Preface. 
IX 
years, the new rulers of the country will have swept into 
oblivion the very names of some of their ceremonies, deities, 
and customs, so that these will he lost to all possibility of 
research. Thus the Persian words roza, fast; Jchudd, God ; 
bihisht , Heaven; duzaJch . Hell, have been grafted into the 
language, and are largely used. 
It is believed that the Bashgali dialect, with minor 
modifications, is understood by most of the Siahposh 
Kafirs. 
The people of Kafiristan do not generally speak of 
themselves, nor of their language, as Kafir, They are 
known amongst themselves as belonging to certain clans 
or valleys, such as Bashgali , “a man who resides in the 
valley of Bashgal”; Waigull , “ a man of the Waigul 
district,” and the language they speak is also similarly 
designated. 
It is very hard, if not impossible, to render by English 
letters the correct pronunciation of many of the words, 
especially some of the nasal sounds. Sir Alexander 
Burnes gave his opinion that it was impossible for an 
Englishman to pronounce some of the Kafir sounds. 
Among the most difficult to pronounce are some of the 
second persons plural of the future, imperative, and con¬ 
ditional of several verbs.* 
It is impossible that this collection of sentences and 
grammar can be free from mistakes, as, in some cases, 
* If it is thought by an European critic that the spelling herein adopted in words 
such as drgr , mristh, prelr, is defective, it may be mentioned that, according to 
the Oriental notions of orthography, all words like “ stick,” “ stamp,” “ string ” are in 
need of a vowel. According to their notions the proper spelling would be, “istick ," 
“ ishtamp“ ishtring ” ; the initial “ i ” appearing to them as indispensable, as some 
vowel appears, to our Western perceptions, desirable, in the three Kafir words above 
quoted. 
