2i4< An account of Upper and Lower Suwdt. [No. 3, 



it is said he could scarcely walk a hundred yards from weakness. 

 This I have heard from Muhammad Afzal Khan, Khattak, who has 

 often seen him there. When the Seikhs got the upper hand at 

 Peshawar, he left the Khattak country and returned to Suwat, and 

 took up his residence at Saiydugan. 



I noticed that the Akhund's head shook a little, which unless 

 cured, will probably turn to the disease named lakwah in Arabic, 

 which is a spasmodic distortion of the face. 



I had been led to believe from people generally, that the Akhiind 

 was possessed of some wealth — but it was very little, comparatively, 

 that we saw ; and that little was constantly expended, — that he was 

 constantly employed, from morning to night, " with his fanatic 

 subjects plotting in vain,"* and occupied with the world's affairs. 

 Instead of which I beheld a man, who has given up the world, a 

 recluse, perfectly independent of every body ; and occupied in the 

 worship of God. Sometimes he comes out of his house for two or 

 three hours daily ; sometimes only every other day. At this time 

 people come to pay their respects, the greater number of whom are 

 sick persons. For these he prescribes some remedy, and prays over 

 them, after which he again returns to his closet within his dwelling. 

 If two parties chance to have a dispute, and they both agree that it 

 shall be settled according to the sharce or orthodox law of Muhammad, 

 he explains to them the particular precept bearing on the case, from 

 the Arabic law-books. Save this, he has no connection in the 

 matter. 



The food of the Akhiind is a single cake or bannock of bread, 

 made from the shamukali {panicum frumentaceum,~) the most bitter 

 and unpleasant grain it is possible to conceive, which he eats in the 

 morning before dawn. He fasts during the day ; and in the evening 

 he eats sparingly of boiled vegetables sprinkled with salt. The only 

 luxury he indulges in is tea, made in the English fashion, with milk 

 added, as you yourself take it. About two or three hundred poor 

 persons receive food at his guest-chamber daily ; and the animals of 

 those who come from a distance receive a measure of corn and some 

 grass. He pays for all he obtains to feed these parties, in ready 



* Rev. J. Cave Browne: " The Punjab and Delhi, in 1857." This author, 

 at page 292 also states, " The Swat valley is inhabited by a warlike and fanatic 

 raee of Mahommedaus ruled by a Moulvie of Mouivies, a patriarch or pope of 

 the Mahommedaus of this part of Asia, called the Akhoond of Swat." 



