d down on
the British troops. Even those who may be supposed to be free from
the superstition of the ignorant believe with equal fervour in this
power of the Mullahs and holy men. An instance of this occurs in the
Memoirs of the late Amir Abdurrahman, who relates that once during a
military review a soldier deliberately shot at him as he was sitting
in a chair. The bullet passed through the back of the chair, and
wounded a page-boy standing behind. He attributes his escape entirely
to a charm written on a piece of paper which a holy man had given to
him when a boy. He says: "At first I did not believe in its power to
protect; I therefore tried it by tying it round the neck of a sheep,
and though I tried hard to shoot the animal, no bullet injured her."

One of the commonest experiences of the open-air preacher on the
borders of Afghanistan is the wordy warfare in which he is obliged
to engage with some bellicose Mullah. The Mullah has heard that
the missionary has begun to preach, and he regards it as his duty
to come down and champion Islam. He brings a big volume of the Quran
ostentatiously under his arm, and is followed by four or five students,
or talibs, ready to applaud all his thrusts, while ridiculing in a very
forcible way the replies of the preacher. Such arguments can hardly
be expected to bear any reasonable fruit, because the object of the
Mullah is not to ascertain what your views on any doctrine really are,
but only to gain a strategical victory and hold you up to ridicule;
but it is equally impossible to refuse the challenge, for then not
only would the audience conclude that you had no answer to give,
but the Mullah would take care that no one remained to listen to
you. Frequently the object of the Mullah is to egg the people on to
acts of open violence, and then, when they see that the row is well
started, they suddenly make themselves scarce, and leave their flock to
take the risk of any subsequent police investigations which may result.

On one occasion I had a providential deliverance from an unpleasant
incident. On proceeding to the place in the market where I usually
preached, I found a Mullah in possession preaching to a scowling crowd
of townsmen. As we had always preached in that particular place for
years, I saw it was only a ruse to oust us from preaching first there
and then anywhere else where we might go, so I promptly took my place
by the Mullah's side, and commenced preaching to the sam