Kila Panjah to whose commander the Russian ultimatum is alleged to have been addressed, is a fortified station of some importance, situated on the Wakhan Daria, about twenty-five miles to the north of the borders of Chitral. Who ought to be in possession of this tract, is, as already indicated, a matter of dispute.

Professor Arminius Vambery, the celebrated traveller and student of Central Asian affairs, affirms that it formerly belonged to the descendants of Timur, whose principal seat was in Heart, and who were the unquestioned masters of the whole of what we to-day call Afghanistan. After the overthrow of Timur's people, and the foundation of the Usbeg dynasty, portions of the territories to the east of Afghanistan were theoretically annexed to Bokhara; but they were subsequently reconquered, and Wakhan was not one of them. So far as Wakhan is concerned, therefore, Russian pretensions can derive no support from the earlier achievements of the Bokharans. If any Power is entitled to put in a claim to that country, it is China; and assuredly she will have her say before the Pamir problem is ultimately solved. There is evidence, furthermore, that the Russians, while denying that Wakhan ought to be included within the Ameer's dominions, have regarded it as a bit of no man's land. The fact is noteworthy, because the Afghans had a right to occupy territory which nobody claimed, whoever may have been its original possessor. It would, naturally, be absurd to try and stop the southward advance of the Muscovites by arguing the rights and wrongs of the question; but from the standpoint of the British Government, it is essential that the legitimacy or otherwise of the Ameer's position should be ascertained. Accepting the correctness of the news published in India, what has happened is this. The Russians, after having manoeuvred for several months in the Pamirs, have suddenly descended right down almost to the Hindo Koosh, and are now menacing one of Abdurrahman's fortresses. Abdurrahman, it may be supposed, will expect us to fulfil our treaty obligations. If the threatened fort is located on territory which is beyond

controversy Afghan, we cannot very well reject his appeal should he prefer it. But if he has occupied a spot which it can be demonstrated that he had not title to occupy, then it would be open to us to respond that no ground for our intervention had been shown.

In any event, the moment seems to have arrived when the British Government can no longer postpone the fixing of some limit beyond which Muscovite advances would not be tolerated. The Russians are now in close proximity to the frontiers of states which, if not actually British, are to all intents and purposes portions of our Indian Empire. What is the precise aim of the St. Petersburg authorities, and how much further are their emissaries to be permitted to come without incurring the risk of encountering something sterner than diplomatic protests? These questions, which were academic a few years back, are now urgently pressing for an answer; and the sooner they are replied to the better. The sound policy for this country to adopt with respect to the northern frontiers of India was outlined in 1885 by Lord Salisbury, in a speech which he delivered at Wrexham during the Penj-deh crisis. "My idea of dealing with Russia, " declared the ex-Premier, "is not to extract from her promises which she will not keep, but to say to her There is a point to which you shall not go, and if you go we will spare neither men nor money until you go back. I do not say what that point should be. That is a matter for strategists to decide. But what I would wish to insist on is that you must make it clear to yourselves and to the rest of the world that there is a point where you mean permanently to resist, and that beyond that point it will be impossible for Russia to go. "" It is to be trusted that Lord Salisbury's successor, should it fall to his lot, as seems likely, to tackle the question, will base his policy on this principle.

THE Western Daily News, 11th March, 1893, says :

THE NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN.

The brief telegram yesterday reproduced from a Lahore military journal, giving an account of an act of Russian

aggression on the Afghan frontier, has not been amplified, nor has the news which it contained been corroborated. The statement, therefore, that a Russian outpost has pushed its way into what is generally held to be Afghan territory should be received with reserve, thought it might be risky to regard it as a wholly unreliable rumour emanating from the bazaars. Sufficient evidence has accumulated within the past two or three years to show that in the particular corner of the globe in which are included the frontier of the Indian north-west, the Pamirs, and Afghanistan there exists a constant state of unrest. If the Ameer is not engaged in chastising, or attempt ing to chastise, the semi-tributary tribes who oscillate hither and thither on his frontiers, these tribes are generally varying the monotony of existence by quarrelling amongst themselves. The proceedings on the Indian north-west also derive variety from the little émeutes that arise between the Indian Government and the petty States which from the outside fringe of our Indian possesions. Chillas, Chitral, and Manipur have all within a very recent period given ample evidence of their restlessness; and now the telegram from Lahore suggests that these minor difficulties are for the moment at any rate to be superseded by one of great and vital importance, directly to the welfare of Afghanistan and indirectly to the safety of India. The Pen-jdeh difficulty in 1885 sprang from a set of comparatively innocent looking circumstances. But before it had been long in existence it brought England and Russia within measurable distance of war, and it was due to the promptitude of the English commander on the station, and no less to his forbearance under very trying circumstances, that a conflict was averted. If there be any truth in the Lahore telegram, there may be need again for the exercise of those qualifications of which Sir Peter Lumsden proved himself then to be the happy possessor. The Lahore despatch says not only that the Russians have pushed their way into Afghan, or at least into debatable, territory, but that they have called upon an Afghan garrison to surrender. This action has led to the belief that a collision between the Afghans and the Rus

sians is imminent, for it can scarcely be expected that the Ameer's forces would quietly evacuate a position to which they believe they are by right entitled. The meanderings of Colonel Yanoff and his Cossacks on the Pamir Plateaux were for a long time regarded with tolerable complacency both by the Ameer and by the Indian Government, and it was only when the Colonel began to show some kind of authority in that desolate and windswept region-when he began to assume the airs of certified proprietor ship-that exception was taken to his movements. As every student of Asiatic questions knows, the Colonel was withdrawn in obedience to the joint representations of the English and the Indian Governments, Indian Governments, and the whole subject of boundary delimitation, in so far as the Pamirs were concerned, was by mutual agreement remitted to the consideration of a joint commission, on which the English representative is Captain Yate. That commission has not yet begun its task, which promises to be considerably complicated by the claims of China to, at least, one spur of the Pamir upland. The reported descent of a Russian force on an Afghan outpost will, however, temporarily shift the interest from the Pamirs to a point a little further west. The Russian have theoretically undertaken to respect the integrity of Afghanistan. The frontier lines of the Ameer's country have formed the subject of prolonged negotiation. They are at present fairly well defined ; and though there still remains a section in which the boundary is in doubt, there ought not-if reliance could be placed in Russian undertakings and assurances-to be much danger of trouble. Unfortunately, the Russians in Central Assia have done little to command our confidence ; and, therefore, the Indian Government is compelled in self-defence to regard with suspicion any movement of Russian troops in the neighbourhood of Afghanistan. The attitude of suspicion is rendered all the more necessary because, from time to time, the Russian journals have asserted that the undertaking of the Czar's Government to respect the integrity of Afghanistan was only provisional, and in support of this contention they are always

prepared with a number of specious arguments. But it is plain enough that the great object of Russia is to acquire Afghan territory by degrees, and so to gradually weaken the efficacy of the country in its capacity of a buffer state. A policy of that kind is fraught with great peril to international peace, for the Russians must be perfectly well aware that the Indian Government, and behind it the British Government, cannot tolerate any form of encroachment. Another element of danger in the present situation is that the Indian Government and the Ameer are not on the most cordial terms of friendship. The recent despatch from Cabul anent the projected mission of Lord Roberts to the Ameer on the general question of frontiers was polite but evasive, and it suggested that the ruler of Afghanistan has taken a somewhat different view of his obligations in recent years. But this fresh act of alleged Russian aggression may be expected to arouse him to a sense of the necessity of retaining the goodwill of England. The Ameer will probably make a prompt protest against the conduct of a Russian force towards the garrison of Kala-Panjah fort; and for the sake of peace he should exhort his soldiers to abstain from reprisals. The firing of a random shot when the tension is severe might precipitate all sorts of awkward consequences. If this new dispute is managed as dexterously as that which arose at Penjdeh there will not be much cause for complaint.

THE WORSHIP OF VISHNU.

I.

THE Sun day at Home, April 15, 1893, has the following:-

In order to understand modern Hindoo worship we have to go back to the origins. of Indian religion, and to consult the earliest records which are still existent. Comparing the various documents which state at successive periods the beliefs of the people, we can trace the course in which the faith in a certain deity took shape, and grew into a set tradition, in which it seemed to crumble away for ages, but reappeared again outwardly transformed, yet essentially the same it had been in the

beginning. We behold the face of a god in boyhood and in old age. The one has the complexion of the morning, the other is gray and wan. The features are differ. ent. But the eyes are the same, they have the same expression and light in them. Such is the history of Vishnu.

The Rig-veda, is the oldest monument of Aryan religion. It embodies the primitive belief of the people, at the time of their settlement in India. It speaks, we remember1 of Dyaus and Dyaush-pitar, the Zeus and Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans, and means a "father of heaven." We cannot doubt that in the beginning their faith was in "the only God above the gods." But gradually, to the poetic fancy, the powers of heaven appeared themselves as divine persons. Amongst them there stood out as the greatest, Agni the fire, Surya the sun, and Indra the rain. In the battle which the latter wages high up in cloudland, against the strongholds of heat and drought, his chariot is surrounded by a flight of Maruts," spirits of the storm" ; at his side there fights his comrade Vishnu. This is the first mention we have of this god. The deity, however, whom the Hindoos to-day worship, is connected not with the clouds but with another phenomenon of the sky, with the sun. Of it, or rather of him, of Surya a splendid description is given—

Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high

The Sun, that men may see the great, allknowing god.

The stars slink off like thieves, in company with Night,

Before the all-seeing eyes whose beams reveal his presence,

Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation......

Surya, with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day,

Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rush ing car.........

To thy refulgent orb, Beyond this lower gloom, and upward to the light

1 Comp. Sunday at Home, July, 1892,

the four monasteries which he fouuded in various parts of the country. His chief disciples were appointed abbots; the abbots made provision for the perpetuation of their office; and a kind of apostolical succession in each of these institutions guaranteed the purity of the doctrine which they taught1.

It is from this time, from the begin ning of the eighth century, that Hindooism has received the mould and cast in which it subsists to this day. No better emblem exists of its central doctrines than the mighty bust of one head with three faces which we find in the caves of Elephanta. In this Tri-murti, this picture of God, who may be regarde 1 under three different aspects, Bralima is in the middle, to his left is Shiva, to his right Vishnu. Standing before this image we are reminded of the deities of gray antiquity. They have come nigh to us again, but transformed under different names. Agni the god of fire whom the Aryans praised, has reappeared as Brahma whose attribute is creative heat. But fire is after all only a manifestation, one of the manifestations, of the Lord who is above the heavens. Far above and beyond Agni whom they could see, there dawned upon the minds of men in olden times the idea of Dyaush-pitar, whom they had not seen. In the same manner Brahma is the force from whom all things have come this world; he has made his presence known in all creation. He is a personal being; he is separate from others. He thinks, speaks, acts for himself. But he has only come forth, so to speak, for a time, and will return again. Above him and behind him there is the ever-lasting spirit, which fills all space and breathes through the bodies of plants and animals, and is present in the consciousness of man, and comes as inspiration upon the soul of the poet and singer. That spirit is invi sible, impersonal; its name is Brahman, from the root brih, which means to expand.

in

We see that Hindoo gods, however numerous they may be, however distinctly their individuality may be marked, stand

1. Comp. Sir Monier Williams. "Religious Thought and Life in India." Second edition. London, 1885, pp. 55 et seq.

out against a background which is impersonal and abstract. After all, human beings cannot be expected to bring sacrifices to an abstraction. Their gods are unmistakably pictures of mortal men, endowed with mortal failings and passions. Such a religion may be called theism, belief in many different gods equal to one another; but underlying these various doctrines there is the profound consciousness of the existence of the universal spirit, there is the foundation of pantheism. The highest deities are those three which are carved in the bust at Elephanta; they are the powers of creation, of destruction, and of preservation. First comes creation. The spectator could take his position so before the bust that he beholds all three faces at once, or he can stand to the left, where two are completely concealed behind the countenance of Shiva, or to the right, where they are hidden behind Vishnu. The faces are separate, and yet they seem to melt into each other; they are three masks on one skull. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are revelations of the infinite spirit; each can take the place of the two others, and each can be raised to the place of the supreme god. Extremely different in charac. ter, they yet pass into each other; at the end they will again be absorbed into that spirit. The same instinct which left the mind of the people dissatisfied with a mere abstraction, has assigned to these deities their respective places in the worships of the multitude. Brahma is a spirit, and as such cannot be the direct object of worship," so his priests say. They are right. There is little that is human and individual about him, little that could move the heart of a mortal to call upon him in distress or to praise him in happiness.

There are, we believe, only two temples in India which have been set apart for his service. Shiva, on the other hand, has an individual character, which is well depicted in the various scenes carved on the rocky walls of Elephants. With Parvati his wife, he resides in his palace at Kailas in the Himalayas. He appears alternately in the role of bridegroom and husband, of philosopher and ascetic, of merry winebibber and dancer, as the father and the destroyer of men. However lofty on one hand and degraded on the other his per