 1844 he left China, and, returning by India, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, reached America in 1846. In that year he was ordered to the west coast of Africa, where he visited Dahomey, and contracted fever, which told severely on his constitution. On his return in 1847, he exchanged the naval for the military service, and was sent to join the U.S. army in Mexico, where he had some extraordinary adventures, and where he was again stricken with fever.

On the fitting out of the first Grinnell expedition, in 1850, to search for Sir John Franklin, Kane was appointed surgeon and naturalist under Lieut. de Haven, who commanded the ships "Advance" and "Rescue." The expedition, after an absence of sixteen months, during nine of which the ships were ice-bound, returned without having found any trace of the missing vessels. Kane was in feeble health, but worked on at his narrative of the expedition, which was published in 1854, under the title of _The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin_. He was determined not to give up the search for Franklin, and in spite of ill-health travelled through the States lecturing to obtain funds, and gave up his pay for twenty months. At length Henry Grinnell fitted out an expedition, in the little brig "Advance," of which Kane was given the command. She sailed in June 1853, and passing up Smith Sound at the head of Baffin Bay advanced into the enclosed sea which now bears the name of Kane Basin, thus establishing the Polar route of many future Arctic expeditions. Here, off the coast of Greenland, the expedition passed two winters, accomplishing much useful geographical, as well as scientific, work, including the attainment of what was to remain for sixteen years the highest northern latitude, 80 deg. 35' N. (June 1854). From this point a large area of open water was seen which was believed to be an "open Polar Sea," a chimera which played an important and delusive role in subsequent explorations. After enduring the greatest hardships it was resolved to abandon the ship, Upernivik being reached on the 5th of August 1855, whence a relief expedition brought the explorers home. Medals were authorized by Congress, and in the following year Dr Kane received the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and, two years later, a gold medal from the Paris Geographical Society. He published _The Second Grinnell Expedition_ in 1856. Dr Kane died at Havana on the 16th of February 1857, at the age of thirty-seven. Between his first and second arctic voyages he made the acquaintance of the Fox family, the spiritualists. With one of the daughters, Margaret, he carried on a long correspondence, which was afterwards published by the lady, who declared that they were privately married.

See _Biography of E. K. Kane_, by William Elder (1858); _Life of E. K. Kane and other American Explorers_, by S. M. Smucker (1858); _The Love-Life of Dr Kane, containing the Correspondence and a History of the Engagement and Secret Marriage between E. K. Kane and Margaret Fox_ (New York, 1866); "Discoveries of Dr Kane," in _Jour. of the Roy. Geog. Soc._, vol. xxviii. (reprinted in _R. G. S. Arctic Papers_ of 1875).

KANE, a borough of McKean county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 90 m. E.S.E. of Erie. Pop. (1890), 2944; (1900), 5296, (971 foreign-born); (1910) 6626. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Kane & Elk, and the Big Level & Kinzua railways. It is situated about 2015 ft. above the sea in a region producing natural gas, oil, lumber and silica, and has some reputation as a summer resort. The borough has manufactories of window glass, plate glass and bottles, and repair shops of the Pennsylvania railroad. Kane was settled in 1859, and was incorporated as a borough in 1887. It was named in honour of its founder Gen. Thomas L. Kane (1822-1883), brother of Elisha Kent Kane.

KANGAROO, the universally accepted, though not apparently the native, designation of the more typical representatives of the marsupial family _Macropodidae_ (see MARSUPIALIA). Although intimately connected with the cuscuses and phalangers by means of the musk-kangaroo, the kangaroos and wallabies, together with the rat-kangaroos, are easily distinguishable from other diprotodont marsupials by their general conformation, and by peculiarities in the structure of their limbs, teeth and other organs. They vary in size from that of a sheep to a small rabbit. The head, especially in the larger species, is small, compared with the rest of the body, and tapers forward to the muzzle. The shoulders and fore-limbs are feebly developed, and the hind-limbs of disproportionate strength and magnitude, which give the animals a peculiarly awkward appearance when moving about on all-fours, as they occasionally do when feeding. Rapid progression is, however, performed only by the powerful hind-limbs, the animals covering the ground by a series of immense bounds, during which the fore part of the body is inclined forwards, and balanced by the long, strong and tapering tail, which is carried horizontally backwards. When not moving, they often assume a perfectly upright position, the tail aiding the two hind-legs to form a tripod, and the front-limbs dangling by the side of the chest. This position gives full scope for the senses of sight, hearing and smell to warn of the approach of enemies. The fore-paws have five digits, each armed with a strong, curved claw. The hind-foot is extremely long, narrow and (except in the musk-kangaroo) without the first toe. It consists mainly of one very large and strong toe, corresponding to the fourth of the human foot, ending in a strong curved and pointed claw (fig. 2). Close to the outer side of this lies a smaller fifth digit, and to the inner side two excessively slender toes (the second and third), bound together almost to the extremity in a common integument. The two little claws of these toes, projecting together from the skin, may be of use in scratching and cleaning the fur of the animal, but the toes must have quite lost all connexion with the functions of support or progression. This type of foot-structure is termed syndactylous.

The dental formula, when completely developed, is _incisors_ 3/1, _canines_ 1/0, _premolars_ 3/3, _molars_ 3/3 on each side, giving a total of 34 teeth. The three incisors of the upper jaw are arranged in a continuous arched series, and have crowns with broad cutting edges; the first or middle incisor is often larger than the others. Corresponding to these in the lower jaw is but one tooth on each side, which is of great size, directed horizontally forwards, narrow, lanceolate and pointed with sharp edges. Owing to the slight union of the two halves of the lower jaw in front in many species the two lower incisors work together like the blades of a pair of scissors. The canines are absent or rudimentary in the lower, and often deciduous at an early age in the upper jaw. The first two premolars are compressed, with cutting longitudinal edges, the anterior one is deciduous, being lost about the time the second one replaces the milk-molar, so that three premolars are never found in place and use in the same individual. The last premolar and the molars have quadrate crowns, provided with two strong transverse ridges, or with four obtuse cusps. In _Macropus giganteus_ and its immediate allies, the premolars and sometimes the first molar are shed, so that in old examples only the two posterior molars and the incisors are found in place. The milk-dentition, as in other marsupials, is confined to a single tooth on each side of each jaw, the other molars and incisors being never changed. The dentition of the kangaroos, functionally considered, thus consists of sharp-edged incisors, most developed near the median line of the mouth, for the purpose of cropping herbage, and ridged or tuberculated molars for crushing.

The number of vertebrae is--in the cervical region 7, dorsal 13, lumbar 6, sacral 2, caudal varying according to the length of the tail, but generally from 21 to 25. In the fore-limb the clavicle and the radius and ulna are well developed, allowing of considerable freedom of motion of the fore-paw. The pelvis has large epipubic or "marsupial" bones. The femur is short, and the tibia and fibula of great length, as is the foot, the whole of which is applied to the ground when the animal is at rest in the upright position.