Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 2.djvu/35

1833.] "We entered Kabul after a fatiguing journey at four o'clock, having been 24 hours from the last encampment, and with the exception of a short slumber our guide unwillingly allowed us at midnight, and my doze upon the raisin bags of a small grocer's dukán by the road side, where my horse made his repast while I reposed, I may say, I was in a high state of corporal suffering during that long period, with a fever raging in my blood, and a fiery heat in my face, which has latterly burned to parchment. I need not describe Kábul to you, who have travelled over the same ground, and I should certainly fail in my attempts, having seen but little of the place. One is not disappointed in the display, after the uniformly arid aspect of the surrounding country; but it is in this contrast, rather than in any peculiar scenery, that we are delighted with the spot. Frail mud houses, which seem only to be renewed by the accessions of patch-work, form a penurious threshold to a great entrepot of commerce; but when the bazar opens, one is amply gratified by a scene, which for luxury and real comfort, activity of business, variety of objects, and foreign physiognomy, has no living model in India. The fruits which we had seen out of season at Peshawar loaded every shop; the masses of snow for sale, threw out refreshing chill, and sparkled by the sun's heat: the many strange faces and strange figures, each speaking in the dialect of his nation, made up a confusion more confounded than that of any Babel, but with this difference, that here the mass of human beings were intelligible to each other, and the work of communication and commerce went on. The covered part of the bazar, which is entered by lofty portals, dazzled my sight, even quite as much as the snow of the Himalayan peaks, when^ reflected against the setting sun. In these stately corridors, the shops rise in benches above each other, the various articles with their buyers and sellers, regularly arranged in tiers, represent so many living strata. The effect of the whole was highly imposing, and I feel at a loss adequately to describe the scene presented to our eyes.

"Our stay at Kábul furnished few objects of interest; the time passed rapidly, and my own ill health prevented me making any exertion. We were Nawáb Jabar Khan's guests, and though our quarters occupied one side of a square which was a rendezvous for courtiers, we were infinitely more at liberty than at Pésháwar, and even quiet till we were roused up by Mr. Wolff, who amused us greatly by his various adventures. As long as he staid at Kabul, we were in a perpetual stir; the house was filled with Jews.

"The climate of Kabul was considerably colder than I was prepared for, when the barometer announced an elevation of 6000 feet. The