Priestly influence in Afghanistan is anything but beneficial. The priests impose upon the credulity of the people, concealing their actual worthlessness by a continuous assumption of godliness which they do not really practise. Their power is opposed to foreign development, since any raising of the veil about the borders of Afghanistan would deal a grievous blow to their position. Habib Ullah is completely subjugated to their will, and his brother, Nasr Ullah Khan, imbibes his anti-foreign prejudices from their bigoted teachings. At once a curse and a power in the land, they are the most enduring menace to our influence which the country contains. As a religion Mahommedanism exacts constant adoration of the qualities of God. The word Allah in a variety of intonations, or the phrase “God knows,” recur without cessation to the lips of every devout follower of the Prophet. All correspondence of an official or private character also addresses itself in the first place to the Supreme Deity--letters beginning with the phrase “In the name of God” and closing with the farewell salutation, “With the will of God,” or “In the hands of God.” This peculiarity quite fails to arouse sentiments of very great depth among the great mass of the Afghans, although the western areas frequently develop a spirit of ghazidom, under pressure of which feeling and excitement become intense. Religion is allied with the practice of medicine and the pursuit of learning in Afghanistan, although in respect of education no settled procedure has been adopted. Upon occasion Abdur Rahman gave expression to his intention of founding a native university in Kabul, and Habib Ullah in 1904 actually imported from India five Mahommedan graduates from Lahore College for the purpose of founding a college for the education of the sons of Afghan nobles. The plan raised the hostility of the priests and was abandoned. At present the Amir contemplates the erection of a military academy. Unhappily the roads round Kabul are paved with good intentions, and the educational system of Afghanistan has made no advance upon the native principle of oral teaching. There are no schools or colleges under European supervision similar to those which exist in other Eastern countries, and the young idea is only trained to read Persian, to quote extensively from the Koran, to write, to shoot and to ride. Nothing further is desired by the priests, since it is their aim to maintain their authority unimpaired by extraneous suggestion. [Illustration: THE BALA HISSAR, KABUL]