1 845.] An account of the early Ghiljdees. 3 1 3 



Shahnawaz the bujul-baz, (player with the knuckles of legs of mut- 

 ton, i. e. a light fellow of low habits.) 



By the hand of Murado (there) you lie exposed. 



Shah Ashraf was, the Ghiljaees say, killed by his cousin Shah Husen 

 of Candahar, (i. e. by his orders,) on his arrival at Koh-i-Mundak. Some 

 deny that Ashraf murdered Mahmood, believing that he died mad. 



The wars of Mahmood, and his cousin and successor Ashraf in Persia, 

 are detailed in the Chronicles of a Traveller. The following two anec- 

 dotes are still told strangers visiting Candahar, connected with the 

 invasions of Persia : one is, that many of the Ghiljaees who accompanied 

 Mahmood on his expedition to Persia were mounted on bullocks, with 

 their ragged kosaks or felt cloaks on, and their sheep's skin of flour 

 strapped to their backs, and an old iron hatchet or a sword in a broken 

 scabbard their only arms, just as if they were going to the water-mill 

 at the bottom of their native village to bring home flour. This will be 

 easily believed by officers who have been in Afghanistan, and have seen 

 after an engagement bodies of men with nothing but sticks in their 

 hands. When the city of Ispahan was taken, it is said that Shah Mahmood 

 gave his followers leave to take possession of the house that each might 

 enter, with every thing in it, even the widow of its owner who fell fight- 

 ing, for his home. That one of the handsomest palaces of Ispahan thus 

 fell to the lot of such a " Ghool-i-Biyaban" as I have above described ; 

 who entered it in his above full dress, leading his bullock after him into 

 a splendid saloon covered with rich carpets, at the end of which was 

 seated the lady of the mansion surrounded by her damsels ; and back- 

 wards and forwards over the carpets these two animals walked, the one 

 looking for some thing to which he could tie his fellow. 



The lady of the mansion ordered her handmaids to do all they 

 could to please the visitor; to take his bullock into the stable, and 

 divest him of his boots of sandals and tattered woollen cloak, and take 

 him to the bath. 



This they had some difficulty in doing, as he would not consent at 



first that his bullock, sandals or cloak should be taken out of his sight, 



they being his only ones ; and each article was surrendered after a little 



dakai, a fort and six horsemen ; on the Candahar side of the Gill Pass at a water-milli 

 a fort and eight horsemen ; on the other side of ditto, six horsemen ; at Jaknaree and 

 Shamai, a fort and eight horsemen. The whole under Abdul Lateef'khan, Barikzai, 

 of Maroof. 



