62 On the Ballads and Legends of the Punjab. [No. 1. 



protection, was sheltered and defended by them from the usurper,* 

 Sher Shah, which drew upon them the persecution of the latter, in 

 which Sooltan Sahrungh was slain. Faction afterwards arose in the 

 family, and the little kingdom was split into two, viz. Dhangulli and 

 Eurwala, and subsequently into three principalities which were 

 again subdivided. In this state they continued until the rise of the 

 Sikh Sirdars who preceded Eunjeet Singh. These, by their union 

 and by the division of the Gukkurs, contrived to wrest from them 

 the greater part of their plain territory, and Eunjeet Singh by 

 means of Eaja Goolab Singh aud Sirdar Hurri Singh completed 

 their spoliation, imprisoning some and driving others into banish- 

 ment. So much we know of them from other sources than their 

 own histories and traditions. In all the particulars above recorded, 

 they would answer well to the description of Indianised Greeks. 



Of such descent however they have no tradition. They are not 

 aware that their history is any way connected with the coins and 

 sculpture of the Indo and Scytho Grecian Kings, or with the Topes, 

 the latest monuments of the half Grecian race. They are wholly 

 ignorant of the Greek character and being Moosulmans, their his- 

 torical records, which are modern, are of course written in the Per- 

 sian character. The Muhammadan invasion is the great stumbling- 

 block of Indian history. Excepting the Pathans who being children 

 of Israel, fondly believe that they had never lapsed into idolatry, all 

 converts to Islaum are ashamed of that page which preceded their 

 conversion. They cannot bear to think themselves the sons of 

 Kawfurs (Infidels). As the strongest expression of scorn — is not, 

 " you dog" — but " you son or grandson or greatgrandson of a dog," 

 the disgrace increasing as the genealogy ascends (because a man is 

 always supposed by Eastern piety to be a degenerate type of his 

 father) so to be the remote grandson of a Kawfur is far more terri- 

 ble to an Asiatic than to be merely in himself a Kawfur,f and thus 

 they studiously conceal their annals previous to their conversion, 



* The Massive Fortress Rohtass was built to controul their incursions. 



f "We have little right to blame Muhanamadans for their absurdity, so long as 

 we reverence more the rotten descendant of a great man than the virtuous off- 

 spring of a malefactor. 



