Page:The Moslem World - Volume 02.djvu/142

 a rag torn from his clothing to the tree. He may in return receive a small piece torn from the flag of the shrine and a little bit of paper on which the holy man has inscribed some cabalistic letters. This the pilgrim sews up in a bit of leather or cloth, or, if rich, encloses in a small casket of silver and carries it tied somewhere about the person, perhaps to a fold or fringe of the turban or round the neck or upper arm.

A story related about the Afridis, illustrates their crass ignorance and their veneration for tombs. Some Afridis were, according to their wont, ambushed near a frequented highway, waiting for some unwary traveller to fall into their grasp. As chance would have it, a rich and portly Syed (holy man) was the first to come that way. They pounced upon him; he protested that they had made a mistake, that he was no blaspheming Hindu but a descendant of their own Prophet, a holy man whose prayers were sought by small and great, for did not all know that his prayers were admitted at once to the divine presence. " Now," said the unabashed bandits, "we are, indeed, in good fortune, for have we not long said that the only thing needed for our mountain is the grave of a genuine holy man, and God has sent him to us." They promptly killed the poor protesting Syed, annexed his goods and money, buried him with eclat on the top of their mountain, and now pray regularly at his tomb for any heavenly or mundane benefits they may desire.

Yet Afghanistan is not altogether untouched by the spirit of the new Islam. When H.M. the Amir visited India, he could not fail to have been struck by what he saw and learnt at the great centres of Mohammedan education in India, Aligarh, Lahore and elsewhere, and some of the words he uttered when addressing the students on the occasions of his visits to these institutions, show that he was profoundly impressed by the advantages to be obtained from giving Mohammedan youth a modern education. When he went back to Kabul, he took with him Mohammedan graduates from the Pan jab, and set about having a fully equipped college on modern lines at Kabul. It may be that its curriculum was needlessly