MANNERS AND CUSTOMS—_continued_
Superstitions, fairies, and devils—A curious
legend—Astrologers—Children singing prayers on roofs to avert
calamity—Different foods in use—Smoking and tobacco—The Amir’s
chief physician—Snuff—Method of keeping warm in winter—How time
is kept—Weddings of different classes—Funerals.
The people are very superstitious, and firmly believe in ghosts, spirits,
fairies, and devils, and most of their stories are about these good and
evil spirits, as they term them, while their belief in them is such that
even men are chary of going about alone at night. If a man is met at
night walking alone one generally first hears him and then sees him, for
he makes a good deal of noise as he walks, and also whistles or sings as
he goes along.
When I was stopping at the Mihman khana, I came in late one night,
having been for several hours with the Amir, and while walking up to the
house from the gate, I noticed one of the syces (grooms) coming from the
house towards me, and making a prodigious noise, whistling. He stopped
whistling when he saw me, and I wondered why he was so noisy, such being
unusual, but when I got to my rooms I found the reason to be a nervous
shock he had had. It appeared that one of my Hindustani servants, while
in a facetious mood, had blacked his face, or rather made it more black
with burnt cork, and whitened his lips and made white circles round his
eyes. Then, taking two sheepskin coats, he had reversed them so that the
hair was outside, and putting his legs through the sleeves of one and his
arms through the sleeves of the other, had fastened both round his waist,
and then put on a sheepskin cap with long hair. He dressed up afterwards
to show me, and his appearance was not prepossessing. A guard of seven
men was stationed in the vestibule outside the door of my rooms, and to
these he came on hands and knees until quite close, and then he started
bounding towards them with huge roars. Thinking that a real deoo (demon)
was on them, every man flung away rifle and sheepskin coat, which is a
heavy one, and fled wildly to the guard-room at the outer gate; but one
man, who was asleep when the rest fled, woke up with the noise and rose
to a sitting position, staring round-eyed at the apparition and booing,
until he regained enough consciousness to get up and fly. The demon then
went to the small room adjoining the verandah, where the chaeedar’s
quarters were (the man who makes the tea). The chaeedar was sitting alone
in deep thought, on a small carpet with his back to the window, which
was open, but when this apparition came through the door, he rose up and
sprang backwards through the window, regardless of possible injury to
himself or anything else, save that he left the room immediately. The
next people visited were those of the Amir’s servants, who were appointed
to look after my comforts, and were always in my sitting-room when on
duty, and his appearance at one door was the signal for their wild flight
through the other, chairs and tables being upset in the hurry to get out.
He then visited the other servants in their quarters with great success,
and it was soon after it was over, and all had gathered together again
to relate their impressions and experience, that I came in and the tale
was told to me. All those who had been frightened looked very sheepish,
and each man was trying to prove that he ran because the other one did.
However, the infection of fear spread even to the apparition, and for
several nights after no one would go out, not even across the garden to
their own quarters, unless some one was with them.
Fairies are generally supposed to inhabit the lonely mountains around,
and although they are believed to be, on the whole, a good sort, the
people are more inclined to give them a wide berth than risk too much by
loitering about those places the fairies are supposed to haunt. They are
described as twelve to eighteen inches high, very fantastically dressed,
and going about in a follow-my-leader manner, dancing and skipping as
they go. They are believed to be afraid of men, and to hide themselves
from them, and so are only seen by those who are in hiding or sleeping in
out-of-the-way places. Of children they are said to have no fear, but it
is unwise to let a child stray near their haunts, as it may be put under
a spell, or perhaps changed for one of their own children, who is made to
take the face and form of the stolen child, and then the changeling will
bring all sorts of bad luck upon its foster-parents.
[Illustration: GROUP OF AFGHAN GUARDS AND SERVANTS—TAKEN IN COMPOUND OF
MY HOUSE—KITCHEN AT THE BACK.
[_To face p. 80._]
The supernatural being the people dread most, and to whom they put down
much that happens which cannot be satisfactorily explained, is the
shaitan. Shaitans are demons who take many forms according to the fear or
gift of exaggeration of the individual who thinks he has seen one. These
beings they imagine may be behind any bush or boulder after sundown,
and they also believe them capable of coming into the sleeping-room at
night to frighten them into fits by their very ugliness, if nothing worse
befalls, so the people sleep with head as well as body covered with
blanket or rezai. They never sleep alone in a room, but several together,
and many have been astonished when I told them that in my country each
person has a separate room, if possible, and that children are put to
sleep alone at night. They say it is not that they really fear a shaitan,
for God is good, but they are not accustomed to sleeping alone, and,
besides, it is unwise to be alone at night should a spirit happen to come
in.
One of my servants solemnly assured me one morning that the night before
his charpoy (bedstead) was lifted from the floor and swung round the
room with him on it until he felt giddy, and at the same time he heard
the most strange noises. He, however, admitted, on being questioned,
that he kept his eyes firmly shut and saw nothing, and no doubt his head
was wrapped close in the bedclothes. However, he wanted another room to
sleep in, and refused to occupy that room again, and whether the other
servants played him a trick or whether it was a bad attack of indigestion
that troubled him I could not discover, but the room he slept in was
afterwards used as a store-room by the other servants, and the name it
acquired was sufficient to deter the servants who came after him from
sleeping in it.
Another time the ceiling-cloth of one of my office-rooms came down
during the night. It is a common occurrence, because the earth that
falls through between the rafters from the mud roofs brings a gradually
increasing weight to bear on the ceiling-cloth, and it sags until the
cloth, sooner or later, rips at the edges and comes down. When I went to
see the damage done the men with me said that it was assuredly the work
of a shaitan, for who else could do it with the windows bolted and the
door locked? To argue against logic like this was useless.
Another story told me by an Afghan about shaitans was that one evening
after visiting some friends, he had some distance to walk before getting
home, and the road lay through a burial-ground (burial-grounds have
no walls round them as in England). It was late when he got among the
graves, and the thought of walking alone there made his flesh creep, but
he kept on until he was nearly through, and then he saw little flames
rise from the ground in front of him and flicker about. This terrified
him, and he put on an extra spurt to get clear of the graves, when the
figure of a man appeared in front. The sight of another man calmed him
until, on coming closer to the figure, he saw that a shawl was wrapped
round the head (shawls are commonly worn so at night when the air is
chill), and the eyes in the face shone like two stars, while the nearer
he got to the figure the taller it grew, until it loomed high above him,
and then he turned and ran back. But the house he had left was much
further away from where he then was than his own home, so after running
for a time he determined to face the graveyard again. But the same thing
happened, only now, being in a frenzy to get out of it all, he made a
dash to get past the figure, and, while doing so, he lost consciousness,
and did not recover it until the early morning, when he found himself
lying on the road, but just clear of the graves, and to that he
attributed his salvation.
Another Afghan told me that he was sleeping one night in the serai at
Gundamak, when he awoke without knowing the reason of his waking, and sat
up. Then one wall of the room he was in disappeared, and there on the
ground beyond he saw a regiment of Gorawallahs (English soldiers) march
past, but without making any noise, and their faces were white in the
moonlight, and wore an awful look. This man, too, lost consciousness
until the morning, or rather, he said he did.
The people have a curious legend about sponges. They say the English
people take very large earthen jars, and set them on the highest peaks
of the mountains, and conceal the pots by piling stones round them, so
that only the mouth shows. They then hide themselves in the crevices of
the rocks, and wait until the clouds settle on the mountain-top, and come
slowly down to the jars. Then, when a small cloud is seen to enter the
jar, one of the men comes cautiously from his hiding-place, and quickly
puts the lid on, and fastens it there. The jar is allowed to remain
closed for about three days, by which time the cloud is dead, after which
the vessel is broken and the dead cloud is cut into pieces, and taken
out and sold as sponge. The Persian name for “sponge” is the same as for
“cloud,” and perhaps this accounts for the legend.
Astrologers do a good business among the people, and their forecasts as
to the lucky days on which to commence a journey or some new work are
implicitly believed. The Amir and the members of the royal family have
their own astrologers, who are consulted as to the auspicious day on
which to commence any matter of importance, besides being asked to read
what the future contains, but their verdicts, or such of them that I
have heard, are ambiguous, and capable of being read in more than one
way—a very necessary art for those who read the riddle of the future for
the Amir. The astrologers have also to interpret dreams, for dreams are
looked upon as signs given to warn or guide people, and it was due to a
dream that the present Amir divorced all his wives but the four allowed
by the Koran. It is not all people who consider themselves capable of
predicting the future who are treated with honour and amass wealth, as
witness the case of three men from a distant part of the country, who
were brought before the Amir for predicting that a great calamity was
to visit the country on a certain date, some few months ahead, and who
expected much from their voicing of the prophecy. The Amir’s mood, which
is always an uncertain quality, at the time the men were brought before
him, was not inclined towards signs of evil portent, and he gave an order
that the prophets be kept in prison until the date fixed by them for the
happening of the calamity, and then, he said, they shall be rewarded if
their words are shown to be true, but in the other event, death. The
prophecy was not fulfilled, but the Amir’s sentence was.
The astrologers cast horoscopes, and tell fortunes with cards, and
use other implements of the black art, for forecasting future events,
and very rapidly make name and fortune, when once one of their
prognostications is fulfilled, for then all their utterances are
treated as truth itself, and should at any time any of their further
prognostications prove contrary to actual happenings, the people do not
blame the fortune-teller, but themselves instead, for the predictions
being always more or less ambiguous, the people consider it their own
misconstruction of his words which prevented them knowing what was about
to happen. This sort of sophistry does not pertain to the credulous among
Afghans alone.
The superstitious and religious beliefs mingle, as they do in other
countries, and should any one praise a child for any attribute of mind
or body at once, “nam i Khuda” (God’s name) must be said to avert the
evil which open praise will beget. The evil eye is also supposed to be
possessed by some persons, and God’s name must be spoken to avert its
calamitous effect. Curiously enough, those credited with the evil eye
are not blamed for its possession, but are said to be unlucky. In like
manner, those who are skilful in curing and healing the sick and maimed,
are said to have a lucky hand.
They have one custom which will commend itself to many, and that is, to
collect the children on the roofs of the different houses, and there sing
prayers in unison, for the averting of cholera, earthquakes, or other
calamity, because the children, being more innocent than their elders,
their prayers are supposed to be more readily listened to. The roofs of
the houses are all close together, and it is pleasant to see the groups
of children standing in lines on the different roofs, and listen to them
singing the prayers with their clear young voices, and when the calamity
to be averted is cholera, one rather hopes their prayers may be listened
to, for cholera makes a several months’ stay when it visits Kabul, and is
a trying time for all concerned.
The food of the majority of the people in Kabul is of a simple
description, consisting, as it does, of dry bread, which is made into
cakes, oval in shape, and about twelve inches long, by half an inch
thick. Those who can afford it, take curds and cheese with the bread,
and sometimes meat and vegetables made into a stew. The Chinese green
tea is almost always taken with food and it is a very poor man who will
not expend three pice (a halfpenny) on a pot of tea, even if cheese must
be omitted from the bill of fare to afford it. In the summer-time fruit
is plentiful and cheap; vegetables too, and lettuce is grown in large
quantities. Two pice (little more than a farthing) will procure enough
fruit to make a good meal for a man, and in the season most of the people
met with on the streets are to be seen eating fruit, lettuce, or rhubarb,
which latter grows wild in the mountains.
Very poor people live mostly on mulberries, which they also dry for
winter consumption. Many of the Hazaras, who are a saving people, live on
nothing else during the summer months, and cases of broken limbs through
falling from the trees while gathering mulberries, are common. A diet of
mulberries induces fever, particularly in those persons not accustomed to
them, and the fever is of a serious nature, and many die of it.
The Koochee people, a sort of gipsy race who have no fixed home, but
constantly travel about the country with their cattle and camels, and do
a trade carrying goods and merchandise from place to place, and who are
a most hardy race, live on corn bread, sheep and goat milk, cheese, and
grass, eating the latter uncooked. Spinach, which grows wild, is also
largely eaten by them, as well as by the other people of the country.
The food of the Afghans of the villages is principally soup and bread
with curds, sour milk, butter-milk, and fruit. Butter-milk is a
particular favourite with them, and an Afghan can drink a very fair
quantity of it at a sitting.
If a camel, cow, or other esculent animal is sick, and it is certain that
it is dying, the throat is cut, and the customary prayer said to make it
halal (lawful eating), and the meat is then sold or eaten by the owners.
I once saw a dying camel, that looked all skin and bone, being goaded
along the bank of the river to the city that he might be killed close to
the market for the better disposal of the meat, and it seemed as though
the poor animal might topple over and die at any moment and cheat his
master. There is little compassion in the bowels of an Afghan.
[Illustration: MARRIAGE PARTY OF THE “UPPER TEN.” BRIDE AND WAITING-WOMEN
CARRIED IN LITTERS.
(_From a drawing by the Author._)
[_To face p. 88._]
The better classes and well-to-do people eat of many savoury dishes,
of which the principal are pilau and kabob; the latter being meat well
peppered and salted, and roasted on a skewer over a fire (a roast leg
of mutton is also a kabob). The pilau are of different sorts, and are
composed of rice, spices, and meat; the rice and meat being stewed
separately and mixed together on a dish. Preserves, pickles, sweetmeats,
fruit, bread, are also eaten, and the ever present tea is taken to wind
the meal up with, and with the tea the chillum is handed round, that
tobacco may put the crowning touch on all. Large quantities of tea are
consumed daily by the Kabulis, who drink it as often as they can afford
it.
Women smoke the chillum as well as men. It is shaped like the hookah, but
has a straight stem instead of a flexible one. The tobacco is of country
growth, and is very rank smelling, more resembling a burning oil rag than
anything else.
The Afghans call any large, fat man a strong one, and as fatness is
considered a sign of both health and prosperity, all people who can
afford to do so, eat until gorged, and in consequence many of them, both
men and women, are grossly fat. The late Amir’s chief physician was so
fat he could not walk, and had to be carried. Another man was so fat that
he could do nothing for himself, and had to be washed and dressed by
his slave girls, much as a baby is. Of this man I was told that he once
noticed a very objectionable smell about his body, and in spite of all
that was done to better it, the smell at last got so bad that he told the
slave girls to carry him to the hamam and bath him, and while washing
him, as ordered, the girls discovered the cause of the nuisance to be a
dead frog hidden in one of the folds of fat. It had no doubt got in when
the man was having his last tub, and been crushed to death.
Snuff-taking is also commonly indulged in by the better-class people. The
poorer people, however, use the native tobacco, roughly crushed, and put
it in their mouths, and there are some who can afford the snuff brought
up from India who do the same in preference to sniffing it up the nose.
It is only in the large houses that there are fire-places, but there
are few people who are wealthy enough to afford the cost of the large
quantity of wood required during the winter months in order to keep the
rooms warm enough to sit in, for the doors and windows of all houses
are so badly fitted that the draughts of wind make the rooms unbearably
cold even with a large fire going, and one has to sit in furs to be
comfortable. So, to reduce the cost of fuel to a minimum and yet keep
themselves warm day and night, the people have the “sandalee.” This is
formed of a square wooden stool placed in the centre of the room and
under the stool a small perforated iron box standing on legs, in which
charcoal is burnt, and over all is spread a large rezai or quilt which
covers the stool and fire-box, and extends on all sides over most of the
floor of the room. The stool is used in order to keep the rezai away from
the fire-box. Charcoal is lighted in the iron box, and when it is burning
brightly the box is placed under the centre stool, whence the heat from
the fire spreads under the whole of the rezai and keeps it very warm,
and under such a cover the charcoal burns very slowly and the fire lasts
for hours. Thin mattresses and pillows placed under the outer portion of
the rezai are used to sleep on, or sit on in the daytime. Under this the
whole of the family, father, mother, sons and their wives, daughters,
children, aunts, and other relations, sleep at night, all being kept
warm on the coldest night at the cost of a few pice for charcoal. The
drawback is that at times with a newly lighted fire, the charcoal
fumes are excessive, and produce nausea and headache, and sometimes
suffocation, and also when a person is in the habit of using it during
the day while having occasionally to go out into the frosty air, he often
gets rheumatism, or other complaint. Another drawback is the moral effect
on a whole family of men and women sleeping together in a small space
under the rezai, and many call the sandalee “the devil’s playground.”
In the guardrooms the soldiers use these sandalees too, the men sitting
with their legs tucked under the rezai, while they have sheepskin coats
covering the head and body, and in this way they can defy the bitterest
wind. It is the one standing outside on guard who gets frozen to death at
times.
In Kabul and the principal cities time is kept by means of a sundial,
but though there are tables printed in Persian of the daily difference
between solar and mean time, the time given by them is only approximate,
for the dials have been constructed for other latitudes, and they are
fixed in the direction of the magnetic north instead of the true one.
One day, after ascertaining the true time, I informed the Amir that the
midday gun was twenty minutes fast; but he said it was better so, for
then they would not be late for midday prayers. Daily at midday a gun
is fired to announce the time to the people, and those who have clocks
and watches set them accordingly. Comparatively few, however, of the
people are able to tell the time from a clock, and many have the most
hazy idea of the length of time expressed by an hour or half an hour.
This ignorance extends also to numbers, the people generally being able
to count up to twenty, and any number above that is expressed as so many
“taman” (score) together with the odd figure to make up the number. Some
of the people do not even know the days of the week, and have to be told
that a certain day is so many days after the present one.
Courtship and marriage in Afghanistan differ in many respects from those
interesting episodes in European countries, but in no respect more than
in the man not seeing the girl until they are married, and she is his
wife. Men in Afghanistan are not prone to talk about their wives, or
the women of their family, and to ask after a man’s wife is akin to an
insult, as evincing some degree of familiarity with her. Under these
circumstances a man’s feelings while he is waiting to see what sort of
girl he has married are not ascertainable by direct question, but one
would suppose that there must be an anxiety bordering on the intense to
know what manner of woman it is that must hereafter be called “wife,” for
the women vary in face and form as much as the men, and the “pig in the
poke” may be as beautiful as a houri, or as ugly as sin, if not uglier in
the opinion of some sinners.
Excepting in the case of boy and girl betrothals among people of high
rank, which are arranged by the heads of the families, or when a young
man’s relations arrange which woman he shall marry, it is usual for
a man when he desires another wife to make known his wishes to his
friends and his intention soon becomes public property. He then receives
overtures from men with marriageable daughters, and the discussions with
one and another are no light matter, for the prospective father-in-law
expects money or kind in exchange for his daughter, and the beauty and
qualities of the said daughter being an unknown quantity, the man is not
inclined to be either liberal or rash. However, when the proceedings
have at length assumed so much headway that the man is satisfied with
the standing of the family the girl belongs to, and the family’s future
prospects, and considers that the father of the girl has reduced his
demands to the lowest fraction, he then sends his female relatives to
inspect the cause of the trouble, and on their verdict, other things
being satisfactory, concludes the bargain. When all the bargaining is
over the ceremony of betrothal takes place, followed sooner or later by
the marriage ceremony.
The marriage ceremony depends for splendour and feasting upon the wealth
and standing of the families of the contracting parties. With members
of the royal family and people of high rank, it means a three days’
tamasha, with the feasting of a great number of relatives and friends,
and expenditure of further money in dancing-girls, bands, and other
things. Although the expenditure varies according to the wealth of the
persons concerned, in all cases the greatest splendour consistent with
the rank of the contracting parties is aimed at, even if money must be
borrowed to give a good show off, and in this they do not differ much
from people nearer London. When the marriage ceremony is completed, the
bride is carried in a sort of sedan chair to the bridegroom’s house, and
the bridegroom, together with many of his relations and friends riding
on horseback, accompany her, carrying guns, which they fire as they go
along, while in front of them goes a drum and fife band with men dancing
and pirouetting in front of it. The shooting of guns is a relic of older
times when a man with the aid of his friends had to obtain his bride by
force of arms or some stratagem, and then carry her away in front of his
saddle while her relatives pursued them.
The weddings of the poor people have no display such as this, and the
bride and bridegroom have perforce to walk before and after the ceremony,
for they cannot afford a moullah, or priest, to come to the house, and
so have to go to his place to be married. They may be seen in the street,
the bridegroom walking first and the bride after him (no woman must walk
in front of or even abreast a man); and after her is a girl friend or
relative, carrying her clothes in a bundle on her head. In front of them
walks a man with a tom-tom (native drum), and another with a tin whistle,
both doing their best to enliven the proceedings by making the most noise
possible with the instruments at their disposal, and so they wend their
way to the bridegroom’s poor house.
I was told in Kabul that there is an old Afghan marriage custom among
some of the tribes which differs from the above. With them, a man who
wishes to marry a girl is allowed to live for some time in her father’s
house, using the girl as his wife, and when after a reasonable time has
elapsed, there is evidence that the girl is going to become a mother, he
marries her. Should this not happen, the man is at liberty to marry her,
or depart, and elsewhere seek a wife who is capable of continuing his
family. The wish for a son is very strong among the Afghans, and whereas
the birth of a boy is accompanied with great rejoicing, the birth of a
girl passes unnoticed, the father showing his displeasure to the extent
of, at times, refusing to see the mother until his anger has cooled with
the passing of time.
The treatment of the body of a dead person before burial is much the
same as among Europeans, except that the body is buried the day death
occurs, and should a person die at night, the body is buried the next
morning. When a man dies, the moullahs (priests) are sent for, and they
wash the body (this is usually done at the side of the nearest stream),
lay it out, and wrap it in the burial-sheet ready for interment. The
burial-sheet is called “kafn,” which is a word similar to our “coffin.”
No coffin is used. After preparing the body for burial, the moullahs say
the prayers for the dead over it, in which they are joined by all the
relatives and others present, the relations are sent for as soon as it
is seen that a person is dying, and then the body is placed on a charpoy
(wooden bedstead) and carried to the nearest musjid on the road to the
graveyard, where the prayers for the dead are again said, after which the
body is carried on to the burial-ground. Here the grave has been prepared
beforehand, dug down some three feet, but recessed on one side at the
bottom to receive the corpse, and as the earth must not fall on the body
when filling the grave up, slabs of stone are placed against the recess.
The body is laid on its side in the recess, with the face looking in the
direction of Mecca, so that it may more easily see the beginning of the
resurrection on the last day, and the grave is then filled up. According
to Mussulmans, the resurrection on the last day begins at Mecca. A slab
of stone about three feet by one foot, is placed at the head of the
grave, but the stone is rough and uncut, and any stone which is lying
about is used, provided the shape is suitable. In the case of very
important personages, a properly cut stone, setting forth the name of the
person buried there, is placed at the head of the grave, and this used
to be commonly done to mark the resting-places of other people, but the
stones were taken by the late Amir for buildings, as they were of a good
quality, and nice white colour, and so the practice fell into disuse.
[Illustration: MARRIAGE PARTY OF POORER CLASS—BRIDEGROOM AND BRIDE
FOLLOWED BY GIRL CARRYING THE BRIDE’S CLOTHES.
(_From a drawing by the Author._)
[_To face p. 96._]
After the burial, the relatives and friends gather in the house of the
deceased person, and here they are entertained by the family, tea and
food being provided for all who call to offer condolences, and to say
the “fateah” or prayers for the dead, which it is customary to say on
coming into the house. The expenses for these entertainments, and also
those connected with marriages were so great, and brought so many into
poverty, on account of all trying to do as well as, or better than their
neighbours, whether they could afford it or not, that the present Amir
made it a law that all such entertainments should cease, and instead of
being in a way public affairs, should be made private, and guests include
relatives only.
It sometimes happens that a person dies so poor that there is not enough
money even to buy the “kafn” (burial-sheet), which is only a shilling or
so, and his relatives have to go through the bazars begging for one, or
money to buy one. This happens now more often than it used to, for the
people are yearly getting poorer.