MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
and Pehlevee ; such as the terms 
for father and mother, sister and 
brother. This seems also to be the 
case with the numerals; though 
the Zend and Pehlevee numerals 
bear so strong a resemblance to 
the Shanscrit ones, that it is diffi- 
cult to distinguish them. Most of 
the verbs, and many of the par- 
ticles again belong to the un- 
knownroot. The words connect- 
ed with religion, government, 
and science, are mostly introduced 
from the Arabic through the Per- 
sian. 
Of two hundred and eighteen 
words which I compared with 
the corresponding ones in Per- 
sian, Zend, Pehlevee, Shan- 
scrit, Hindostaunee, Arabic, Ar- 
menian, Georgian, Hebrew, and 
Chaldaic, I found one hundred 
and ten that could not be referred 
to any of those languages, but 
seemed distinct and original. Of 
the remainder, by far the greater 
part were modern Persian; but 
some of these wereintroduced into 
the latter language from the Zend, 
and many more from the Pehle- 
vee, while a good number were 
words of those languages not em- 
ployed in modern Pezsian. Some 
of these Zend and Pehlevee words 
are, however, common to the 
Shanscrit, the three languages 
having a great affinity ; and some 
words also occur, which are to be 
found in Shanscrit alone, as do 
five or six words of the Hindos- 
taunee language. It is probable 
some Punjaubee words would also 
be detected, if the list were com- 
pared with a vocabulary of that 
Janguage. Not one word of the 
two hundred and eighteen has the 
smallest appearance of being de- 
483 
ducible from the Hebrew or Chal- 
daic, Georgian or Armenian. 
The Afghauns use the Persian 
alphabet, and generally write in 
the Nushbk character. As they 
have some sounds, which are not 
represented by any Persian letters, 
they express them by adding par- 
ticular points or other marks to 
the nearest Persian letter. 
The Pushtoo, though rather 
rough, is a manly language, and 
not unpleasing to an ear accus- 
tomed to oriental tongues. The 
dialects of the East and West, 
differ net only in the pronouncia- 
tion, but in the words they make 
use of, to a degree at least equal 
to the difference between Scots 
and English, None of the famous 
Pushtoo authors are of more than 
a century and half old; and, I 
should imagine, that there were 
no books in the language that can 
pretend to more than double that 
antiquity. What literature there 
is, has been derived from that of 
the Persians ; and their composi- 
tions would resemble that model, 
but for their greater rudeness and 
superior simplicity. I have the 
names of eight or nine Afghaun 
poets, besides translators from the 
Persian. 
THE NAUSSERS. 
( From the Same.) 
All the tribes who have as yet 
been considered, possess some 
country of their own, the position 
of which has decided the order in 
which they were to be mentioned ; 
but the Naussers have no land at 
all, and we are at liberty to place 
212 
