Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore, ... and an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia ; performed by order of the supreme government of India, in the years 1831, 32, and 33 (Band 2) (London, 1835)

138

FREEMASONRY.

CHAP. V.

and manufacturing medicines were distinct; and
set us down as very ignorant or very obstinate.
He would not receive the prepared medicines, as
they would be of no use to him after we had left.
We found this feeling generally prevalent; and woe
be to the doctor in these parts who gives medicines
which he cannot make. We kept the Nawab in
good humour, though we would not believe that he
could convert iron into silver. We heard from him i
the position of many metallic veins in the country.
He produced, among other curiosities, some asbestos,
here called cotton-stone (sung i poomba), found
near Julalabad. The good man declared that he
must have some of our knowledge in return for
what he told so freely. I informed him that I be-
longed to a sect called Freemasons, and gave some
account of the craft. It was an institution, I said,
where, though we did not change the baser metals
into gold, we sought to transform the baser and
blacker passions of man into philanthropy and
charity : he particularly requested that he might be
admitted into the fraternity without delay. But as
the number of brethren must be equal to that of the
Pleiades, I put it off to a convenient opportunity.
He confidently believed that he had at last got
scent of magic in its purest dye; and had it been
in my power, I would have willingly initiated him.
He made me promise to send some flower-seeds of
our country, which he wished to see in Cabool;
and I faithfully forwarded them. I cut the plates
out of Mr. Elphinstone's History of Cabool, and
gave them to the Nawab at a large party : not only