The moullahs, or priests, are those who are brought up in the musjids, and who understand the Koran, or at least can read it in the old Arabic, in which language only is it allowed to be written. They live a holy life of constant prayer combined with a good deal of fasting, and their beads, similar to the rosary beads, are always in their hands. While walking or sitting, or even carrying on a conversation, these beads are rapidly slipped between the finger and thumb as they repeat the name of God for each bead so handled. The sight of a kafar, and all who are not Mussulman are infidels, is so obnoxious that they spit on the ground when passing him in the street, and to kill one of them is quite a meritorious action in their eyes. The majority of the people are equally fanatical, and they also consider it no sin to lie to or swindle a kafar. The influence the moullahs exert over the people is very great, and they have little trouble in getting them to join in the Jihad or holy war against the enemies of their religion. They argue that the enemy of their religion is the enemy of God and therefore a loathsome thing, and that the Koran commands them to kill all such, and promises that if they are themselves killed in doing so, they shall go straight to Paradise, and that the man who fails to kill a kafar, but suffers death himself in the attempt, has only a little less rank in heaven than the one who succeeds. The moullahs also teach that in Paradise good Mussulmans shall lie in the shade of gold and silver-leafed trees, whose fruits are precious stones, with beautiful houri around attending to all their desires, and with rivers of milk and honey flowing past them; and in this Paradise, if they desire one of the many beautiful birds which sit singing in the trees about, it is instantly placed ready cooked before them, and when they have eaten, the bird will assume its former shape and fly back to the branches above, for there is no taking of life in Paradise. There is enough in this picture of future happiness to fire the desire of the average Afghan, for his life is generally one long struggle for existence.