Almost every house in Kabul has its ghost or jin. The house I had on my return from Turkestan had a reputation. The soldiers who were put to guard it in the winter while I was at the Palace at last refused to sleep in one of the ground floor rooms. They said it was haunted, that jins and devils came and pinched them, and moved their rifles and belts from where they had placed them. So in spite of the intense cold they moved out into the porch of the big gate opening from the courtyard into the street, and there they took up their quarters permanently. One day, just before sunset, after I had returned, the syce came out of the stable, which was under the room I occupied, and called one of the other servants. The latter came to me afterwards and said that just as it was beginning to get dusk he went to look into the stable, as the syce had called him. To his astonishment he saw what seemed to him to be two small children running round the legs of the bay horse, and jumping on its neck and off again. He went forward to gain a clearer view, and the children, or jins, as he called them, disappeared. He searched the stable thoroughly, and found nothing out of the way, except that the bay horse was trembling and covered with sweat. Many similar stories were related to me at different times, but though for months I slept alone in the “haunted wing” I never saw any ghost, jin, or devil--except those clothed with flesh and blood; doubtless it was a privilege reserved for “True Believers.” There was, however, one incident; but I will relate that by and bye. [Illustration] CHAPTER VIII. AFGHAN SURGEONS AND PHYSICIANS. Accidents from machinery in motion. The “dressers of wounds” in Afghanistan. Their methods of treating dislocations, fractures, and wounds, and the awful results of the same. The “Barber surgeons.” Tooth drawing and bleeding. The Hindustani “Doctors.” “Eye Doctors” and their work. The Hakims or Native Physicians. Treatment of disease by the People. Aspect in which European Physicians are viewed by the different Classes. [Sidenote: Machinery Accidents.]