1 £02 CONDUCT TO HINDOOa
2 tomed in tli«i^ iown eonntiy to treii the MaMalniaai ai jiiieiion,iiid
3 would thetefine be pirtioilialjr iensible of my inaak or eontempt
4 from people of thit permuuion ) yet tJiey always ipeak well of the
5 uMge they feoetre^ and one Sik Goldsmith in particular (idio waa e
6 ▼eiy inteUigent man, and had travelled over great part of Aj^^uunu*
7 ataun, Persia, KhotaBsan, and Tartary), always spoke of the Wndnqai
8 and hospitality he received m the former eoiintfy, which he eQn«>
9 treated with the contempt with which he was treated by the Pernans*
10 who would not allow him to draw water, for fear of polluting the
11 weU, or to walk in the streets during rain, lest he should splash some
12 Mahomedan', and thus render him impure. Hie Uabeks used him welL
13 It must however be admitted, that the Hindoos are obliged to pay a light
14 tax, from which Mussulmans are exempt, that they are considered as an
15 inferiorrac^thattheyareparticttlarly exposed tothe tyranny of theMool*
16 lahs. That tyranny must, however, be exercised under colour of law, and
17 the following case^ which took place in the Berdooraunee country (where
18 ihe people are a thoumind timefl more btgotted and intolerant than in
19 any other part of Afghaunistaiin), will shew the means made use of on
20 those occasions. A Moollah, having been crofssed in some love ad-
21 venture by a Hindoo, gave information to the Cauzce that his enemy
22 had embraced Tslaum, and had relapsed into idn]nfrv. The Cauzee,
23 ailer examining witnesses (who swore to the Hindoo's conversioTi,
24 and to his having repeated the Maliomedan creed), ordered the pri-
25 soner to ho circumcised against his will. Thv sentence reiiiiii rd to
26 be executed by tlie civil ma^ish ate, and the Douraunee governor of
27 Peshawcr could not he |ii f'\ ailed on to rarry it into effect. On tJlis
28 the Mooilali assenibled t>ome others ot his order, and by degrees was
29 joined by some tliousand Moolialis (w ho sw arm about Peshawer) ; he
30 marched to the principal mosque, stopped the usual call to prayers,
31 and suspended all the ceremonies of religion, as if the country were
32 under an interdict, till at last the governor was compelled to give
33 way, and (after fruitless attempts to malfe the witnesses contradict
34 themselves), he ordered the Hindoo to lie circuiiiciscd. The opera-
35 tion was perloimed with much harshness, and tlie new convert im-
36 Digitizeo by LiOO^lc