1 f 19 POWEE AND INFLUENCE OF THE MOOLLAHa
2 of the Moollahs is oflen more beDeficially exerted in lecondliog
3 qoMnebt in parts of the country where there are no other means of
4 preserving the pubUc peace. Troops of these holy personages often
5 come with their flowing robes into the midst ot" two oolooasieK, drawn
6 out tor battle. They hold cut the Koraun, repeat Arabic pravers,
7 exhort the people to remember their God, and their common reliLnon ;
8 and, seldom if ever, fail to disperse them 4br the time» if they do not
9 bring about a permanent re( (uii tliation.
10 The Mooilaiis are pariieulurly powerful about Peshawer, and
11 through all the Berdooraunee couiiiry. In tlie city of Peshawer, Uie
12 King's authork> keeps them in some restraint, and obliges them to
13 jseek redress for private injuries firom the civil power, or to mttt.an
14 opportunity of fiwtening on their enemy some diaz]ge of her&y .<xe
15 infiddfty* which may expose him to the bigotry ci the people oar
16 to the legal persecutioii of the Gsiuy ; but» in the iemote parts of
17 dwt oouotryt sn injury or an insuk to a MooUah would itself be.sitf>
18 ficient to zMSe a tnmiik. On those iiocasions, the MooUshs send
19 round to their brethren to assemble^ sospend the public woiEshi|H and
20 the ceremonies of borial, prononnce their antagonists infidab» .and
21 fohnallyeKcommunicate and curse them. If this fiuk in fineing their
22 enemies to submit, they parade the country with the green stsndsid
23 of the prophet, beating drumSy and proclaiming the Selaut (or wamoy
24 of the Mnssufanans). They announce, that all who &U in their CHise
25 will be martyrs, and that all who fiul to join them are excommmii-
26 cated. By these means, they soon assemble a mob (or as they call it
27 themselvo;^, an armv) ; and, as the Aff^hann^ are more afraid of their
28 anathemas than ilu ir arms, they ^cnfrallv bring their adversaries to
29 their terms, which include the right to jilunder and bum thehiQUS^of
30 the chief ofi'eniiiTs, and to impose a fiiu^ on their aljcUors.
31 Stories are told ol the walls of towns tailmg down at the shout of
32 an army of Moolluhs ; and swords are blunted, and balls turned aside
33 when aimed at the life of these holy personages. Yet. a stand wtiii
34 once made against them, even near F("«5hawer, when the Haukun of
35 Hushtnugger, resisted an aiiuy of tiiem who came to enforce an
36 tl
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