1 PUNJAB. , 135
2 gency, a Guru-mata, or general diet, at Amritsir, but at other
3 times engaged incessantly in petty warfare with each other.
4 Runjeet viewed the congregated meetings at Amritsig, with great
5 jealousy, and built at that place the great fortress of Govind-
6 ghur,® ostensibly to protect, but actually to overawe and control ¢ p, von Hugel,
7 the excited followers of Govind, who resorted there. Those "°°
8 Sikhs who adhere to the original doctrines of Nanac are called
9 Khalasa; they are less fanatical and warlike than the Singhs or
10 followers of Guru Govind. Of these latter, a peculiar class is called
11 Acalis,® or immortals, and sometimes Nihungs. ‘Their fanatic © malcolm, 116;
12 cism, Burnes observes, borders on insanity, and they seem to be Bu | 15.
13 at war with all mankind. They go about heavily armed, fre-
14 quently bearing a drawn sword in each hand, two other swords in
15 their belts, 2 matchlock on their back, and on their turbans ! ! Masson, i. 437.
16 iron quoits six or eight inches in diameter, with their outer edges
17 sharpened, and these, it is asserted, they throw with such force,
18 as well as precision of aim, as to lop off the leg of a horse, or
19 even of an elephant. Osborne,? however, who has frequently sae a hae
20 seen them try their skill, found them to be very bungling, and the 144. ,
21 missile in their hands to be very inefficient. They are a lawless
22 and sanguinary class, and would have rendered the country
23 desolate, had they not been vigorously coerced by Runjeet
24 Singh.
25 The sacred books of the Sikhs are called Granth (scripture).
26 The principal of them are the Adi-Granth, composed by Nanac,
27 their first Guru, and the Das Padshah ke Granth, composed by
28 Guru Govind, their last spiritual guide. They charge in battle
29 to the war-cry, Wat! Guruji ka Fath, “‘O Victory to our
30 master the Guru!” Their religious animosity is principally
31 directed. against the Mahometans, the slaughter of whom is
32 enjoined in their Granth, while they are commanded merely to
33 plunder and beat the Hindoos; yet great numbers of both are
34 allowed to live under their sway, free, for the most part, from
35 substantial injury, though treated with much contumely and
36 exposed to many annoyances. The Mahometans especially are
37 not allowed to pray in public, and they are subjected to a cruel
38 death if detected in eating beef. The Sikhs carried their hatred
39 of Islam so far as to devise and extensively to use a vocabulary * 9 Leech, Gram-
40 composed of terms which, while expressive of ‘matters relating tie. cata