1862.] An account of Upper and Lower Suicdt. 245 



money ; yet, apparently, he lias no income. The offerings of those 

 who come to visit him are applied hy his servants to this purpose ; 

 and save a few buffaloes, which are gifts from others, from time to 

 time, he possesses but few worldly goods, much less lands or revenues 

 to plot invasion of empires. The milk, even, of the milch buffaloes 

 is given to his guests ; and the males are also slaughtered for them. 

 He himself receives no mone} T from chief or noble ; but from the 

 poor who visit him, he will receive their small offerings of one or two 

 pice (farthings) to please them, and give them confidence. 



The Akhtind has a little garden attached to his dwelling, in which 

 there are a few fruit trees, consisting of pomegranate, peach, fig, 

 ttangu,* walnut, and a vine. As the fruits come into season they are 

 gathered, and a small quantity is placed in the guest-chamber or 

 reception-room, daily. To those who express a wish to taste the 

 fruit he gives a little with his own hands. His residence lies in a 

 most healthy and salubrious situation ; and close by there is a run- 

 ning stream of cool and clear water. At the head of this stream a 

 small pond has been formed, containing a few fish. There are also 

 several plane and other shady trees about ; and it is, altogether, a 

 very pretty place. 



The Akhund has one wife, and a little boy about eight or nine 

 years of age, and a daughter. On one occasion he was requested, by 

 some of his particular friends, to make some provision for his family, 

 in order, that after his decease, they might be provided for. He 

 replied, " If they are true unto God, all that the world contains is 

 for them ; but if they are untrue to Him, the nourishing of them is 

 improper and unjust." Indeed he is so much occupied in his devo- 

 tions, that he has little time, even to show affection and fondness 

 for his family. f 



* The name of a tree bearing a fruit like the apple in appearance. 



f " On our northern frontier, in the Swat valley, the laboratory of Mahommedan 

 intrigue, the right hand of the Alchemist was paralysed at the very moment 

 when he had seemed to have attained the grand eureka of his life. The Badsliah 

 whom the wily Akhoond of Swat had raised, in order to gather under the green 

 banner of the prophet every Mahommedan fanatic, and to recover Peshawar 

 over the corpses of the unbelievers, — this creature king died on the very day that 

 the tocsin of rebellion was sounded forth from Delhi ; and the fanatic fury 

 which was to have overwhelmed Peshawar spent itself in civil war in the Swat 

 valley." Eev. J. Cave Browne, Punjab and Delhi, in 1857. Vol. 2nd, pp. 311. 

 The Badsliah, a priest, not a king, here referred to, did not die for several 

 months after the Delhi massacre. 



