536 ON MOUNT CAUCASUS. 



neral highly respected at Be?ia?'es. The prohibition 

 with respect to the three other rivers, has never Ipeen 

 much attended to; but their aversion to the Carman 

 ndsd is now as great as ever : by the contact alone 

 of its baneful waters, pilgrims suppose that they lose 

 the fruit and efficacy of all their religious austerities 

 and pilgrimages : and they always cross it with the 

 utmost caution. AVith respect to the Indus, my 

 learned friends here agree, that the sin, if any, consists 

 only in crossing the river: and that it by no means 

 implies any prohibition to go and remain in the 

 countries beyond it. Besides you may easily go to 

 Bdmiyan without crossing any of the forbidden 

 rivers, by crossing the Indus above its confluence 

 with the Attaca : for in all the prohibitary laws, you 

 may safely adhere to the latter. They informed me 

 also that in the time of Acbar, who greatly favoured 

 the Hindus^ the numerous bands of Rajpoots in his 

 service, having been ordered to cross the Indus to 

 chastise some refractory Pattan tribes, they inform- 

 ed him, that they were forbidden to cross this river. 

 The emperor wrote to them, that the earth and its 

 rivers were the lord's, and that the prohibition was 

 of course more in their heads, than consistent with 

 reason: however if they conceived in their hearts 

 that it was improper to cross, by all means to abstain 

 from it. On the receipt of this letter, the Rajpoots, 

 with the Brdhmens who accompanied them, crossed 

 the Attock immediately. 



The numerous Brdhmens who live in Iran, cross 

 it daily, without any scruple whatever, as well as 

 those of Multan, and other adjacent countries. Those 

 oi Mult an ]ocu\d.x\y say, that, as the true bed of the river 

 is not ascertained, they may cross it with impunity. 

 The truth is that tjie Indus ran formerly a great way 

 to the westward of its present channel, through the 

 Nulla-SaJicdr, which branches out of the I?idus be- 

 low 



