ing priestly functions exactly as described by Syad Allum. He says that from the descriptions then given him he quite concluded that I was there in disguise, but thought it wiser not to try and meet me, as it might have been dangerous for us both, although the people knew and believed that I was a Mahomedan European! He shortly afterwards had to run for his own life, losing everything he possessed except the clothes he wore. He too, I find, is quite satisfied of my real identity with my Doppelganger, but is too polite to contradict me.

Here ends my story; but a few concluding remarks may not be amiss. By this time the knowledge has spread far and wide over the country of what must seem, to a large number of Affghans, to be a most glaring case of relapse from a high standard of Mahomedan saintship-clericalism would perhaps be a better word. Yet it is strange that not the least irritation or ill-will has ever been shown against me. On the contrary, as far as I know, and certainly as far as can be judged from the bearing of the people towards me, no grudge whatever is felt for that which must seem to them to be rank apostasy-for they still believe me to be the totally different man whose existence in 1878 is unquestionable. There are few Englishmen who, during the last sixteen years (I might perhaps more truly say during the last thirty-four years), have been more exposed, unarmed and alone, to attack from the lowest and most fanatical class of Affghans. Yet I have never been molested. cannot, however, conceal from myself that, theoretically, in my capacity of being that other man, ill-will towards me, and a desire to pay me out, should be the most

I

natural feeling these Affghans could entertain. That the feeling is exactly the opposite is, I consider, a very remarkable fact.

He

Again, it is evident that not only must I have been, as I know for myself, physically the image of my Quetta friend, but in temper, in power of language, in character, in manner, in my voice, in my habits, in my ways of thought, and in my dealings with the people, I must unconsciously have been so exactly like him as practically to make it impossible to distinguish between us. The people firmly believe my double to have been a European, and not one of themselves. evidently had the greatest influence amongst them, and had fully prepared them for a coming war. The country in 1878 was not so safe as it is now. My Doppelganger has for sixteen years completely and absolutely disappeared, and has left no trace behind him— except myself! He may well have been murdered, or swallowed up somewhere in the great outside Mahomedan world. I unwittingly entered upon his labours, and, without a shadow of legitimate claim, inherited his influence.

That he was not an Englishman, or even an Oriental acting as an English agent, is, I think, quite certain. He may have been a Russian; or more probably one of those Circassians who are halfway between East and West, and equally at home in both. Strangely enough, I have never been able to ascertain the Mahomedan proper name by which he was known at Mukkur; and it is possible that he was never known by any other name than the Mulla (priest) Sahib. When I inquire about this, I am told, "Why, he was called the Mulla Sahib; was not your name Browne Sahib then, just as it is now?" and I never get any further.

Whoever he may have been, the manner in which I involuntarily stepped into his shoes, the solid advantages to the British Government, and I may add to myself, which resulted from our accidental similarity, the number of years during which I have been blissfully unconscious of parading in a lion's skin, all form a most curious story which is almost stranger than fiction, and which seems worthy of being recorded.

The statement as made by Syad Allum and others is taken from their own mouths, and put into some sort of order. As it is translated directly from the Pushtoo, the English style is somewhat peculiar.

JAMES BROWNE, Major-General, Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan.

QUETTA, 20th May 1894.

QUETTA, dated 20th May 1892. I am a Syud, and a Tajik mulla (priest) of Uchterkheyl; and my father, Mulla Jungoo, who was even then [i.e., about sixteen or eighteen years ago] very old, was a man of much learning and piety, and had much influence in Mukkur. At that time Browne Sahib came to my father's house, and they made a great friendship. My father at first thought he was a Syud and a fakeer (religious mendicant), and was much pleased at his great Koran knowledge, which he said he had learned as a Talibi-Ilm (pupil) in the Bokhara Madrisa (College). Browne Sahib was then a fakeer, and my father met him in the hujra (guest-house), and they used to read prayers in turn together in the mosque, and do all the work [connected with] praying. After a short time Browne Sahib, having made my father swear on the Koran, told him that he was a Feringee (European), and had come from Peshawur through Cabul, but was becoming a Mussulman; that he would be returning to, and then be coming back from, Bokhara, after seeing the country, and

would bring soldiers with him, and would establish a good government for Mahomedans. Was it not therefore advantageous to my father [to befriend him]? To my father this seemed befitting, and for two years Browne Sahib lived always in our house. Many friends and disciples came to him, and to his words; and it was arranged that many maliks (chiefs) of the Ghilzaies and Tajiks, Tarukkis, Andars, Tokhis, Khotuks, Suleyman Kheyl, &c., would help when the time of fighting came.

On many occasions my father used to be troubled because Browne Sahib played with dogs, and teased them as sahibs do, which is not befitting a mulla, as dogs are unclean; and a tazi (greyhound) was always with him, even at times of prayer. We used to eat bread (dine) in our house together for many days, and my mother used to kiss the coat of Browne Sahib, and touch his beard for the giving of the nufs (holy breath) and prayers. One day a woman called Zulika, who was a friend of my mother Gula, and often was remaining in our house, laughed because the touching of a dog was

not becoming to a priest; and then Zulika questioned my mother, and her own husband Agha, as to why this was. My father, having consulted with Browne Sahib, told Agha that in truth the mulla (priest) was a Feringee (European) to whom dogs are as friends, but was with his heart a Mussulman.

Agha and Zulika were thereafter very friendly to my father and Browne Sahib, who showed them many karamat (miracles), and told them their thoughts when he breathed on them, and the odour of musk resulted from his prayers.

to

Many other persons who are still alive, though many others are dead - Heera, Zahid, Mulla Mahomed Raza, Mulla Khan Suleymankheyl, Syud Ahmad of Mukkur, &c.-looked upon the Sahib as a peer murshid (spiritual teacher). Mahommed Aslum Tokhi, whom the Ameer Sher Ali had banished, and who came afterwards Browne Sahib at Khelat-i-Ghilzi with many of his tribe from the Suleymankheyl country, as also Sado Khan, the old chief of the Khotuks, who was a world-seeing (jehan dida) man, and was also at Khelat when the Sahib came there afterwards, used to consult together. Much arrangement was made with them, and with other chiefs, and with Adam Khan, chief of the Tarukkis at Mukkur, for letting them know how to help Browne Sahib at time of need when there should be fighting, and when he should come back; and Sado Khan counted the Mulla Sahib to be a saint (peer), and so did many others. In those days there was enmity with the Ameer Sher Ali on the part of the Mukkur people, even as there is now with Ameer Abdul Rahman.

After two years, owing to what the woman Zulika had said to

her husband Agha about Browne Sahib playing with the dog, which is unbecoming, before praying, some of the mullas (priests) having heard of this through the talking of women, made an excuse for enmity, and quarrelled with the Sahib, and told some of the Ameer's officials. This was not through enmity of the woman Zulika, or of Agha, but because of the talking of the women about dogs becoming known, and also because of almsgiving (zakat), which did not please the mullas, as Browne Sahib got much for prayers, but, being a fakeer, gave it all away, and did many incantations for sickness, and rites, for no reward. When the Ameer's hakim (governor) of Ghuznee began to make inquiries, my father told Browne Sahib that there would be safety in not going to Bokhara through Cabul, but by way of the haj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, through the road of Kandahar and Quetta. He used also to breathe the nufs and put his hands on sick persons for nothing, and work talismans and charms, both to drink and to carry on the arm (bazuband), and to tie on turbans. So the Sahib left my father's house by night and went to Quetta. When he left he wore a turban like what the Khost and Bunnoo mullas wear, which a mulla from Khost had given him. [N.B.-These men wear peculiar reddish chocolate turbans.] He used in these days, and when he left us, to wear a white, rough, sleeveless waistcoat with ribs [meaning evidently a sort of Bedford cord texture], and Caubuli shoes worn down at the heels and twisted. So my father gave him three rupees for shoes, and also the Kalam Ulla (Koran) from the mosque in a stitched and boiled [probably meaning the process of softening leather by boiling for

stamping and embossing] leather case, for the hanging of the Koran round the neck.

Afterwards my father got two Persian letters from the Sahib at Quetta, asking him to let him know in time of need. My father also heard by letters from Adam Khan Tarukki, and other Ghilzaies who went to Quetta, that the Sahib was at Quetta, and that he said the time was coming when they would need to help him. My father kept all these letters inside the stitched cover of a Koran during his lifetime. About six years ago (1886), however, and after his death, the Governor of Ghuznee, Khoja Mahommed Khan, attacked the men of Nawa and Mukkur, who were rebels. Our house was plundered, and the Koran fell into the Governor's hands along with the letters, which he sent to the Ameer (Abdulrahman), who thereupon for a time confiscated my mother's property, but has since returned it to her, so that she is now well to do, and is not poor, and has some land.

When Browne Sahib came back to Khelat-i-Ghilzi with an army after a year, he was dressed like a Sahib, and he had many dealings with the Ghilzaies. My father and I used to hear much of his [probable] coming to Mukkur; but because of the Sahib's going back

to Kandahar, my father, being an old man and being weak, was not able to travel so far, although many persons told him that, owing to hospitality, the Sahib would have received him as he did the others with friendship, and because he had been my father's guest. Then for some years after the war, many men who had known Browne Sahib at our house at Mukkur informed us of it, that he was making a railway; and that he used often to speak to them, although he was no more a mulla (priest), but was still acquainted with the Mussulman religion, and cut his moustache for fear of defilement, as ordered to Mussulmans.

When, later on, my mother heard from travellers that Browne Sahib was becoming Lord of Baluchistan, she sent me and my two brothers for friendship-when we met you at Bostan, and did not recognise you, as your beard was not; but we know you now, as your shukkul-o-jubba (appearance and language) are not changed since you were in our father's home. Our mother Gula is much pleased, and has sent many respects, and [inquires] if you can accept any articles of that country as a present. The woman Zulika is still alive, although her husband Agha is dead, and she also is sending respects.

The above represents in substance the account given by the sons of my reputed host at Mukkur. Most of the Sirdars of Baluchistan and the present Khan were more or less acquainted with this story long before I heard of it in detail. I was surprised, when at Jacobabad in January

1893, to hear substantially the same thing about myself from Sardar Harshim Khan, the cousin of the Ameer Abdulrahman, and a guest of Mr James the Commissioner in Sindh. Apparently he fully believed it.

As regards the nufs, or holy breathing, the laying on of hands,

and the saintly odours, &c., with which I am so satisfactorily credited, much inquiry has convinced me that hypnotism, or mesmerism cum trickery, is largely practised amongst the Affghans, and is a great source of power amongst the priesthood. The people, being entirely ignorant and very superstitious, lend themselves very readily to suggestion, and have unbounded powers of faith. In connection with this, a certain very cynical and sceptical Persian mirza (scribe), who was at one time employed by the Indian Foreign Office to obtain information about the famous Akhoond of Swat, Abdul Gaffoor, and lived for a considerable time at his shrine, tells me a curious story. He says the Akhoond was a pastmaster in hypnotism and mesmerism, which were the backbone of his power, and that there were no limits to the delusions with which he would impress the ignorant tribesmen who visited him.

The mirza informs me that the Akhoond used to rub the wooden walls of his house in places with camphor, musk, and suchlike spices, before an interview with a religious inquirer; and then by putting a closed cashmeeree brazier of hot coals within a hidden recess under the wall, he used to claim the odour gradually worked out of the wall by the heat as a manifestation of the Ruh-ul-Khuddas (the Holy Ghost)-the odour of sanctity due to his very potent prayer! The way for hypnotism, suggestion, &c., being thus generally paved, faith did the rest. Doppelganger may very well have indulged in similar pastimes. similar pastimes. But, whoever he may have been, and whatever his motives, he certainly never bargained for a total stranger, and much less for an unbelieving Englishman, being so like unto himself, physically and mentally, as to unwittingly, and without an effort, reap the fruit of his pious deceptions.