1841.] Report on subjects connected with Afghanistan. 987 



they are in India, or perhaps most other countries in which they 

 are not generally to be considered as absolute necessaries of life. In 

 Afghanistan, however, several kinds assist very largely in the suste- 

 nance of the bulk of the population. 



Few things can be seen more striking to a person accustomed to 

 India, than the display of fruit in the markets and shops of Cabul ; 

 few things more astonishing than their very low prices. Even after 

 the whole army of the Indus had been encamped at Cabul for some 

 weeks, they still continued remarkably cheap. 

 The Afghanistan list of fruits includes 



Apricots (zurd-aloo), two or three kinds. 



Peaches (shuft aloo), 



Nectarines, 



Plums (also bokhara), several kinds, 



Bullaces? (aloocoa). 



Cherries (aloo waloo), 



Apples (saioo), several kinds, 



Pears (nass puttee), two or three kinds. 



Quinces (bhel), 



Pomegranates (unnar), two kinds. 



Grapes (ungoor), several kinds, 



Musk melons, (khur-booja, gurm), 



Sinda ditto, (khur-booja, surda). 



Water ditto, (turboozah). 



Mulberries (toot), two or three kinds. 



Walnuts (char mughz). 



Figs (unjeer). 

 Of these, the most important, as constituting an article of food in 

 large consumption by the mass of the inhabitants, are the common 

 kinds of apricots, plums, grapes, melons, and mulberries. 



The best flavoured fruits, and generally they may be pronounced 

 excellent, however disfigured and liable to be bruised, they are by the 

 dirty and rude hands of the Afghans, are the khaisee apricots, peaches, 

 nectarines, most of the grapes, the musk melons, the smaller kind of 

 pear, the large red mulberry called shahtoot, closely resembling the 

 good English mulberries, and the seedless (or bedanah) pomegra- 

 nates. 



6 K 



