A place or town in foreign lands carrying a name akin to a place or city in your own country is bound to arouse interest, making you curious to know more about that place.

Coming across a place called Loralai in Germany, spelled Loreley there, a name shared by a city in Pakistan’s Balochistan province was enough to arouse my interest in the town.

Loreley in Germany is a small town in the Rhineland. It is situated on the banks of river Rhine in the middle of the country’s paradisiacal landscape from Mainz to Bonn. As the most important traffic artery of Germany, the river Rhine is considered to be the nerve centre for cities and towns on its banks, including Cologne, Bonn, Mainz, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. Countless barges and huge cargo ships, loaded with various types of raw material and finished goods, sail on the waters of River Rhine.

The volume of merchandise that these ships carry is a testimony to the booming economy of Germany and the efficiency of its inland shipping and waterway networks.

The mild climate of Rhineland, coupled with its green valleys, has always been a source of great attraction for foreigners. The entire valley is dotted with ancient settlements and castles, erected either by the German kings to defend this land of grapes from foreign invasions or to protect the valleys conquered by them in battles from intruding armies of neighbouring states.

Growing of grapes for distilling wine is considered as an important economic activity even today in this region, which produces bulk of the hectolitres of wine produced annually by Germany.

In view of the historic and economic importance of the Rhineland as well as its panoramic and enchanting landscape, Germany hosted a delegation from the Senate of Pakistan, of which I was also a part. We decided to take the express train to Bonn from Frankfurt, on the first leg of our visit to Germany.

The train journey provided a good opportunity for us to have a close look at the picturesque Rhineland. The over 400-kilometre long journey along the Rhine River kept the Pakistani delegation fully captivated and absorbed by the beautiful, serene and ever-changing landscape and also to have a look at the towns and cities situated along the banks of the river.

After we had traversed through almost half our journey, suddenly, the representative of the host organisation -- Hanns Seidel Foundation -- pointed towards a cliff, saying "see that is Loreley, a place famous because of scenic spots and a legend associated with it."

The word Loreley immediately attracted the attention of the entire Pakistani delegation because they were familiar with another city by that name in Pakistan. All of them became curious and wanted to know more about Germany’s Loreley and the legend associated with it.

According to the legend, in ancient times a very beautiful woman, with long blonde hair, lived in Loreley. She would often climb a river-side cliff and sing songs from there in a voice which was highly melodious. Her captivating beauty and melodious voice enchanted the crew of ships that passed through the area. They would start gazing towards the heavenly beauty, forgetting about their ships and duties assigned to them on the vessels. This distraction often resulted in collision of ships, wrecking the crafts and causing tremendous loss both in men and material.

At that particular spot, the river is quite narrow and it has high cliffs on both the banks and innumerable boulders peeping through its swiftly flowing waters. Even a little carelessness on the part of the crew could have caused an accident, particularly, in an age when the ships were literally at the mercy of air or water waves.

Advances in technology have made navigation quite safe now, but the legend lives on and the natives narrate it fondly.

On return, I tried to dig out more information about Loralai in Pakistan, a town which is predominantly inhabited by Pushto-speaking tribes, and found out that some of the customs followed by the locals were the same as practiced by the country-folk in some of the European countries. Mass dancing, though now on the wane, is one trait peculiar to some tribes inhabiting the areas, similar to Qila Saifullah and Zhob, around Loralai. In the local dialect, this dance is called Gadh-a-amai.

On festive occasions, the entire population, including women, assemble in their respective villages and dance together, in pairs, holding each other’s hands. The mass dance resembles, in some respects, the Luddi dance of the Punjab’s countryside with the exception that in Luddi the entire population of the village does not participate. It is a post-harvest dance in Punjab.

Quite a number of countries in Europe have a tradition of mass dancing on festive occasions, which attracts men as well as women, irrespective of the status or background.

Another custom peculiar to the Loralai district of Pakistan is the Suk Majlis, literally meaning dry meeting, which affords a chance to would-be couples to meet and understand each other before they enter into wedlock. The tribes subscribing to this norm permit the would-be grooms to visit houses and meet their would-be brides in the presence of other members of the bride’s family.

The rationale of this custom appears to provide a chance or an opportunity to the would-be couple to know each other and develop some understanding and liking before tying the nuptial knot. However, with the passage of time, the number of people following this custom appears to be decreasing while in Europe it has assumed the form of a courtship due to the liberal attitudes and behaviours that have emerged there over the centuries.

The tribes inhabiting Loralai claim that their ancestors migrated to this part from the Central Asia. It appears that in addition to the Pathans, this region is also inhabited by a stock of the Aryans who might have migrated to these lands in ancient times, giving it the present nomenclature and succeeded, till recently, in retaining some of their old customs and traditions due to the remoteness of the region and absence of an efficient communication system there.

The Germans also feel some attraction for Loralai in Pakistan. Some three decades ago, German Hanns Seidel Foundation had established a vocational training institute there. This amply proves the fact that if one comes across a place in distant lands having a name similar to that of a town or city back home, it is bound to arouse one’s curiosity about the place and make one eager to know as much as possible about it.