1 DIVINATION.
2 hit iftm gn/n, asvMUb tO'moct»l ejnetf md e^foj the odoufs of the
3 gniands iiliidii« fanng oil and of die moenae wluch is
4 bonied by thmr surviving relations* Tbey believe in nmay other
5 IdndB of genii and spirits ; but I do not think I hove ever heard of
6 the apparition of the i^ioeta of the dead The glorified spirits of the
7 four first Caliphs, however, were seen clothed with fire, on ahillom
8 Caubul, during the battle between the Sheeahs and Soonnees.
9 They believe in dreanu, in which a sufficient latiti^ of interpre-
10 tation is allowed, to admit of their ^sy application to any event. A
11 man of some conseqiieTice told me, that r^t one time while he was flving
12 from the persecution of Waffadar Klian (then Grand V^izier), he
13 dreamed tliat he saw the Viaier dressed entirely in black, with a
14 melancholy countenance, and with his hand.s shrivelled, and so weak
15 that ht^ attempted in viun to untie his own t^irdle. Sixjii after thef
16 dreamer woke, a man broke in on a private interview between him
17 and another great man, witlk intelligence that the Vizier was deposed
18 and taken prisoner.
19 They also pry into fiiturity by astrological and gcomantic calcuhi-
20 tions, and by all sorts of diviiifltloil end sortilege. Their commonest
21 method of divination, is by eotaiTiining tUe merin kk the blade bone of
22 a she^, held up totlvB light, which, though practised by people of edx^
23 alAaa, ii no liefel«r cdeukited to work m the inM^netaon, or dude
24 the nndBfrtindingtthMi our own diaooveiy cf fiitnie erentsfiom.oo^
25 fee grounds. Thej tiao form -pressgea fiom drawing lots* horn the
26 position ^mnuA bj nnom poured cnelctalj oat of « quiw, end
27 above all, by tiffff^**»™g their nMsries, while they think of the design
28 iriiich they pvcjeot* snd judging its ftronieUe or nnfimirsUe resndt,
29 a* tliennttber of tlie head they happen to toudutamaout tobeodd
30 or even, in canntlng firotn the top of the string. I remember a ooo-
31 venation irfudi I had (immediately before Shauh Shooja's great
32 itoiggle agunst his competitor in 1809) with one of that Frittce*B
33 Pernan ministers, who told me that he had now good reason to rdy
34 with certainty on his master's success. I listened with attention, ex-
35 pedang to bear of a conespondoice with some of the great lords of