trage on an English officer.

Here we are met by an apparent paradox. There is no section of the
people of Afghanistan which has a greater influence on the life of
the people than the Mullahs, yet it has been truly said that there
is no priesthood in Islam. According to the tenets of Islam, there
is no act of worship and no religious rite which may not, in the
absence of a Mullah, be equally well performed by any pious layman;
yet, on the other hand, circumstances have enabled the Mullahs of
Afghanistan to wield a power over the populations which is sometimes,
it appears, greater than the power of the throne itself. For one
thing, knowledge has been almost limited to the priestly class, and
in a village where the Mullahs are almost the only men who can lay
claim to anything more than the most rudimentary learning it is only
natural that they should have the people of the village entirely in
their own control. Then, the Afghan is a Muhammadan to the backbone,
and prides himself on his religious zeal, so that the Mullah becomes
to him the embodiment of what is most national and sacred.

The Mullahs are, too, the ultimate dispensers of justice, for there
are only two legal appeals in Afghanistan--one to the theological law,
as laid down by Muhammad and interpreted by the Mullahs; the other to
the autocracy of the throne--and even the absolute Amir would hesitate
to give an order at variance with Muhammadan law, as laid down by
the leading Mullahs. His religion enters into the minutest detail
of an Afghan's everyday life, so that there is no affair, however
trivial, in which it may not become necessary to make an appeal to
the Mullah. Birth, betrothal, marriage, sickness, death--all require
his presence, and as often as not the Afghan thinks that if he has
called in a Mullah to a sick relation there is no further necessity
of calling in a doctor. Thus the Mullah becomes an integral part of
Afghan life, and as he naturally feels that the advance of mission work
and of education must mean the steady diminishing of his influence,
he leaves no stone unturned to withstand the teaching of missionaries
and to prejudice the minds of the people against them.

The great religious fervour of the Afghans must be evident to anyone
who has had even a cursory acquaintance with them, whether in their
mountain homes or as travellers through India. I remember once
sitting in a village chauk while a religious discussion was going
on whic