1854.] Some Remarks on the Origin of the Afghlin people. 581 



possession a rare prose work, which was written in the reign of the 

 Emperor Aurengzeb, which I picked up in a most out-of-way place, — 

 a pawn shop at Bombay. The mode of writing and orthography in 

 it, I have generally adopted, together with that of the Makhzan 

 Afghani, in my grammar above alluded to. 



The assistance which I have derived from a knowledge of the dia- 

 lects of the neighbouring territories, to six of which I have devoted 

 many years, has been very great; indeed more than I can well ex- 

 press. It has enabled me to trace words of Arabic, Persian, Turki, 

 Sanskrit, and Hindi origin, greatly garbled in orthography, and viti- 

 ated in pronunciation, which a person unacquainted with them in any 

 way, would in all probability set down as pure Pushto. 



As an example of this, I will mention one instance alone. M. 

 Klaproth in his apparent eagerness for classing the Beluch language, 

 which is a mixture of Persian, Sindhi, Panjabi, Hindi, and Sanskrit, 

 amongst the In dii- Germanic family of tongues, commits an error, 

 from, I fancy, ignorance of the Persian language. He gives the 

 following table :* 



Beluch. | German. 



Latin. \ Greek. English. 



Shash 

 Hapt 



Sechs 



Sex 

 Septem 



Hepta 



Six 

 Seven 



Now the Persian for six is (J»& sh&sh, and seven is cu&a haft, 

 which two words, — to all appearance have a greater affinity to the Be- 

 luch words here mentioned, than to either German, Latin, Greek, or 

 English ; in fact they are precisely the same words, for o is used 

 for and pronounced ^ indiscriminately, and would be written exactly 

 the same in both languages. If we consider that Beluchistan is 

 merely separated from the Persian province of Kirman by a range 

 of mountains, the similarity is naturally accounted for, without 

 leaving Asia for that purpose, as the learned Professor appears to 

 have done — " Ea sub oculis posita negligimus : proximorum incuriosi, 

 longinqiia sectamur." 



Unlike most Eastern nations, the Afghans appear to regard women 

 in a great measure on an equality with themselves, in this world 

 at least ; and the latter generally receive some sort of education. 



* I am indebted for this to Thornton's Gezateer. 



