Lunatics are said to be God-afflicted, and no one therefore attempts to control their actions or in any way interfere with them. They are treated instead with great deference, and are asked for their prayers and advice in any difficulty or trouble. Offerings of food and money are taken them, and they are allowed to go where they will, and no one will stop them even if they wander into the Amir’s durbar. One such, who was known and reverenced all over Kabul, used to go about with nothing on but a long shirt, and this was open in front and exposed the chest, and in the depths of winter a posteen only was worn over the shirt. I have seen this man on the coldest days lying asleep on the bare ground in the open, bare-headed and barefooted. The man’s constitution who can stand such privation and live must be an exceptional one. He used sometimes to go to the Government stores, which were guarded by sepoys, and, breaking the padlock from a door, would walk in and lie down there, and no one dared to interfere with him; and he would also wander occasionally into the late Amir’s durbar and give expression to his opinion of the Amir’s character, which is a thing no other man could have done and lived to boast of. When the Amir gave him money he threw it broad-cast from him, and refused to be propitiated, and he would at times do this with the food and presents sent him by other people. He had many followers, of course, and these waxed fat on the good things sent their chief, and they copied his ways too, and tried to perfect themselves in them so that they might also receive honour, and perhaps, when the day came, step into their master’s shoes, and live free from the trials and worries governing other people. There are many Sayids in the country; a Sayid is said to be a lineal descendant of the prophet, and they are looked upon as people of consequence, and are respected by others, but this does not prevent them having to work for their living. Several worked under me, and I found them superior to the bulk of the men I came in contact with, and generally more intelligent, which was, perhaps, the outcome of generations of trying to be superior to others. A Hafiz is one of those who can recite the whole of the Koran by heart, and they are employed during Ramazan, the month of fasting, to recite a portion of it each evening in the musjids until the Koran is ended. It takes many days to do this, and the recital is so apportioned at times as to make it last until the end of the fast.