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or infidelity, which may expose him to the bigotry of the people or to the legal persecution of the Cauzy; but, in the remote parts of that country, an injury or an insult to a Moollah would itself be sufficient to raise a tumult. On those occasions, the Moollahs send round to their brethren to assemble, suspend the public worship, and the ceremonies of burial, pronounce their antagonists infidels, and formally excommuniIf this fails cate and curse them.

in forcing their enemies to submit, they parade the country with the green standard of the prophet, beating drums, and proclaiming the Selaut (or war-cry of the Mussulmans). They announce, that all who fall in their cause will be martyrs, and that all who fail to join them are excommunicated. By these means, they soon assemble a mob (or as they call it themselves an army); and, as the Afghauns are more afraid of their anathemas than their arms, they generally bring their adversaries to their terms, which include the right to plunder and burn the houses of the chief offenders, and to impose a fine on their abettors. Stories are told of the walls of towns falling down at the shout of an army of Moollahs; and swords are blunted, and balls turned aside, when aimed at the life of these holy personages. Yet, a stand was once made against them, even near Peshawer, when the Haukun of Hushtnugger resisted an army of them who came to enforce an usurious contract, and beat them off with loss, to the great joy of the neighbourhood. Though treated with great respect in this part of the country,

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I believe they are more feared
than loved. In the west, their
power is much more limited, and
their character much more respec-
table. They are, in consequence,
generally popular, particularly in
the country: but, even there, they
are complained of for the vices of
their order, and for their intrusive
and insatiable demands on the
hospitality of the inhabitants.
Even in the west, their power has
sometimes been felt in the towns,
particularly during the reign of
Timoor Shauh, whose Prime Mi-
nister was a Moollah. At that
time, they carried their insolence
to such a pitch at Candahar, that
a band of them attacked Kefauyet
Khaun, (a Sheah nobleman of
Persian descent, who had held
some of the highest offices in the
state), and rushed into his haram,
insisting on a present, and pro-
testing against the injustice of his
eating rich pilaws, while they had
only dry bread. It was with diffi-
culty, and by the king's interpo-
sition alone, that the tumult was
appeased. Their peculiar vices are
hypocrisy, bigotry, and avarice.
Their lives are sanctimonious in
public, but some of them practise
all sorts of licentiousness that can
be enjoyed without scandal; and
many are notorious for the prac
tice of usury. Lending money on
interest is expressly prohibited by
the Koraun; and few decent Mus-
sulmans openly infringe a prohi-
bition which it is so easy to evade.
Most men content themselves with
lending their money to merchants,
stipulating for a share of the profit
derived from the use of it, or with
placing it in the hands of bankers,
who profess to employ it in com-
merce, and to secure the owner a

certain

certain gain; but, many Moullahs lend avowedly on compound interest and with good security, by which they multiply their wealth to an incredible extent, and have got possession of a considerable share of the landed property of the kingdom. But, as all do not practise usury, it may excite some curiosity to know how so numerous a body can be maintained.

Besides those who have ecclesiastical offices, or pensions from the crown (who will be mentioned in another place), and the more numerous class of village Imauns, who receive a certain share of the produce of the crops and flocks in their districts, many have grants of land from the king and from heads of villages; and some have received legacies of land from individuals. Some subsist by teaching and practising the law; others teach schools, or are tutors to the sons of rich men; some preach, and are paid by their congregations; some live by the charitable allowances granted by the crown, and by villages, to students, or by the alms and hospitality of people, through whose country they travel; and others follow trade or farming, or live on their own means, and pursue their studies and amusements at leisure.

The character of a Moollah is conferred by an assembly of members of that order on persons, who have gone through the proper course of study, and passed the requisite examination. The admission of a candidate is attended with a prescribed form; the chief part of which is investing him with a turban of a Moollah, which is bound round his head by the principal person in the assembly.

The Moollahs are distinguished by a particular dress, consisting of a large loose gown of white or black cotton, and a very large white turban of a peculiar shape.

There are no corporate bodies of Moollahs as there are of monks in Europe, nor is the whole order under the command of any chief, or subject to any particular discipline, like the clergy in England. All, except those who hold offices under the crown, are entirely independent; and, the co-operation among them is only produced by a sense of common interest. They all marry, and live in other respects like laymen. I do not know that they have any peculiar manners, except an affectation of strictness. Some of them affect great gravity, and others take pleasure in frequenting all companies, and meddling in all affairs.

One of these may often be seen, with a large turban, and a blue handkerchief, a couple of yards long, over his shoulder, parading the streets at the head of a dozen of his disciples, with a long staff in his hand, and a large law book under his arm; or sitting in the houses of the rich, haranguing the company, enforcing his doctrines with his fore finger, and shaking his wide sleeve, or amu• sing the master of the house with his jokes and stories, and handing round his enormous snuff-box among the rest of the party. Moollahs of this sort are reckoned very pleasant companions; they are great frequenters of Jeergas, where indeed their knowledge gives the whole order much weight in civil matters.

One would expect that the Moollahs would be great enemies

to

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to people of other religions, or at least would shun their society (as I believe they do in Persia), but this is by no means the case: I have had a great many acquaintances among the Moollahs, and found some of them very intelligent and agreeable. I was particularly well acquainted with two Moollahs, who were the sons of the Khaunee Ooloom (or lord of the learned), one of the greatest of the Ulima of his time; and I found them the best informed and most liberal men I ever met, either in Afghaunistaun or in India.

It is not easy to say whether the Moollahs are, on the whole, a useful body, or otherwise. They are of eminent utility in most parts of the country, from their effect in moderating the violence of an ungoverned people, by the morality which they inculcate, and from the tendency of their habits to keep up the little science and literature which is known: I believe the existence of their order is beneficial in the present situation of the Afghauns; but it is more than probable that it obstructs the transition to a better state of things, and it is certain that neither they nor their religion are at all adapted to a high stage of civilization, though well suited to the rude Arabs, for whom that religion was first invented.

EDUCATION AND LITERATURE OF

THE AFGHAUNS.

(From the same.)

All the Afghauns are sent in their infancy to a Moollah for VOL. LVII.

education. Some learn no more than their regular Namauz, and other occasional prayers and passages of the Koraun, with the ceremonies of their religion, and the duties of a Mussulman. About Peshawer, and among the Dooraunees, the next step is to learn to read the Koraun in Arabic, often without understanding it; but in other tribes this study is reserved for a more advanced stage. This is the education of the lower orders, of whom not a quarter can read their own language.

The rich keep Moollahs in their houses to teach their children, but allow them all the power of a common schoolmaster. The Moollah who had charge of the prime minister's son (a boy of sixteen when I saw him), told me that he kept him to his book for almost the whole day.

There is a schoolmaster in every village and camp, who is maintained by a piece of land allotted to him, and by a small contribution which he receives from his scholars. His office is sometimes united with that of the priest of the village; but it is oftener distinct, especially in large places. In towns there are regular schools, like those in European countries, where the master is maintained by his scholars alone. The sum commonly paid to a schoolmaster in Peshawer, is about fifteen pence a-month; but the payments are in proportion to the circumstances of the boy's father. In most parts of the country, the boys live with their fathers, and only attend the school during the day; but among the Berdooraunees, a boy is sent at a very early

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age to a distant village, where he lives in the mosque, subsists by alms, and has little or no intercourse with his parents, but is taken care of by the schoolmaster under whom he has been placed.

The following is the course of study pursued about Peshawer: a child begins its letters (in conformity to a traditional injunction of the Prophet) when it is four years, four months, and four days old; but its studies are immediately laid aside, and not resumed till it is six or seven years old, when it learns its letters, and is taught to read a little Persian poem of Saadis, which points out the beauty of each of the virtues, and the deformity of each of the vices, in very simple, and not inelegant language. This takes from four months to a year, according to the child's capacity. After this, common people learn the Koraun, and study some books in their own language; people of decent fortune proceed to read the Persian classics, and a little of the Arabic grammar: boys who are to be brought up as Moollahs, give a great deal of their time to this last study, which, as the Arabic grammars are very elaborate, and comprehend a great deal of science, that we do not mix with the rudiments of a language, sometimes occupies several years. When a young Moollah has made sufficient proficiency in this study, he goes to Peshawer, Hushtnuggur, or some other place famous for its Moollahs, and begins on logic, law, and theology. No further knowledge is required to complete a Moollah's education, but many push their researches into ethics,

metaphysics, and the system of physics known in the east, as well as history, poetry, and medicine, which last is a fashionable study for men of all professions. For those studies, and for the more advanced branches of theology and law, they often travel to distant cities, and even to Bokhaura, which is a great seat of Mahommedan learning; but Peshawer seems, on the whole, to be the most learned city in these countries, and many more students come thither from Bokhaura, than repair to that city from Peshawer. India has not a great reputation for learning, and the heresy of the Persians makes all Soonnees avoid the infection of their colleges.

It is reckoned a good work in the sight of God to promote learning, and, consequently, besides the king's colleges, there is an establishment in every village for maintaining students. The consequence is, that the country is over-run with half-taught Moollahs, who rather impede than promote the progress of real learning.

Before saying more about the learning of the Afghauns, it wili be well to give some account of their language, which, as I have already mentioned, is called Pushtoo. Its origin is not easily discovered. A large portion of the words that compose it, spring from some unknown root, and in this portion are included most of those words which, from the early necessity for designating the objects they represent, must have formed parts of the original language of the people; yet some of this very class belong to the Zend

and

and Pehlevee; such as the terms for father and mother, sister and brother. This seems also to be the case with the numerals; though the Zend and Pehlevee numerals bear so strong a resemblance to the Shanscrit ones, that it is difficult to distinguish them. Most of the verbs, and many of the particles again belong to the unknown root. The words connected with religion, government, and science, are mostly introduced from the Arabic through the Persian.

Of two hundred and eighteen words which I compared with the corresponding ones in Persian, Zend, Pehlevee, Shanscrit, Hindostaunee, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, and Chaldaic, I found one hundred and ten that could not be referred to any of those languages, but seemed distinct and original. Of the remainder, by far the greater part were modern Persian; but some of these were introduced into the latter language from the Zend, and many more from the Pehlevee, while a good number were words of those languages not employed in modern Persian. Some of these Zend and Pehlevee words are, however, common to the Shanscrit, the three languages having a great affinity; and some words also occur, which are to be found in Shanscrit alone, as do five or six words of the Hindostaunee language. It is probable some Punjaubee words would also be detected, if the list were compared with a vocabulary of that language. Not one word of the two hundred and eighteen has the smallest appearance of being de

ducible from the Hebrew or Chaldaic, Georgian or Armenian.

The Afghauns use the Persian alphabet, and generally write in the Nushk character. As they have some sounds, which are not represented by any Persian letters, they express them by adding particular points or other marks to the nearest Persian letter.

The Pushtoo, though rather rough, is a manly language, and not unpleasing to an ear accustomed to oriental tongues. The dialects of the East and West, differ not only in the pronunciation, but in the words they make use of, to a degree at least equal to the difference between Scots and English. None of the famous Pushtoo authors are of more than a century and half old; and, I should imagine, that there were no books in the language that can pretend to more than double that antiquity. What literature there is, has been derived from that of the Persians; and their compositions would resemble that model, but for their greater rudeness and, superior simplicity. I have the names of eight or nine Afghaun poets, besides translators from the Persian.

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