Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎118av] (243/312)

■..mi i.i3e countries tp wlxich they are respeo-
tirely accredited, to solicit the several Govern-
Kienta to take to support in a friendly
manner the represRitations of Caratheodori Pacha
to Qount Audrassy.
NEWS FEOM PAEIS.
(by stjbmakine telegeaph.)
(fbom ottb own correspondent.)
paeis, wedjrasday niffht
The Moniteur says:—"We believe ourselves
able to affirm that the last difficulties of detail
between the Cabinets of London and Paris relative
to Egyptian affairs will be removed to-day or to
morrow."
The Grand Duke Constantine has returned from
Biarritz. He dined yesterday with M. Emile de
Girardin, and met Signor Nigra, the Italian
Ambassador to St. Petersburg, and the Ministers
M. Waddingtonand M. Teissereno de Bort. To
day he took leave of the Marshal, regretting that
a call to preside over the Council of the Empire at
St. Petersburg prevented him from waiting in
Paris for the distribution of prizes.
The Tempa ridicules the Conservative journals,
the Defense, Franqaia, <Sco., which represent the
election to the Municipal CotVucil by a small ma
jority of IrrecoHcilables, of M. Maret, the
editor of the Marseillaise, as a serious check for M.
Gambetta. That a particular Paris consti
tuency should have preferred one Radical to
another is a trivial incident, such as may be often
expected from universal suffrage, and it will
not disturb the leader of the Opportunists.
The Gaulois, without being at all enthusiastic
about Polyencle, expresses the opinion that, as a
whole, it doe» honour to the illustrious com
poser and the French school of music.
Such is not the view of the Repuhlique
Franr;aise, which says; — " Not believing in
miracles, we could not hope that the author of
those chefs d'ceuvre of dulness, Qinq Maty, Gallia,
and Vive la France, was about to recover his former
brilliancy. The subscribers were tired out on
Monday, and deserted after the ballet. The
critics, bound by their profession to be patient,
waited to the last, eager to catch some possible
relief to the general monotonous, colourless dulness
of the ensemble. The redeeming passages were rari
nantea in gurgite vasio. Five acts are not to be made
supportable by a few fragments of ideas and em
bryonic inspiration." The noise made about
Gounod's Polyeucte has induced the management
of the Fran9ais to put Corneille's tragedy on the
bills for Friday next.
Hirsch, the sole remaining prisoner of the
Socialists arrested a month ago, has just been
liberated on & nolle prosequi signed by the judge
of instruction.
The peculiar and very limited coastituency on
whose verdict in January will depend the great
question whether the majority of the Senate is to
be Republican, consists of 173 deputies, 877
councillors-general, 1,175 councillors of arron-
dissements, and 14,021 municipal delegates.
The following are to-night's quotations at the
Petite Bourse:—Five per Cents., 113.87; Turks,
11.72 ; Ottoman Bank, 485.62; Egyptians, 284.37;
Esrvptiau Railways, 379 ; Russian. 82.37 :
.imjnammedaSs call the two principal figures Lat
and Manat, and identify them with two idols,
■which have similar names, mentioned in the 53rd
chapter of the Koran.
These are only a few of the traditions which, as
might be expected, °uch a very remarkable place
bs this has given birth to. The general impression
is that the ruins belong to the Buddhist period.
According to this theory, the caves were the cells
of a vast monastery of Buddhist monks. At Ajunta,
near Bombay, as well as at other places, there are
numerous caves of this description. Such places
are called Yiharas, and every monk had his sepa
rate cell; while some of the larger caves were
called Chaityas, and in them they met as a
Boneregation for worship. From one or two slight
sketches of the colossal figures which have been
brought home, it is thought that a resemblance
can be traced to the style of the Buddhist
figure* found in the Peshawur district, and which
have been already alluded to as bearing evidence
of the Greek influence. If this theory of these
caves and the figures being Buddhist should turn
out to be the true one, then, as Buddhism is not
supposed to have progressed so far north at the
date of Alexander's march upon India, the con
clusion will be that they did not exist at his time.
Religious ascetics who lived in the woods and in
caves most probably existed long before Buddhism,
and it is quite possible that there may have been
caves at Bamian at a very early period, and they
might have originated the story of the Cave of
Prometheus. If we suppose that the place had
acquired a celebrity for holy men, it would be
exactly such a place which the Buddhist monks
would adopt for their Viharas; and, if they did
this, thpy may have extended the caves and pro
duced the large figures, which, so far as we can
at present judge, seem to be figures of Buddha.
A few accurate plans of the eaves and a careful
sketch or two of the figures -would soon put
this point beyond dispute.
On the slopes of the Hindoo Koosh, away to the
north and east of Peshawur, there are some races
whose religion is certainly not that of the Prophet.
The Mohammedans call them Kafirs, or infidels,
and they are supposed by some writers t« be the +
descendants of Greeks left there during the Bac- q
trian occupation. They are said, most of them, to
have fair complexions and blue or grey eyes,
which is certainly not the usual type in that
quarter of the world. In Dardistan there are
some of this race who are known as Siah-posh ^
Kafirs," or black-clothed infidels, from the colour tr (
of the dress they wear. Some of them have an
rbhorrence of the cow, something like that of the
Mohammedan against the pig; they do not eat
beef nor drink milk.
At Ghuzni is the tomb of Mahmud, the first
Mohammedan who invaded India. Here again is
another old monument of Afghanistan which is
Intimately associated with the invasion and con
quest of India. Mahmud made more than one
taid across the Indus, but he never occupied the
country. His most celebrated exploit was his
expedition against Puttun-Somnath in Gujerat,
"where there was a very celebrated Hindoo
temple. It was also celebrated for its wealth, and . OI
either under the attraction of this, or impelled by
Mohammedan antagonism against idolatry, he , t
led an army to Puttun-Somnath, where, after a '
hard fight, he destroyed the temple and looted its
treasury, which had the reputation, of being well
Elled, and its contents he carried back with him to
iGhuzni. Along with this treasure he is sup
posed according to some histories to have taken ■
j.away the beautiful gates of the temple, which
jwera of sandalwood, and these gates were
Said to have been placed on his tomb. This piece
»f history, although dating as far back as the
end of the tenth century, was so well known over
'India that on our troops having retrieved the repu-
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