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REVIEW OF EASTERN NEWS.

No. XLVIII.

THE dates of the journals brought by this month's mail are as follow:Calcutta, to the 22nd October; Madras, to the 23rd October; Bombay, to the 1st November; Agra, to the 21st October; Affghanistan, to the 7th October; and Ceylon, to the 22nd October. There had been no arrival from China previous to the departure of the steamer from Bombay.

The papers are remarkable for their barrenness; we scarcely remember a mail which has furnished less food for curiosity. The affairs of Affghanistan are comparatively tranquil; the Zemindawur district seems restored to quiet, and our force in the field is broken up. The success gained over Akhtar Khan by Capt. Griffin's detachment annihilated the strength of the rebels, as they are termed. An expedition had proceeded into the Zoormut valley, to the N.E. of Cabul, and another into the Teereen country, north of Candahar. The object of both is the same, to compel the payment of revenue to Shah Shooja. This odious office, and the prejudice against our religion, will render the task we have undertaken, of composing civil discord in the Affghan country, one of infinite labour and difficulty. "The question, as far as Affghanistan is concerned," observes the Bombay Times, "is not so much of popularity between the present and the ex-ruler of Cabul, or between the political feelings of the Barukzyes, Suddozyes, and the Dooranees, as it is a powerful and religious feeling generally against us, and increased by our enforcement of tribute in the name of the present Shah. This point alone caused the excitements in the Zamin-dawur district, and this must ever be a fruitful source of contention, with a people owning only independent chief-ships, and accustomed to resist with the sword any attempts made by their own rulers to levy a tribute which they seem only disposed to acknowledge nominally." The restoration of Nusseer Khan to his family rights, though inconsistent with the policy at first adopted by us, appears to have had already a wholesome effect in Beloochistan. There is no disgrace in acknowledging and correcting a false step: "We set up a new king; he is driven out, and we have a world of trouble and expense with the wild mountaineers, which terminates by our restoring the throne to the old family, and putting upon it the son of the former chief."

The appointment of Sir William Macnaghten to the governorship of Bombay seems to give very general satisfaction in Scinde; the more so, as our troops will have at the head of affairs one thoroughly conversant with the countries now occupied by British troops.

The Punjab is not likely to be the theatre of warlike operations at present. The encroachments of the Sikhs upon the territories, under the control of the Chinese empire, in Tibet, have provoked the jealousy of the Nepalese, and our mediation between the states will probably be invited, or tendered without invitation. A force of some magnitude was collecting for operations in Bundelkund.

The only part of this month's Indian intelligence which is of a stimulatAsiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.36.No.144. 2 C

ing quality, relates to the proceedings of the Burmese ruler, who, it appears, was moving towards Rangoon with an immense army, without any declared object. The measures adopted by the Indian Government indicate, at least, a distrust of his intentions, and a prudent resolution to be prepared for the worst.

The probable views and policy of Tharawadi can only be surmised from his conduct and declarations when he was in direct communication with us, during the short period in which a British resident was permitted to reside at his court, and from his proceedings since that time. If there were no other considerations, which operated upon his fears or his prudence, the conclusion would be irresistible, that he is bent upon war with us; yet even then it is difficult to conceive that he should have suffered the most favourable opportunities for striking a blow with effect to pass by.

It will be recollected that, from the first moment when success crowned his intrigues against his unhappy brother, he not only did not conceal, but obtruded offensively, his hostile sentiments towards the English, and his resolution not to abide by the treaty of Yandaboo. Colonel Burney, our able resident at Ava, who had been upon the best terms with the old king, and had known Tharawadi for several years, was treated by the latter with intentional disrespect, offered to him not individually or personally, but as the representative of the British nation, and Tharawadi took the earliest occasion to denounce in his presence the treaty of Yandaboo, and to proclaim the strange doctrine, that it was a compact formed with the late government only, and not binding upon him. Over and over again, he declared that it might be an English custom, but it was not a Burmese custom, for a treaty to exist in force after the death or removal of the sovereign who made it; and that he was determined to restore the relations of the two countries to precisely the same position in which they stood previous to the "My brother's reign was a bad one," he is said to have observed; "I desire to replace every thing in the excellent condition in which it was during the reign of my grandfather and ancestor Alompra."

war.

These sentiments were not produced, as some imagined, by the fumes of that intoxication which was probably inspired by the unexpected realization of his ambitious views; they were deliberately formed, and they have been perseveringly acted upon down to the present time. Colonel Burney was constrained, by a virtual refusal to acknowledge him in his official capacity, to withdraw from the court. Major Benson and Captain McLeod were treated with studied indignity, and in fact forced to retire from the country. One of the most important stipulations in the treaty of Yandaboo has, therefore, been violated, and there can be no reason to doubt, that the territorial cessions made to us under the same treaty would be resumed, if the king felt that he was strong enough to encounter a war with us. If wounded pride, and national mortification, and a desire to strengthen his hold upon the popularity of his subjects by restoring the empire of Alompra, did not prompt him to regard our possession of Tenasserim, Tavoy, and Assam with jealousy, the flourishing condition which these provinces have attained in our hands might well excite his cupidity. But with all the bad passions of

an eastern despot, Tharawadi is not deficient in sagacity and discernment. He cannot be ignorant of our power, of the bravery of our army, and the efficiency of our steam navy, whilst he knows that his own authority is still insecure. The prompt vengeance which has alighted upon every state around him, China not excluded, that has affronted us, must instil a silent lesson, however reluctantly acquired, of caution and forbearance. Our opinion, therefore, is, that war will not be initiated by the Burmese monarch. Whether it would be politic to take advantage of the presence of our force to insist upon the fulfilment of the treaty of Yandaboo, is worthy of consideration. If the acceptance of a resident at the Court of Peking be one of the conditions sine quâ non which our plenipotentiary in China is to insist upon, we should not suffer so dangerous a precedent as that of the same stipulation remaining unfulfilled in the Burmese treaty by one of the tributaries of China.

It is well known that Colonel Burney, in 1837, strongly urged the adoption of some measure of hostile demonstration towards the Burmese sovereign, in order to compel him to acknowledge the treaty, which, at that period, would have been easily accomplished. It has since appeared, that the Indian Government were too fully occupied with the Affghan project to bestow the time, money, and force requisite for such a scheme, which might have involved us in another war with Ava.

Amongst the domestic incidents at the presidencies, we may notice the formation at Calcutta of a native society "for the amelioration of India," one of the effects produced by a society at home, whose proceedings, it is well observed, " appear to be dictated more by hatred to the East-India Company than by love to India." The instructions to the native press to "write continually upon political subjects, pointing out the evils of the government," have been apparently suggested to the writers, in order to produce a system of "agitation." The disorders on the frontier of the Nizam's territories and in the southern Mahratta country shew a diseased condition in the body politic, which some writers ascribe not to transient but permanent causes. One of those appalling examples of infatuation, now fortunately so rare—a suttee—has taken place at Jaulnah, not within the British cantonment, but in the Nizam's territory. Success appears to attend the experiment of the American cultivation of Indian cotton in the Madras territories, where the planters have, by perseverance, overcome the greatest obstacle, the backwardness and obstinacy of the native cultivators.

The latest advices from Australasia represent the financial embarrassments of those colonies as still affecting all commercial and monetary transactions. The expedition despatched from South Australia against the predatory aborigines on the Murray failed, as the report of Major O'Halloran would make it appear, because he was restrained, under the recent orders from home, from measures of severity towards the blacks. The statements made by Mr. Threlkeld (p. 359) will convince all dispassionate persons that this restriction would have been advantageously imposed long ago.

THE STORY OF MOHAMMED IBN KERKHAN IBN OMAR.*

THE MS. containing this story is one of many in the collection of the late British Resident at Bagdad, all of the same character, and apparently once the stock in trade of the story-tellers who, in the coffee-houses of the East, supply the want of magazines and pamphlets. For the external pecularities of almost all of these MSS., one description will serve they are usually wellworn, often written in various hands, the injuries of time being frequently repaired in a newer writing; sometimes the penmanship is the neat and uniform style of a professed scribe; sometimes the rude and almost illegible scrawl of one" whose early education had been neglected." Other marks of the non-culture of the writer are frequently apparent. The final &, for example, is perpetually substituted for the, even where the latter should denote the persons of verbs, and sometimes we find an omission of the initial I when concealed by the mark wesla: all indicating the work of one who writes from the ear.

The MS. is lettered on the back as if it were two stories, "Historia Kerkhan Ebn Omar-Historia Malek Mohammed." Kerkhan Ibn Omar, however, is mentioned only in the first few pages of the MS. as the father of the real hero, Mohammed the Kurd (El Kerdi), who, from being the owner of a flock, becomes, through a series of strange adventures, the king of Sín (China); and the latter part of the story contains, as its title imports, his history in this capacity.

The tale opens, like many others, by telling how Kerkhan Ibn Omar had grown to old age and great riches without "obtaining from heaven" any son, till at length he was moved, on one particular night, while wandering near his own tent, and watching the course of the stars, the silent evidences of the power of God, to pray to Him for, and to obtain the blessing of, a son and heir to his great wealth. The story then pursues its course to the youth of this child, Mohammed, and the death of his parents, relating how he squandered away his possessions, flocks, herds, and house, all but the clothes he wore, upon riot and drunkenness; how the companions of his excesses fled from the winter of his poverty, in the summer of whose wealth they had revelled, and only one old friend of his father took compassion on him, and sent the youth, at his earnest desire, to tend a part of his flocks. Here some dispute with his fellow-herdsmen, and a blow from one of them, move the proud spirit of the fallen youth, and he leaves the service of his benefactor, taking with him a flock of sheep, which the latter had forced upon him. Considering, however, how quickly his former wealth had disappeared, and anticipating a similar loss of this, he casts about to get rid of it at once, and executes his resolution in the following singular manner :

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"And as he was journeying, behold a man passing diligently on his way, and hastening without stop; and Mohammed cried out to him, and he turned and saw a young Kurd calling to him. Then said the traveller to himself, The Kurds are well known for their lack of wit; perhaps thou mayst palm off upon this one some trick, and possess thyself of this flock of his, for he is but a child.' So he waited till Mohammed came up, and asked him what he wanted; and Mohammed said, 'Whence comest thou, and whither art thou going?' The traveller said, 'As for the place I came from, I came from my MS. in the Rich Collection of the British Museum: additional MSS., No. 7,411.

own country, and I am going for a purpose which no one must know of.' Mohammed said, 'I ask thee by the Prophet that thou tell me whither thou art going.' He replied, 'O young man, hadst thou not adjured me, I would not have told thee; but know that I have seen a dream, and I am going to take possession of it, and I am in fear lest some one else be there before me.' When Mohammed heard this, he wondered. We have already said he was very simple, and he thought the dream was something corporeal-something, perhaps, to eat, or some article of dress. He said, 'O old man, wilt thou not listen to me? Sell me this dream, that I may go and take possession of it.' The traveller said, 'If thou wilt give me a fair price for it, I will sell it thee; but for how much wilt thou buy it?' He said, 'By Allah! I have nothing but these sheep. I will thank thee if thou wilt take them, and sell me this dream.' He said, 'I sell it thee;' and Mohammed said, 'and I buy it,' for Mohammed was anxious to be rid of his flock, and the traveller desirous of possessing it. Then said Mohammed, 'I have given thee what is thine; now where is the dream I have bought of thee?' The man said, 'Take this staff and this scrip, and put thyself upon this road, and go forward; stay not in thy travelling, lest some one be there before thee.' And he said, 'When shall I come up with it?' The other replied, 'The evening will not dusk before thou wilt arrive at a city, and there thou wilt find the dream, when thou arrivest, waiting for thee: take it, and may that I have given thee prosper with thee!'”

The route, upon which the crafty wayfarer had put our simple-hearted hearer, proved to be by no means so short a passage to the inhabited country as had been represented, and had, indeed, been chosen for this reason, and to give the new possessor of the flock time to make his escape with his booty. To a city, however, at last he was led, and of a remarkable character, and in which he was afterwards to play a conspicuous part. It was named Zat El Abráj (Mistress of the Turrets'), and had been built by a hakim, or sage (a character almost synonymous with magician), for himself and his four sons, and received its name from four towers at the four angles of the city, inhabited originally by the four sons, while their father took up his abode in the centre. In the course of years, the whole city had fallen into the power of a certain king Hassan, who had a daughter named Dorrat Elmolúk, and this daughter was in love with her cousin, Mohammed 'Aksún. The passion of the two cousins, however, was discouraged by the father of the princess; but she, who had studied the sciences and magic under a certain potent sage, Zirjān, was a match for the precautions of the monarch; and having appointed a meeting with her lover outside the city, she disguised herself as a courier, stole her father's signet, and passed thus by the obsequious guards in safety to the garden where Mohammed was to meet her. Her lover, however, it appears, fully merited his appellation of 'Aksún ('tardy'), which, says our chronicler, had been given him because he was always too late; and for this unkingly quality had Hassan refused him for his son-in-law. This night of rendezvous was wet and stormy, and Mohammed El 'Aksún, after his tardy manner, reasoned with himself that his fair cousin would never keep her appointment; that thus it would be useless for him to affront the elements in search of her; and so it came to pass that the lovelorn maiden, instead of her suitor, found our poor adventurer, wet and hungry, and waiting for his dream. The salutation of "Up, Mohammed," suited him as well as the individual for whom it was really meant; he mounted the led horse of the stranger, who, as he conceived, came to fulfil his contract with the purchaser of the sheep, and

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