master most unpleasantly unjust to poor servants, who were doing their best for him. If one wants to buy cheaply from the bazar, it is better to send a native of the country to do the buying, rather than a Hindustani, for the latter, being known to be an Englishman’s servant, is charged double the price asked from any one else. When a native of the country does the buying, he always adds something on to the price when rendering the account, and so does a Hindustani, but generally the amount of the commission he charges is less than the other one, and one also saves the extra price asked by a shopkeeper from the Hindustani servant. I have tried sending the latest engaged, and therefore the poorest, Hazara servant to the bazar to buy things, and in his innocence the man has charged me the prices asked by the shopkeeper, who thought he was dealing with a poor Hazara, and from the prices so obtained, I was able to keep some sort of a check on the other servants, and prevent their commission becoming too excessive. This dustoori, or commission on things bought, is recognized as quite the right thing by all servants when buying for a foreigner, and the poor Hazara, who charged me no more than what he paid, used to have a bad time from the other servants when they found out that he had made nothing for himself; but a few months’ service and advice from, and the example of, other servants always corrected such stupidity. However, I always found the Hazaras more reasonable in their dustoori, and therefore cheaper to send to the bazar than Hindustani servants, for the latter were always grasping to the last degree, and generally managed to kill the goose with the golden eggs by their avaricious tendencies, and it was a great blow to their pocket, to say nothing of their dignity, when I would take the purchase of requirements from their hands and appoint some poor servant to do the work instead, much to the latter’s importance and swagger before the others. CHAPTER XII LIFE OF EUROPEANS IN KABUL—_continued_ Lawlessness—Food: raising cattle, sheep, fowls, etc.—Presents from princes and others—Famines in Kabul—Cholera—Moullah’s pilgrimage and preaching—Use of roofs of houses—Work and working hours—Amusements—Hindu dealers and old curios—Festival visits to Amir and princes—Europeans tried by jury—Letters: cost of postage—Interpreters. After the death of Amir Abdur Rahman, a good deal of lawlessness prevailed in the bazars, which was principally due to soldiers interfering with most of the people they met, for the men of the army looked upon themselves, and not altogether without reason, as the cocks of the wall, since the Amir’s death, and of course, did their best to show that they were not subject to any authority. I had, therefore, to send one of my guards with the servant, who went to the bazar daily to make purchases, to prevent the man being molested, and to ensure his returning with all the articles he had bought.