id4 The Ethnology of India. 
while in one sense, without our attempting to interfere in their internal 
affairs (that they will not permit for an instant), they are becoming 
more and more our military retainers. A very large number of them 
pass though our service, and a steady income is derived from it. 
The Pathans south and south-west of Peshawar are pure and 
rough, but the Kusofzies and tribes to the north seem to differ con- 
siderably in character. In fact, as I have before mentioned, the Pathans 
are comparatively recent conquerors and colonists of the northern hills 
and valleys. They have there mixed much with people of an Indian 
type, pre-Hindu it may be, but probably the ancestors of Hindus. 
These people have not the Hindu caste which, for the most part, pre- 
vents amalgamation on the part of the Khatrees, and I think there 
can be little doubt that their blood has much influenced the 
character of the Husofzye clans. The purer Afghans are extremely 
illiterate, and the very opposite of bigots in matters of religion. 
The Husofzies are perhaps all the fairer and handsomer for the inter- 
mixture of blood; they are also more civilised in their manners and 
much more literary. And they have imbibed very much of that 
veneration, that religious capacity, which distinguishes the oldest 
Indian branch of Arians. Mahomedans as they are, they really 
seem to have some religious zeal, and they are very much priest- 
ridden. In fact the Akhoond of Swat and other priests have, to 
some extent, induced the tribes to submit to a certain and partial 
religious government, if it can be called by that name. The priests 
seem to have considerable grantsof land, and at any rate succeed in 
levying a regular tithe from the landholders and cultivators, whose 
differences they settle as far as they can. It is among these people 
that discontented Mahomedan immigrants from Hindustan have 
found some sort of shelter. It should be understood that intermix- 
ture has not destroyed the military qualities of the Husofzies 
themselves. With an inferior population at home to cultivate their 
fields, they are amongst the most notable Pathan soldiers who have 
pushed their fortunes in India. 
The proper Afghan constitution is democratic in the extreme, so 
much so that any sort of government on a large scale is almost im- 
possible, and the Ameer’s authority is confined to a few open valleys 
(for the most part cultivated by inferior races) and to a very uncertain 
