Howard made no comment about McNair's father, but did note that he had a sister and two younger brothers, John (who worked for the Indian Government's Finance Department before dying in his early twenties of small-pox contracted at Lahore), and George (who became a solicitor in Calcutta).

"[4] He made his day trips over the border into Afghanistan under the protection of "Mani Khan, a well-known Darwesh Khel chief of gigantic stature" with whom he maintained "a great friendship.

"[4] Sir Robert Warburton recalled an encounter with McNair in early 1880 at a Laghman Valley shrine near Mihtarlam: The head keeper rushed up to us in great alarm and said, 'Here is a Sahib taking a picture of the ziarat, and he has only two men with him.

Some days afterwards I sent a few men with Mr. McNair to conduct him over the Adrak Badrak Pass, and having effected this with safety, he appeared before the General commanding the Gandamak Brigade, then on tour near Seh-Baba, much to that officer's astonishment, who would hardly credit that he had accomplished such a dangerous trip without a large escort.

This led to a mutual friendship, and on his explaining to me that he had a plan of getting into the Kafir country, which was by accompanying Meahs Hosein Shah and Sahib Gul (who yearly go to Chitral either through Dir or via the Kunar Valley) as far as Birkot and then following up the Arnawai stream, crossing the hills to the westward and returning to Jalalabad either by the Alingar or Alishang rivers, I suggested accompanying him in the guise of a Hakim or Tabib, i.e., native doctor.

"[7] McNair's surveying in Afghanistan had been limited to day trips since, as Holdich noted, "strict orders had been issued that on no account was any European officer or assistant to sleep on the wrong side of the frontier line.

On 9 April I was at Nowshera, where "by three o'clock on the following morning, with head shaved, a weak solution of caustic and walnut juice applied to hands and face, and wearing the dress peculiar to the Meahs or Kaka Khels, and in company with Hosein Shah, I sallied out as Mir Mahomed or Hakim Sahib.

"[2] Three days later at Ganderi, he joined his three associates "our party then consisting of forty, including muleteers, and fifteen baggage animals", loaded with articles for trade: "cloths of English manufacture, musical boxes, binoculars, time-pieces, a spare revolver or two with a few rounds of ammunition, salt, glass beads, shells, needles, country-made looking-glasses, shoes, and lungis, as well as several phials and galipots of medicines", and for provisions "nothing but sugar and tea.

"[2] As McNair explained, In addition to these I had secreted a prismatic and magnetic compass, a boiling point and aneroid thermometer, and a plane-table which I had constructed for the occasion.

"[2] But news arrived that a rival who had been spreading rumours alleging their party contained two Europeans in disguise, and "within a day or two of crossing the Shawal, Aman ul-Mulk summoned him back to Chitral; fearing for the safety of his colleagues, he obliged.

He appears to have been treated with hospitality and friendliness by the Khan of Dir, and, though opposed by the mullahs of Swat, was passed onwards to Chitral with honours and attendants.

From this pass he contemplated proceeding into Badakhshan and making a detour to explore the little known region round Farajghan; but the moment happened to be unfavourable, and he was told that, on the whole, he had better keep to the southern side of the watershed.

"Colonel Yule said he had for thirty or forty years looked with intense interest at the dark spot of Kafiristan on the map of Asia, and had therefore listened with great pleasure to Mr. McNair's modest account of one of the most adventurous journeys that had ever been described before the Society."

Rawlinson believed "Mr. McNair was the first European who had ever crossed the Hindu Kush upon this line, or had gained such an acquaintance with the different ranges as would enable geographers to map the country scientifically, and delineate its physical features."

[2] Sir Robert Warburton wrote, "when I saw him last at Peshawar, having escaped all dangers in Swat and Dir, he was trying to induce the Panjab Government to punish Rahat Shah Mia", the Kakakhel informant.

"[12] George Scott Robertson stated that McNair "never entered the real Kafir country at all; he only succeeded in reaching some of the Kalash villages of Chitral, which he mistook for the true Kafiristan.

The Kalash referred to are an idol-worshipping tribe, slaves to the Mehtar of Chitral, and must not be confounded with the independent mountaineers of Kafiristan, from whom they differ in language, dress, manners, and customs.

"[13] Keay suggests that Robertson's comments were probably motivated by "professional pique" and explains that "much importance was attached to the distinction between the Kalash, who came under the administration of Chitral, and the true Kati Kafirs of what had been independent Kafiristan.

In a 1988 reprint of "The Man Who Would Be King", Hugh Haughton wrote, "There was in fact one precedent for the duo's daredevil journey, and in composing the story I suspect that Kipling may have drawn upon the account of a visit to Kafiristan made by W. W. McNair, which was read to the Royal Geographical Society in December 1883.

McNair, an officer in the Indian Survey, disobeyed government orders forbidding Europeans to cross the frontier without permission, and made his way to Kafiristan disguised as a Muhammedan hakim, or native doctor.

"[19] Kipling's story follows McNair's description of the Kafirs as "incessantly engaged in petty warfare with the Mahommedans" but "exceedingly well disposed towards the British."

McNair's account, "give or take a few chiefs, is entirely consistent with the depiction of the Kafirs' arms and military abilities in Kipling's story, down to the matchlocks", Marx argued.