any thing that is wanted of them with much more zeal, if a present is made to them in advance, than if it is withheld in the hope of quickening them by expectancy.

It may be foreseen from their customs, which make private revenge a duty, that they will long retain the remembrance of injuries; but this is true only of such serious injuries as they are bound in honour to retaliate; in affairs of less consequence, they are neither irritable nor implacable.

I know no people in Asia who have fewer vices, or are less voluptuous or debauched; but this is most remarkable in the west: the people of towns are acquiring a taste for debauchery, and those in the northeast of the country are already far from being pure. The Afghauns themselves complain of the corruption of manners, and of the decline of sincerity and good faith, and say that their nation is assimilating to the Persians. Their sentiments and conduct towards that nation, greatly resemble those which we discovered some years ago towards the French. Their national antipathy, and a strong sense of their own superiority, do not prevent their imitating Persian manners, while they declaim against the practice, as depraving their own. They are fully sensible of the advantage which Persia has over them at present, from the comparative union and vigour of her councils, and they regard the increase of her power with some degree of apprehension, which is diminished by their inattention to the future, and by their confidence in themselves. To sum up the character of the Afghauns in a few words; their vices are revenge, envy, avarice,

rapacity, and obstinacy; on the other hand, they are fond of liberty, faithful to their friends, kind to their dependents, hospitable, brave, hardy, frugal, laborious, and prudent; and they are less disposed than the nations in their neighbourhood to falsehood, intrigue, and deceit.

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CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE INHABITANTS OF TOWNS.

I HAVE hitherto confined myself to those points of character or manners which apply to the whole, or nearly the whole, of the Afghaun nation. I shall now proceed to describe the peculiarities of the different classes of which it is composed. Enough has been said, for the present, of the difference between the eastern and western Afghauns; some particular orders of men have also been incidentally described; and the pastoral and agricultural classes will be spoken of in great detail hereafter. The first description of people whom I have now to examine are, therefore, the inhabitants of towns; and here one is struck with the circumstance, that the greater part of this branch of the population is not composed of Afghauns. It may seem strange to a person in Europe, that the towns should not be inhabited by the masters of the country, yet such was the case in England after the Norman invasion, and such it still is in Uzbek Tartary, and in some measure in Persia, and probably the reason has in all cases been the same; the ruling nation has thought it degrading to pursue the trades which assemble men in towns, and none have resided there but great men and their retainers, who are drawn thither by the court; ac

cordingly, the only Afghauns who reside in towns, are great men and their followers, soldiers, Moollahs, a few who follow commerce (a pursuit not despised among this people), and some of the poorest of the nation, who work as labourers. No Afghaun ever keeps a shop, or exercises any handicraft trade. The greater part of the people employed in these occupations, are Taujiks, a nation who are intermixed with the Afghauns in great numbers throughout all the western part of their country, and who are found even in the east; where, however, the trades alluded to are more frequently exercised by Hindkees, a people of Indian origin, who are scattered over that part of Afghaunistaun, as the Taujiks are in the west. These nations, and the others which contribute to the population of Afghaun towns, will be considered as distinct races, after I have described the Afghauns; at present I have only to speak of the place they occupy as citizens of those towns. In this point of view, we find them divided into bankers, merchants, artizans, and labourers.

The prohibition in the Koraun against Mussulmauns taking interest, makes most of the business of banking fall into the hands of Hindoos, whose wary and penurious habits suit them admirably for the trade. They derive their profits from lending money, which they do at an enormous interest, by negotiating bills of exchange, and by transactions connected with the fluctuations of the exchange in the place where they reside. They also mix trade and agency with their regular banking business. Another source of profit arises from advancing money to government for bills on the revenue of provinces, and this hazardous spe

culation is recommended by a premium, always large, and increasing with the risk of non-payment. Some of the bankers are very rich, but there are numberless little shops set up with very small capitals, which practise the same trade as the great ones, among the poor people of their particular neighbourhood.

When I was at Peshawer, the bankers thought it necessary to conceal their wealth; and one, who took up my bills, for the purpose of remitting his property to India, would only make his payments in the night, when he dug up his money, and paid it to my treasurer with the utmost secrecy. But these precautions were not taken from any present danger, so much as with a view to futurity, as Peshawer was on the eve of a revolution, which had already commenced in the west. At that very time the bankers had great confidence in the government of Shauh Shujah, and looked with terror to the prospect of its subversion. No exactions were ever made on them, notwithstanding the King's urgent wants; and in all transactions with government, they seemed to have no fears from the King or the prime minister, but only from their inferior agents. When any ordinary courtier was employed to negotiate a loan with them, they said he was likely to impose on or oppress them for his own profit; but when the affair was committed to a man of a respectable character, who would communicate fairly between them and the government, they met with very equitable treatment. The opposite party levied contributions and extorted money by all means, but they were then struggling to overturn the government; and though their habits are very irregular, it is probable that the secure posses