1 Sg INTRODUCTION.
2 fed mantles, lined or edged with fiir. One was fair, with a high nose,
3 and a pleasing countenance : he wore a silken tui ban owr a small
4 cap. The other was dark, with coarse blunt fratiurs, and a hardy
5 look: he wore a sheep-skin raj>, like a Persian, but lower, lioth were
6 civil and attentive. Al Lt aki), I was visited by a Persian attend-
7 ant ol* the King's, and hy a voung Hindoo, a bioLlier of Muddud
8 Khaun's De^ aun, who, though dressed like a Dooraunee, still bore
9 strong traces of his origin. I was a good deal surprised at the free-
10 dom with whicii all my viaitors spoke of the Govenunent; and of the
11 civil 1VBR. Boides tbove peiwns whom we met in towns, and the
12 labouring people, the genenl desiie to aee us gave us oppoi^-
13 'tiuitiea of obaemng afanoat all descriptions of men. Sbmetimes a
14 niunber of honiiBmen would join us on ihe line of march, twoor thtee
15 sallying' fimm ereiy Till^e we passed: they were often on maref,
16 with die fbak nmning after them* and armed with, long spears. Hmj
17 were always very dvIL The notions entertwned of us by the peo-
18 ple were not a little extraordinary. Th^ had often no conception of
19 our nf^on or religion. We have heea taken for Syuds, Moguls,
20 A%haun8, and even for Hindoos.
21 They believed we carried great guns, packed vp in trunks ; and that
22 we had certain small boxes, so contrived as to explode, and kill half
23 a dozen men each, without hurting us. Some thought we could raise
24 the dead ; and there was a story current, that we had made and ani-
25 • rnatod a wooden ram, at Mooltaun ; that we had sold him as a ram,
26 and that it was not till the purchaser began to eat him, that the mate-
27 rial of which he was nia<lo, was discovered.
28 At the ferry on die Indus, we met some siik-merchants, who had
29 gone as far as Demaun to purchase madder. T^iey described the
30 Afghaun tribes us generally kind to travellers, and hoiiei>t in their
31 dealings ; but one tribe (tlie V^izeerees), tliey said were 8avages, and
32 eat human flesh. . . . ..
33 We crossed the Indus at the Kaheiee ferry, on the 7ih of January.
34 The main stream was there 1010 yardr broad, though its breadth
35 WW 'dirnhDshed by sevend parsUel branches, one'of which was tvn
36 Digitized by Google