der heavy loads of
firewood, which they had been cutting in the hills near to sell for
a few pice in the bazaar. This was their daily lot, earning just
sufficient by continuous hard labour to find for themselves and their
families sufficient coarse food for a meagre sustenance. The question
rose in my mind, Who approached nearer the ideal?--the idle Sadhu,
who makes religion an excuse for living in greasy plenty on the
hard-won earnings of others, while doing next to nothing himself,
or these woodmen of the forest, and all the dusty toilers in the
ranks of honest labour? And an answer came, clear and sure:

"Honest toil is holy service; faithful work is praise and prayer.
They who tread the path of labour follow where My feet have trod;
They that work without complaining do the holy will of God.
Where the many toil together, there am I among My own;
Where the tired labourer sleepeth, there am I with him alone."

The ascetics of Afghanistan are almost all Muhammadans, and I shall
therefore speak of them as faqirs, that being the counterpart of
the Hindu Sadhu. These faqirs have started from an entirely different
religious standpoint, and travelled along a very different experimental
road to those of their Hindu brethren; but the ultimate result is
strikingly similar in many salient features, and Hindu asceticism
and pantheistic thought have deeply coloured their ideas and habits.

There are endless different orders of Muhammadan faqirs, most of
which had their origin in Central Asia, Bukhara and Baghdad having
contributed perhaps the largest share. Each of these orders has its
own method of initiation, its own habit of dress, set phrases and
formulae, and other characteristics.

Except in a few cases in India, none of these orders of faqirs
or dervishes adopt the ochre garments of the Sadhus. The most
characteristic garment of the faqir is known as the dilaq, which is
a patchwork, particoloured cloak. The owner goes on adding patches
of pieces of coloured cloth which take his fancy, but I have never
seen him washing it, and as it gets old he stitches and patches it
till very little of the original is left. The older and more patched
it is, the greater is the pride he takes in it, and he would not part
with it for love or money.

The order which is most commonly seen in Afghanistan is that known
as Malang, or wandering dervish. These men have a dilaq, a staff,
and a begging-bowl, and travel a