Note 137 — APPENDICES. (continued 3)

“Degol is the first village of Zebák ... which is ruled by Shah Abdur-Rahim, a Sayad of the Shiah sect, worshipped by all the Shiahs of Kashkar, (Chitrál), Yarkand, and Khokand. They also worship Shah Bombáy, Shah Madkasan, who is learned, good-natured, and friendly to travellers.... The people give a tenth of their income to their preceptors; if one has ten children, he consecrates one to Shah Abdur-Rahim.... The inhabitants are strong and hardy; the women do not cover their faces from strangers. Although Shiahs, they have no mosques and repeat no prayers. Abdur-Rahim has one in his village, where he prays. Every morning at Chasht (the middle hour between sunrise and noon) he sits in the assembly and distributes breads of wheat among the members, followed by the servants handing round tea in porcelain cups in which each one soaks his bread, and, after eating it, lifts his hand to bless the giver, a custom also followed by the nobles on entering the assembly. If Shah Abdur-Rahim addresses any of them, he rises from his seat and answers as if he were reading a ruka’t at the time of praying, and then returns to his place, and sits on his knees, for to sit otherwise is reckoned a sin amongst these men.” In other words, the only worship of the prayerless Muláis is to their Pîr, to whom they address the ruka’t given by real Muhammadans in prayers to God [bowing, whilst standing, with hands resting on the knees].