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feud between their families long prevented their meeting. At last an accidental rencounter took place which ended in a mutual and violent passion. The quarrels of the families, however, still kept the lovers separate, and perhaps in ignorance of each other's sentiments, till Doorkhaunee was compelled by her relations to marry a neighbouring chief. The affliction of her lover may be imagined, and his lamentations, and the letters that passed between him and Doorkhaunee, fill a large part of the poem; till at last, after overcoming numberless obstacles, Audam succeeded in prevailing on his mistress to see him. They had several meetings, but Doorkhaunee still preserved her purity, and rejected alike the importunities of her lover and her husband.

Audam's visits did not long escape the husband, who was filled with jealousy and desire of vengeance. He took the opportunity of his rival's next visit to waylay him, at the head of several of his own relations; and though his attack was bravely repelled, and his opponent escaped with a desperate wound, he resolved to try if Audam's suit was favoured by observing the effect of a report of his death on Doorkhaunee.

Doorkhaunee's only pleasure, during the long intervals of her lover's visits, was to retire to a garden, and to cultivate two flowers, one of which she named after herself, and the other after the object of her affection. On the day of the ambuscade she was watching her flowers, when she observed that of Audam languish from sympathy with his recent misfortune; and before she recovered from her surprise, she was accosted by her husband, who approached

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her with a drawn sword, and boasted that it was wet with the blood of Audam. This trial was fatal to Doorkhaunee, who sunk to the ground, overwhelmed with grief and horror, and expired on the spot. news was brought to Audam, who lay wounded near the scene of the ambuscade, and no sooner had he heard it than he called on his mistress's name, and breathed his last. They were buried at a distance from each other; but their love prevailed even in death, and their bodies were found to have met in one grave. Two trees sprung from their remains, and mingled their branches over the tomb.

Most people will be struck with the resemblance of this story, and particularly of the conclusion, to many European tales. It is, indeed, remarkable how many stories are common to Europe and Asia, and that not only in works of imagination, but in facts attributed to real personages, and recorded in history. One example may suffice out of many which might be brought forward. The stratagem of turning loose oxen, with torches on their horns, by which Hannibal is said to have escaped from Fabius, is attributed by the Afghauns, with all its particulars, to one of their own chiefs, and the scene of it is fixed in the neighbourhood of Heraut. In the same manner, a vast number of our jests are told in Asia, and half of Joe Miller might be disputed between "the facetious Tom Killigrew" and "a certain scholar" of some city in the East.

The funerals of the Afghauns do not differ from those of the other Mahommedans; a man in his last moments is attended by a Moollah, who admonishes him to repent of his sins; the sick man repeats his

creed and appropriate prayers, and expires with his face to Mecca, proclaiming that there is no God but God, and that Mahommed is his prophet. When he is dead, the corpse is washed, wrapped up in a shroud, and buried, after the usual prayers have been said by a Moollah, and joined in by the numerous relations and neighbours who attend the funeral. If the deceased was rich, Moollahs are employed to read the Koraun for some days over his grave.

The ceremony of circumcision is the same in all Mahommedan countries. It is attended with a feast and great rejoicing.

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CHAPTER IV.

EDUCATION, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE OF THE
AFGHAUNS.

ALL the Afghauns are sent in their infancy to a Moollah for education. Some learn no more than their regular Namauz, and other occasional prayers and passages of the Koraun, with the ceremonies of their religion, and the duties of a Mussulmaun. About Peshawer, and among the Dooraunees, the next step is to learn to read the Koraun in Arabic, often without understanding it; but in other tribes this study is reserved for a more advanced stage. This is the education of the lower orders, of whom not a quarter can read their own language.

The rich keep Moollahs in their houses to teach their children, but allow them all the power of a common schoolmaster. The Moollah who had charge of the prime minister's son (a boy of sixteen when I saw him), told me that he kept him to his book for almost the whole day.

There is a schoolmaster in every village and camp, who is maintained by a piece of land allotted to him, and by a small contribution which he receives from his scholars. His office is sometimes united with that of the priest of the village; but it is oftener distinct, especially in large places. In towns there are regular schools, like those in European countries, where the

master is maintained by his scholars alone. The sum commonly paid to a schoolmaster in Peshawer, is about fifteen pence a month; but the payments are in proportion to the circumstances of the boy's father. In most parts of the country the boys live with their fathers, and only attend the school during the day; but among the Berdooraunees a boy is sent at a very early age to a distant village, where he lives in the mosque, subsists by alms, and has little or no intercourse with his parents, but is taken care of by the schoolmaster under whom he has been placed.

The following is the course of study pursued about Peshawer a child begins its letters (in conformity to a traditional injunction of the Prophet) when it is four years, four months, and four days old; but its studies are immediately laid aside, and not resumed till it is six or seven years old, when it learns its letters, and is taught to read a little Persian poem of Saadi's, which points out the beauty of each of the virtues, and the deformity of each of the vices, in very simple, and not inelegant language. This takes from four months to a year, according to the child's capacity. After this, common people learn the Koraun, and study some books in their own language; people of decent fortune proceed to read the Persian classics, and a little of the Arabic grammar: boys who are to be brought up as Moollahs, give a great deal of their time to this last study, which, as the Arabic grammars are very elaborate, and comprehend a great deal of science that we do not mix with the rudiments of a language, sometimes occupies several years. When a young Moollah has made sufficient proficiency in this study, he goes to Peshawer, Husht

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