^2 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 



A 



" Rdsek Aid (fast and festivals) and the Kamd% (prayer) and made' 

 «« his pra6iice of devotional a61s prevalent in the world, with a multitude 

 " of distin6lions, of Fir (saint) Faiglmmher (prophet) Vlemd, (theor- 

 «« der of priesthood,) and Kit ah (the Koran.) He demolished the tem- 

 «* pies, and on their ruins built the mosques, slaughtering cows and help- 

 *^ less persons, and spreading transgression far and wide, holding in 

 «* hostility Cdjirs (infidels), MulhiJs (idolators), Irmenis ( Armenians J^ 

 " Rumis (the Turks), and Zingis (Ethiopians:) thus vice greatly diffused 

 " itself in the universe/' 



" Then," this author adds, " there were two races in the world, the 

 " one Hindu, the other Muhajnmedan, and both were alike excited by 

 " pride, enmity, and avarice, to violencCo The Hindus set their heart 

 ", on Gang d Mid Benares. The Miihammedans on Mecca and the Caaba, 

 *« The Hindus clung to their mark on the forehead and brahminical string, 

 *' The Moslemans to their circumcision. The one cried Ram (the name 

 " of an Avatar) ' the other Rahim (the merciful); one name but two 

 ®^ ways of pronouncing it ; forgetting equally the Vedas, and the Koran ^ 

 ^'- and through the deceptions of lust, avarice, the world, and Satan, they 

 "swerved equally from the true path; while Brdhfnens and Moulavis 

 «s destroyed each other, by their quarrels, and the vicissitudes of life and 

 " death hung always suspended over their heads. . . 



" When the world was in this distra6led state and vice prevailed," 

 says this writer, " the complaint of virtue, whose dominion was ex- 

 " tin6l, reached the throne of the almighty, who created Na'nac, to en- 

 *' lighten, and improve a degenerate and corrupt age ; and that holy man 

 " made God the supreme known to all, giving the ne6larious water that 

 " washed his feet to his disciples to drink. He restored to virtue her 



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