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kept on muttering and chanting incantations, but no rain fell nor did a
single drop fall but for the drops which he had spurted upwards. It is indeed nothing short of wonder that this imaginary property of
the stone is subscribed to as a belief by the commonalty of people and even scholars have written these far-fetched things without having checked the facts for themselves. Among our contemporaries one has come out in defence of this property by saying that the stone does not have its effect felt in our land: it is confined only to Turkestan. In the support of his argument he said: "if garlic is brayed at the summits of the hills of Tabaristan, rainfall would immediately follow, and, when animal and human blood flows there in profusion, the rainwater would wash the ground and take away the corpses. No rainfall can be induced in Egypt, whatever device is adopted." To this my reply was: "This appertains to the situation of the mountains, their structure, the blowing or winds, and the passage of sea clouds. Whatever you have spoken about Tabaristan is also within my purview. Such things are often said. Those having wisdom know all too well that wherever there are reservoirs, lakes and rivers, men and women take their baths and wash their clothes; later rain, air, or snowfall washes away the dirt. It frequently happens in mountainous areas that all traces of dirt are removed, especially during the rainy season; and still people continue to believe in unnatural things." The same thing is said about a valley known as Ghawrak, situated
between Baghlan and Barwan. 114 People speak in much the same way about it. It receives considerable rainfall during summer and snowfall
during winter. Different kinds of winds also blow here. We have passed many a time through it and encountered these along with a large number of troops. We stayed near the waters of the valley. Demi-mondes, impure and impious women visit these waters. Many of them having their monthly indisposition would bathe in them in order to purify themselves. There would be many in the army who would not care much about corporal cleanliness either. All these persons bathe here: and still people drink these waters, and wash their hands and feet in them. But at no time are there any signs of impurity present. The association of such fictitious attributes with stones possibly relates to the intention of the original inventor of these tales that such
stones should be removed from the particular area. For instance, in the village of Jund-i-Al-i-Kiram there are two white stones. This village is at a distance of two manzils from Kabul in the direction of India. These stones are on the upper side of a valley where reed and papyrus grow. It was told among the people that anyone who breaks off the stones of the larger rock pulverises them, drinks the dust with a draught shall beget sons only, while anyone who breaks off the stones of the smaller rock |
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