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76 by their religion, and for this the authority of Nanak was quoted:—

These drinking-bouts are another relic of their Scythic origin.

Now that the Sikhs were the masters, they treated the Mahomedans with scant consideration, in revenge for former persecution at their hands. They were little better than serfs, only employed as menials, or at best as tenants, to till the ground they had owned. Those who had embraced the religion of Govind did not fare much better than those who had adhered to their faith. As a rule they were from the class who had been forcibly converted to Mahomedanism by the Afghan, and the Sikhs despised them for having refused to die for their religion. Despite the strong democratic sentiment in the misls, which at first selected their chiefs, the position of sardar became hereditary in families. They seem to have drifted towards