1 M H08PITAX.TIY JlVD EAFAGITr:
2 •oon form a' connection sufficiently strong to preirent tiieir injuring
3 mch other after the rights of hospitality have ceased ; and, in fact,
4 there h no point in the Af^aun charact er of which it is more difficult
5 to get a dear idea, than the mixture of sympathy and indifference, of
6 generosity and rapacity, which is ob^crvfif^lr- in fhrir conduct to
7 strangers. In parts of the country where the government is weak,
8 they seem to think it a matter of course to rob a stranger, while in
9 all other respects they treat him with kindness and civility. So
10 much more do thev attend to grantiti^ favours than to respecting
11 rights, that the same Af'Miaun who would plunder a traveller of his
12 cloak, li' he had one, v oald give him a cloak if he had none. If these
13 inconsistencies only appeared in their own country, their behaviour
14 might be owing to their natural love of gain ; and their point of ho-
15 nour, with respect to guests. But, \io\v are we to explain the suuie
16 conduct, when their meeting in a foreign country gives tlic stranger
17 no claims on their hospitality ? All the authentic accounts I have of
18 the treatment of atcsngers by Atghauns, either m liheiv own country
19 or ebeipfaere, give ma nii|»eui<m of phihaidiropj and poiiteneflB,
20 ^niien dbere was no temptatkm to cleptrt'fiNim those princ^les. But*
21 Inhere theie was any ukUicement to plunder the stranger, and
22 sometimeB when mndi was to be gained by dec^ving him« there was
23 no great appearance of justice and good fiuth. Hie traldi is, those
24 viitues are not neoessaiy oonoomitants of general kindness^ norougjit
25 we to infer the want of the one from the absouse of the other. Jus-
26 tke and good fidth, cannot peihflps subsist, unless they are supported
27 hy laws and goremment $ while the veiy drcumstance of the pobHe's
28 leaving men to themselves, obliges individuals to assist andtodepen4
29 on each other* It is probably to this last cause, that we are to aftti>'
30 bote the siqieriority of most Asiatics in the minor points of general
31 humanity over Englishmen of the same rank in life^ to whom they
32 are &r inferior in all other good qualities.
33 Th6 frequency with which travellers are plundered, iqypears to
34 originate in the defects of the Pooshtoonwullee. That law relies on
35 the eiertioDs of the ii^ured person, his relations, and his tribes for
36 Uigitizeo by LiOOgle