1 I
2 ( 148 )
3 BOOK 11.
4 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE INHABITANTS OF
5 AFGHAUNISTAUN.
6 CHAP. L
7 IKTSOOUCTION* <MUCIN, AND £A£JLY HISTORY OF THE AFGHAUNS.
8 THE description, which T have attempted, of the country of the
9 Afguauns, has been rendered difficult by the great variety of
10 tlie regions to be described, and by the diveisitj, even ol contiguous
11 tiactfl. No less a diversity will be discovered in the people who in-
12 habit it; and, amidst the contrasts that are apparent, in the govern^
13 ment, mannen» diew> and babita af 4be difimit txibeS) I 'find it
14 difficult to adect those grea£ &atuTea» which all poasesa in oommout
15 and which ffve a mailed nadonal character to. the whole of the
16 A1^anna> Thiadifficuity ia increaaed by thefitct, that those qualities
17 which distinguish them fiom all their neighbouis, are by no means
18 the same^ which, without reference to such a comparison* would
19 appear to Europeans to predominate in their character. Thefireedom
20 which Ibims their grand distinction among the nations of the East,
21 m:^ht seem to an Englishman a mixture of anarchy and arbitrary
22 poww I and the manly virtues, that raise them above their nei^-*
23 hours, might sink in his estimation almost to the level of the opposite
24 may. tfaetdbre^ assist in appreciating their situation and
25 tt
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