The useful arts have made considerable progress. Agriculture is followed with assiduity. The grand process upon which its success depends, is that of irrigation, which is practised to a great extent, throughout all the kingdom. It is usually effect ed by small canals, into which the water is turn. ed by dams, and sometimes by partial embank. meats. A much more laborious contrivance, called a cauraiz, is frequently employed. A chain of wells are sunk on a sloping field, and are connected by s subterraneous channel, so constructed, that the ter of all the wells is poured into the lowest one, and thence into a water-course, from which it is conducted over the field. This laborious structure forms some times the mode in which a rich man employs his money ; sometimes it is performed by an association formed among the poor. The ground is always wa tered before being ploughed. The ploughing is per formed-with two oxen, and is deeper than in India; the grain is sown always in broadcast, and a substi tute for the harrow is formed by a plank, above which a man stands, to increase the pressure. The crop, in the course of its growth, is watered at lest once, usually oftener. The sickle is the only instru ment employed in reaping, and the grain is threshed by the treading of oxen. Two kinds of artificial grass are raised. Wheat forms the .staple food of the inhabitants, and barley is chiefly used for horses. The cheapness of provisions, particularly of fruits and vegetables, is almost incredible. Grapes are con sidered dear when they exceed a farthing a pound, and the coarser species are sometimes given to cat tle ; the best apricots are less than a halfpenny a pound, and- melons much cheaper. The mallet piece of copper money purchases ten pounds of spinage, twenty-five of cabbage, &c. The land is divided into very minute portions, and the proprie tor and cultivator are usually the same person.
Of the manufactures of Afghanis' taun no is made ; and they seem to be .limited to objects of, immediate consumption. Manufacturing industry is confined to the provinces annexed to the kingdom of Caubul by conquest from India. The most import ant branch is the manufacture of the shawls of Cale meer. These beautiful fabrics are wrought in a shop or shed, consisting of a frame-work, at which kat two to four people are employed. The plain shah are woven with a shuttle, the variegated ones with wooden needles,—there being a needle for each spe cies of coloured thread. A year or more is sometime employed in the manufacture of a very fine shawl, but six or eight of the ordinary kind may be made in that period. The annual number produced is Cash mem- is estimated at about 80,000. The wool is imported chiefly from Great. Thibet, by the way of Rodauk.
Afghaunistaun, from its situation, can only have an inland commerce. This .is conducted by Cart vans, and the merchants usually employ camels for the conveyance of their goods ; though when they have to cross any part of the chain of Hindu Comb, horses and poneys must be used. Considerable ob stacles are encountered from the roughness of the roads, the difficulty of finding water and provisions, and the attacks of the predatory tribes. In traver sing the territories of the latter, strict order is ob served, and the march is covered by parties of horse stationed at proper distances. During the night, g large proportion of the caravan remain on watch. In towns they lodge in the caravansaries, which mile large along each side of which the are ranged. with a mosque in the centre. Each merchant usually hires, at a very easy reel two rooms for himself and his goods. AfghtniaglA from its want of manufactures, yields few commodi ties which can bear the expence of so laborious a transport. The principal are, fruits of all kinds, furs, madder, and assaketida. The produce of its subject provinces, the shawls of Cashmeer, the chintzes of Moultan, form more convenient articles of exchange. The trade of this country, however, is. chiefly supported by its being the channel through which India maintains its communication with Per sia and Toorkistaun. All the Indian manufactures are thus conveyed into those regions, while Euro pean goods are brought by the Russians, by way of Orenburg to Bukhara, and thence to Caubul. The English mission, after having, with great diffi culty, conveyed some large mirrors across the desert, hoping thus to inspire the king with a high idea of British manufacture, were much astonished and mortified, in the first private house which they visit ed, to see two mirrors of greater dimensions, which they understood had been brought by the above channel. From Toorkistaun itself are imported vast
numbers of horses, for the supply of all the great men and armies of India. These, in consequence of the immediate channel• by which they arrive, are there erroneously called. Caubul horses.
Such are the general features of the kingdom of Caubul ; but every district has its separate tribe, divided and subdivided into others, and every one having something peculiar to itself. Our. limits will only allow us to notice some of the most prominent of these distinctions. The western Afghauns are divided chiefly into theGhiljies and Dooraunees. The Ghiljies are the most warlike of all the Afghaun tribes. Ghuznee, situated in the heart of their territory, was the residence of the great Mabmood, and the Ghiljies formed the.strength of those armies, with which he spread desolation over Asia. The conquest df Persia, at the beginning of the eighteenth century; was also effected by the Ghiljies, and they continued the ruling tribe till the invasion by Naudir Shauh. The restoration of the Afghaun monarchy being effected by Ahmed Shauh, the chief of the Dooraunees, the Ghiljies have never regained their former ascendancy. Their constitu tion- is extremely democratic, the administration, in tome districts, verging almost on total anarchy. This spirit, which was always prevalent, has gained much additional strength since the sovereign ceased to belong to-their tribe, and to add to his constitu tional prerogative the more revered character of hereditary chief of the Ghiljies. This distinction now belongs to the Dooraunees, who, since the ele vation of Ahmed Shauh, have had the king of Cau -bul for the head of their tribe. The great Doorau nee Sirdars unite the influence derived from office and military command, to that which they enjoy in right of their birth. Accordingly, though the de. mocratic principle is by no means crushed, the power both of the king and chiefs is greater here than in any ether part of the kingdom. The character and deportment of the Dooraunees are the subject of much panegyric. They are brave, honourable, hos pitable, ardently attached to tribe, at the same time, more liberal and humane than the rest of their countrymen. This preeminence is admitted by the Ghiljies, even while they avow themselves their bitterest enemies. One of them being asked by Mr Elphinstone, what sort of people the Dooraunees were, answered, " Good people; they dress well, they are hospitable, they are not treacherous." Being then asked how his country. men treated such as fell into their hands, he replied, " We never let one escape ; and now, if I had an opportunity, I would not give one time to drink wa ter. Are we not enemies ?" He added, " Our hearts burn, because we have lost the kingdom, and we wish to see the Dooraunees as poor as our selves." The heights of Solimaun are occupied by the Khyberees, Vizerees, and Sheraunees, tribes still more barbarous than the names which they bear. They are all robbers, and some of them little better than savages, living in caves cut out from the rock. The Eusofzies inhabit the north-eastern extremity of Afghaunistaun, and occupy a fertile valley on the right bank of the Indus, watered by the river of Suant. They came into this region as conquerors, and have reduced all the original inhabitants to a state of slavery. The slaves being more numerous than the masters, perform all the laborious offices, and leave the latter in a state of almost total indolence. Al though democracy be very prevalent throughout A& ghaunistaun, it nowhere rises to such a height as among the Eusofzies, who indeed can scarcely be said to have any government whatever. The small num ber of the freemen, and a species of connection re sembling that of a religious sect, which binds them to each other, are sufficient to prevent any violent disorder. Proud of this freedom, the Eusofzies re gard themselves as the noblest of the Afghaun tribes, and look down with contempt even on the Doorau pees..