and fought like devils. The British soldier did not show to his usual advantage in this campaign, and one regiment retreated rather ignominiously from a post which it ought to have held. In order to insure the retaking of this position, Sir Neville Chamberlain, the commander of the force, placed himself at the head of the attacking column, and, rumour has it, turned round and said, "There must be no running away this time;" on which the colonel of one regiment replied, "The ―th don't require to be told that, General.”

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE AFGHAN CHARACTER.

SWAT AND ITS AKOOND-THE MÚLLAH OF TOPI-ETHNOLOGY OF THE AFGHANS-THEIR DREADFUL HISTORY—THEIR PUZZLING CHARACTER-INFLUENCE OF FATALISTIC MOHAMMEDANISM AFGHAN SONGS OF LOVE AND WAR.

THE portion of Afghanistan lying north of the Yusufzai district is scarcely even nominally under the sway of the Amir of Kaubul, and is virtually ruled by the Akoond of Swat, who is rather a spiritual than a temporal prince, but exercises a good deal of temporal power over the chiefs in his territory. He was ninety years old at the time of my visit to the Yusufzai, and had the reputation. of being an extremely bigoted Mohammedan, not averse to stirring up a jehad against the infidels in India; and in this respect his son is said to be even worse than himself. Fortunately, however, we have a counter-check to him in the Mullah of Topi, within our own district, who exercises a great religious influence over the Afghans, and is a rival of the Akoond.

I had made a good deal of acquaintance with Afghans before this journey, and must say a word in regard to their character. They are a very strange mixture of heroism and cowardice, fidelity and treachery, kindness and cruelty, magnanimity and meanness, high-sounding morality and unspeakably atrocious viciousness. Though their language affords no countenance to their own belief

that they are sons of Israel, and the linguist scoffs at this supposition in his usual manner, I think there is something in it. In physical appearance and in character they resemble the Hebrews of history; and it is unscientific, in judging of the origin of a people, to place exclusive reliance on one particular, such as language. Much meditation over this subject has also convinced me that our modern writers are far too much given to drawing hard and fast lines when treating of ethnology. They get hold of a race or a nation somewhere in the past, and virtually, indeed often unconsciously, assume that it has become stereotyped for all time, leaving out of mind that circumstances similar to those which form a race are continually modifying its peculiarities. As to the Afghans, I deem it likely that there is some truth in all the theories which have been started as to their origin. They are probably partly Semitic, partly Aryan, partly Asiatic, and partly European. There is nothing improbable in the supposition that their Hebrew blood has been mingled with that of the soldiers of Alexander the Great and of the Greek colonists of the GræcoBactrian kingdoms, and also of the Asiatic Albanians, who were driven across Persia. The Indo-Bactrians, again, may have modified the race; and this theory of a composite origin affords some explanation of the inconsistencies of the Afghan character.

Afghan history is a dreadful story of cruelty, faithlessness, perfidy, and treachery. Though they may understand the matter among themselves, yet it is impossible for the European to draw any line within which the Patháns may be trusted. The tomb of Cain is said to be in Kaubul, and the popular belief is that the devil fell there when he was thrown out of heaven. These are the views of the Afghans themselves, and a double portion of the spirit of Cain seems to have descended upon them. In one small village through

which I passed, there had been twelve secret assassinations within nine months. Among these people you have perpetually recurring reasons, in the shape of dead bodies, for putting the questions, "Who is she?" and "How much was it?" for their murders proceed usually from quarrels as to women, or land, or cattle. A good many of our officers on the frontier have been assassinated, sometimes out of mere wantonness, and they have to go about armed or guarded. The Afghan monarch Shah Mahmood owed his throne to his Wuzeer Futteh Khan (Barukzai), and the latter was always careful not to show any want of allegiance or respect for that sovereign; yet Shah Mahmood, at the instigation of a relative, had his Wuzeer seized, and put out both his benefactor's eyes in the year 1818. Then he had the unfortunate blind man brought before him bound, and had him deliberately cut to pieces-nose, ears, lips, and then the joints. This is a characteristic Afghan incident, and not the less so that it was a ruinous act for the perpetrator.

Sir Alexander Burnes, in his account of his journey to Bokhara (vol. ii. p. 124), says of the Afghans that, "if they themselves are to be believed, their ruling vice is envy, which besets even the nearest and dearest relations. No people are more capable of managing intrigue." And yet he adds, "I imbibed a very favourable impression of their national character." But this vice of envy is peculiarly the characteristic which marks off the lower from the higher portion of the human race; it has, not inappropriately, been assigned as the cause of angels turning into devils; and it is curious to find that a people like the Afghans, who are possessed by it, can still excite admiration. Mr T. P. Hughes, a well-known able missionary on the border, who is intimately acquainted with these people, says that "the Afghans are a manly race, of sociable and lively habits.

All Europeans who have come in contact with them have been favourably impressed with the very striking contrast exhibited by our trans-Indus subjects to the mild Hindú and the miserable Hindústhani and Panjábi Mohammedans." He also says that their "manly qualities are not unequal to our own," and that "there are elements of true greatness in the Afghan national character." Yet I was assured by more than one excellent authority that one of the most hideous of all vices is openly practised in Kaubul, where a bazaar or street is set apart for it; and that even in Peshawar the agents of the Church Mission require to be cautious in their conduct towards the boys under their tuition. It is the extraordinary union of virtues and vices which forms. the most puzzling feature in the Afghan character. To courage, strength, and the other better features of a wild sentimental mountain people, they unite vices which are usually attributed to the decrepitude of corrupt civilisations and dying races; and though their fidelity is often able to overcome torture and death, it as often succumbs to the most trivial and meanest temptations.

I am inclined to believe that much of the badness of the Afghans is owing to the influence of Mohammedanism. One might expect that so simple and intelligible a religion, holding the doctrine of the unity of God, and admitting Christ as one of its line of prophets, would be superior in its effects to polytheistic Hinduism, and especially to Brahmanism, the acceptance of which after and in face of Búdhism, involved a moral suicide on the part of the people of India. But certainly my knowledge of India does not support that conclusion. Among a purely Semitic race like the Arabs, secluded among their deserts and at a certain stereotyped stage of thought, Mohammedanism may be good, and it undoubtedly appears to have exercised a beneficial influence.