When the 1903 outbreak occurred, the present Amir, following his father’s example, sent off furniture, carpets, etc., to Paghman at once, intending to follow them himself the next day; but in the mean time the Governor of the city, hearing of his intention, went to him and frankly told him that if he left the city, the prevailing dissatisfaction was so great that the soldiers and people would rise, and he would never be able to return to it. So the Amir, who accepted the Governor’s view of the situation, had to remain in his palace in Arak, and here he confined himself to two rooms, and allowed only some half-dozen favourite courtiers and attendants to see him, but he would not allow those who saw him to leave the palace, for fear of bringing the infection back with them. Sirdar Nasrullah Khan, who was, of course, obliged to remain in his city palace since the Amir did not go away into the country, spent most of his time on his prayer-carpet, so I was told by those who were with him; and when his favourite wife got cholera and died, he was described as being almost mad with grief at her loss and fear of the disease attacking him next. The prince’s fear, as also that of the Amir, had a reason, however, which intensified their usual dread of the disease, and it came about in this way. One of the chief and most influential of the moullahs in the country started on the Haj (holy pilgrimage to Mecca) in the beginning of that year, and while going down through India, on his way to the sea-port where he intended embarking for Medina, he heard of a holy man who preached the second coming of Christ—one who said that he, like another St. John, had been sent on to prepare the way, and make Christ’s coming known. The moullah went to see this man, of whom many and wonderful things were told by the natives about, and the words of the self-styled prophet were so convincing that the moullah was converted, and came to believe in the man being what he said he was. One day, it being known that the moullah was going on the Haj, the “prophet” took him into an inner room, and there, the moullah afterwards stated, the two together visited Mecca, and he saw himself one of the multitude of pilgrims at the holy shrine, and visited the inner court, and saw all there was to see, and said all the prayers prescribed in the different places before reaching the inner sanctuary. Whether mesmeric, or other influence, would account for this hallucination of the moullah is a matter for conjecture, but even death could not shake the moullah’s belief that he had been to Mecca, and that his guide was a true prophet. The Mohammedans believe that the religion preached by various prophets (Moses, Christ, Mohammed) are the true religions for the time being, and that God inspires a new religion as it becomes necessary to the advanced needs of mankind, and that, therefore, the Jewish religion was the true religion until Christ