Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-12-25
CABUL AND ITS PEOPLE.
An Unattractive Capital and Its Repulsivs
nanfzeua

The diversified crowds Of people
that surge through the streets of Cabul
agree in way. At night, when the
narrow bazaars are aglow with the re-
fected light of oil in little metal wick
lamps, ignited cotton floating in earth
enware saucers, or the wood fires of the
cooks, the Ferghanee has no objection
to sit side by side with the Bokharian
on the low, open veranada OF the
cooks shop; and on the same platform,
with the seething fesh-pot in the center,
containing little Jumps of meat skew
cred upon a stick, representatives of
twenty different Mohammedan nation
alities are content to sit together upon
terms of equality, and afterward to ex-
change the hookah and the national
love-song, and the romance of chivalry
and theft. Our native agents who have
lived III Cabul, representing the Gov
eminent of India in q fitful fashion,
have limited at crimes being frequently
committed in the bazaars; and as the
Cabui woman is celebrated in Eastern
song for her eyes, her height, her olive
skin, her long black hair, and her gal
lantry, though never for her love for
washing, it is easy to see how such q
hot-bed of unthinking passion as Cabul
is might become hot-bed also for as
sassination. The CabuEs have no known
police, and it is believed that the inhab.
itants would object to the introduction
of conscientious individuals of that
class, because they would interfere with
ancient prerogatives. Troops are en-
ployed as revenue collectors at different
times of the year, and as they collect
revenue for themselves as well as for
the state, the Cabui cherishes hatred
toward all revenue collectors, unless he
happens to be one himself.
Like other Oriental towns, Cabul is
filthy. Sanitation is not even dream
with the inhabitants. There are four
principal roads, which are from thirty
to forty feet broad, and these are con.
sidered the handsomest streets. One is
the Great Bazaar, or Charcutta, COM
posed of one-story mud houses, which
have verandas, slightly elevated above
open cutters, opening full upon the
streets. These Yerandas become shops
in the daytime, and are stored with
specimens of all the furs, silks, and
wool and hair cloths that Central Asia
produces. In the evening, three or
four cronies sit on mat in almost every
shop, set lamp in their midst, fold
their feet, put on their skull caps, and
smoke and tell stories till midnight.
Another great bazaar, leading from the
Western Cato to the Bala Hissar is
monopolized by cooks and butchers.
Heads and carcasses are suspended there
in plenty, but no trace of the unclean
animal, the pig, is discernible. It is in
this bazaar, by oilight, that some of
the most picturesque-looking ruffians
in the world may be seen. Observe
this one: A man over six feet high ;
his head conical shaped, the et-black
hair close cut, almost to the bone; his
face long, sallow, and fringed with griz-
Fly black whiskers, which meet be-
meath in one long matted beard; the
eye small, black and keen; the nose
arched and thin; the mouth cruel and
compressed; the chest and arms to the
elbow bare; the body enveloped in a
battered blue shirt reaching beneath the
knees; bare SCARED legs; the feet tread
ing on grass sandals, which are held on
by the toes. That is Cabul beggar,
and q most arrant villain he is, for,
maugre his rags, he conceals knife,
like the rest of his amiable country
men, and viii use it with the rage of a
wolf if he is tempted. The cooks are
glad enough to toss kabob or two to
| gentlemen of his class. z..
The other two roads have no particu.
lar characteristics, excepting that they
IRE great deal broader than by far the
larger portion of Cabul. OFF these four
principal roads numerous dark and
filthy lanes, twisting for quarter of 9
mile at time, and not more than three
feet broad, shoot at frequent intervals
The fiat-roofed houses in them are
made of mud, thickly mixed with straw,
and the apartments are dark, square
holes, much worse than the much-de-
scribed shanties of the Galway peas.
ants. Men, women and children sleeE
together, and never change their gar.
ments till they drop off. Frequently
cattle and fowls are to be found crowded
into these apartments, together with
the human inmates. Such places are
dangerous to all strangers. Not ever
An unusual pariah dog could stray into
one of them, for he would be wor
ried by hundred jealous, big-boned
hungry ours.