especially the Khyberees and the Vizeerees, are notorious plunderers, and rob under the express direction or sanction of their internal government. The other Eastern Afghauns are all disposed to plunder when they dare. When quite free from all apprehension of the royal power, they openly rob on the highway. When their security is not so great, they levy exorbitant customs, or beg in a manner that is not to be refused, and steal when they dare not rob; but, for a considerable extent round the towns, a traveller is tolerably safe under the protection of the royal authority.

It is possible, in all tribes, except the Khyberees, to obtain a secure passage through their territories by a previous agreement with the chiefs, who, for a small present, will furnish an escort, under whose protection a stranger may travel with perfect safety. A single man is a sufficient escort in most tribes; but where the internal government is very weak, or where there is much fear of theft, it is usual to give a party proportioned to the quantity of property to be defended. It is remarkable that these arrangements are most effectual with the tribes who, having least connection with the King, have usually most predatory habits. In those tribes it seems to be thought that the Oolooss having no relations with a stranger, is at liberty to attack him, and that such an attack is to be considered as honourable war ;* but that, when they have promised protection, they are bound in good faith to afford it: the people of the subject tribes, on the other hand, are well aware of the guilt

*For a similar state of manners and opinions in ancient Greece, see Thucydides, book i. chap. v.

of robbery, and when any of them are depraved enough to practise it, little sense of honour is to be expected of them.

In all cases, it must be observed, to the honour of the Afghauns, that their robberies are never aggravated by murder: a man may be killed in defending his property, but he will not be put to death after he has ceased to resist.

I say nothing of the plunder of whole caravans by the leaders of parties during civil wars. This is acknowledged to be an expedient only justified by necessity, and a promise of repayment in better times is always held out to the sufferers.

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CHAPTER VII.

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CHARACTER OF THE

AFGHAUNS.

THE manner of life of the Afghauns is by no means uniform throughout the country, and for varieties I must again refer to the detailed accounts of the tribes, but I shall adhere to my plan of mentioning in this place all that is common to the whole. One great cause of diversity it is necessary to mention even here. This is the division of the nation into inhabitants of tents and of houses. Those who live in tents are chiefly to be found in the West, where they probably amount to one half of the population; but as all over the East the people live in houses, the proportion of that last class must greatly preponderate in the nation. It is probable that the number of those in tents has diminished, and I am of opinion that it is still diminishing. The facility with which tribes changed their residence in former times, appears to countenance the belief that most of them were shepherds, and lived in tents, though it cannot be denied that great emigrations of agricultural tribes have also taken place.

The movement of the Eusofzyes from the frontiers of Persia Proper to those of India is related in another place. The other tribes round Peshawer are

also traced from the east of Khorassaun to their present seats at a still later period, the Ghiljies moved from a great part of their lands, at the command of Naudir Shauh, and made room for a portion of the Dooraunees. This, however, was a compulsory removal, enforced by a powerful conqueror, and no voluntary emigration is known to have occurred within a century; a proof, as it appears to me, that the people have betaken themselves to agriculture, a pursuit which naturally attaches themselves to the soil. It is not, perhaps, so evident that this disposition is still increasing, but we find numbers of people, who, though they still live in tents, yet are employed in husbandry, and never move from their fields; and this seems very obviously to be a stage in their progress from moving with the seasons, and cultivating a spot of ground at their summer station, to building houses for permanent residence. A recent example is found in the Stooreeaunees, of a tribe which has abandoned pasturage for tillage; but, on the other hand, there do not want examples of people who have exchanged a fixed for a wandering life.

One of the most judicious of modern travellers has observed, that though habit may render a wandering life agreeable, yet there are only two causes which can originally have induced men to adopt it.

1st. The badness of the soil of their country, which obliges them to wander far in search of subsistence; and, 2nd, the operation of the bad government under which they live, compelling them to elude its opression by a frequent change of abode.* I must confess

* Voyage par Volney, chap. xxiii. sect. 3. I cannot mention this writer without offering my slender tribute of applause to his merits.

the example of the Afghauns does not lead me to agree with this theory. Among the Afghauns, a pastoral life appears to me to be the most popular; men enter on it with pleasure, and abandon it with regret, and it is to habit chiefly that we are to attribute the rareness of examples of tribes relinquishing their fields to betake themselves to pasturage. Besides exemption from the oppression of the royal government (an exemption by no means peculiar to shepherd tribes), the pastoral life has many advantages to recommend it. It is easy, careless, and secure, supplying plenty without demanding labour, uniting the advantages of various climates, and affording a relief from the listlessness of idleness in frequent change of scene, and in the never-failing resource of field sports. The shepherds are also in a great measure emancipated, even from the control of their internal government, by their dispersion for the greater part of the year. A few families closely connected by blood, and enjoying an extent of country far beyond their wants, need no magistrate to preserve their peace; and although the state of a freeman under the limited authorities of an Oolooss, may be independent, it cannot be compared with that of a society alike exempt from the restraint of government and the disorders of anarchy. The principal motive I can discover for the relinquishment of so enviable a way of life, is the same which M. Volney has assigned for its adoption : Among many other talents, he possesses in a remarkable degree that of pointing out what is peculiar to the manners and institutions of the East, by comparing and contrasting them with those of Europe; so far does he excel all other writers in this respect, that if one wishes thoroughly to understand other travellers in Mahommedan countries, it is necessary to have read Volney first.