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SAVAGE HOSPITALITY.

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rough-coated ponies or mules. The region through which we now commenced to travel was inhabited by the Hazaras, whom we found to be a truly hospitable race. We journeyed along the track that appeared to separate the northern (or hill) Hazaras from the southern tribes, and our daily marches were from eight to ten miles in length, and generally in a northeasterly direction.

The kindly hill Hazaras kept us regularly supplied with fresh bread and milk, and made us welcome to their villages for as long as we liked to stay. I observed, and it was worth observing, that the farther we journeyed from the confines of civilisation the more marked and scrupulous was the punctiliousness with which

our wants were met.

We took sixteen marches to traverse the land inhabited by the Hazaras, and in the evening of the fifth day we arrived at a mosque, which served as a serai, or resting-place for travellers, and hinted a wish to stay the night and a readiness to pay for accommodation, food, and forage. Our offer met with polite but sharp resentment: no purchasers could be allowed to rest under their protection. It is considered not

only a disgrace but a crime, for which they are responsible to God, if a fellow-creature suffers want under their roof; but these wild Hazaras strictly define the limits of their hospitality, and consider it quite a venial matter to sally forth armed, and to waylay and plunder caravans before they happen to have entered the charmed precincts. But any outrage on a poor and lonely traveller is hooted as a disgrace.

Devotion precedes a marauding expedition. The Hazara invariably recites a prayer in the mosque or at the nearest shrine, and if in the struggle for booty slaughter is probable, he, before striking the necessary but perhaps deadly blow, mutters between his teeth the "kulma," repeating the invocation" Bismilla il il la." They deem the penal responsibility for the crime materially modified in the eyes of God and man by this propitiatory precaution. In fact, in their eyes it is tantamount to absolution, the booty is regarded as lawfully gained income, and a portion, one-fortieth, is set aside for charity. The omission of the invocation precludes all these benefits; and death, heavy calamity, or some deadly illness is deemed to be hovering over the guilty.

To resume my journey. We proceeded on our

UNDER PROTECTION OF THE CHURCH.

31

way through thinly inhabited country. The lower Hazara district, the borders of which we skirted, was thriving with grain crops, and we obtained guides and protectors through the district, thereby avoiding adding our slender belongings to swell their prosperity.

These protectors were fakirs, mullahs, or pirs -in other words, men of various religious pretensions. Each conducted us to the limit of his spiritual dominions, and the sanctity of their profession was our only but sufficient protection. They were quite indispensable to our life and property, and were well rewarded by subscription, though they often tried to exact more than we were disposed to afford.

Travelling thus, we traversed, as I have said, the Hazara country for a period of sixteen days. I then left the kafila, and turning to the north, with a few companions, I entered the country of the Khalzais, a mountain tribe living to the north of the Hazara region. The history of this race is obscure, but they are supposed to be the

1 I am very uncertain of the spelling of this name, and have been unable to identify the tribe. They are said, in Edgeworth's abstract of Gardner's travels, to be a section of the Dai Kundi Hazaras. Hardly anything is as yet known of the Dai Kundi country.— EDITOR.

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