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AKALEE.

hitherto has been sufficently remarkable. Akalees may eat all animal food but beef. They cannot smoke, but they drink bhang; the intoxicating quality of which produces a fierce excitement, ending in stupefaction. They do not marry. Their chief religious exercise is telling their beads and repeating the word "Akhal," or eternal, from whence the sect takes its name; the greater the number of repetitions the greater the supposed merit. The sect of Akalees is not so numerous as it used to be, and will probably gradually die out. From the native armies of the Punjab it received many additions in men too desperate and lawless to submit even to the lax discipline of the Sikh forces, and in the turbulent masses which composed them they often proved a dangerous and uncontrollable element.  The power of the Akalees culminated after the death of Runjeet Singh, and on the bloody fields of Feroze Sheher and Soobraon the warlike fury, as it were, of the sect was spent and broken, most likely for ever. In its religious element, however, it is still strong.  The order of priests which forms an influential portion of it are the possessors of the sacred shrine of Amritsur, where the holy books of the Sikh faith are deposited, and directors of the council which assembles there. The history of the Sikhs gives the result of the religious and fanatical enthusiasm by which these councils used to be guided in the frequent foreign wars and internal dissensions of the Sikh element. Runjeet Singh was the only mind which could hold this spirit in check, and the respect of the Akalees for him was rarely violated during his long and eventful reign. It was after his death that the Akalee council became uncontrollable; the result of which was a wild desire for the conquest of India, which led to the Sikh advance into British territory, and by a series of events to the annexation of the Punjab to British India. In Ward's work upon the Hindoo religion an interesting account of the Akalee council at Amritsur is given, a summary of which may not be out of place here, being, indeed, a quotation from Sir John Malcolm's sketch of the Sikhs.

When a Gooroo Muta or great national council is called (as it always is, or ought to be, when any imminent danger threatens the country, or any large expedition is to be undertaken), all the Sikh chiefs assemble at Amritsur. The assembly which is called Gooroo Muta, is convened by the Akalees; and when the chiefs meet upon this solemn occasion, it is concluded that all private animosities cease, and that every man sacrifices his personal feelings at the shrine of the general good. When the chiefs and the principal leaders are seated, the Adee Grunth and Dushmee Padshahee Grunth are placed before them. They all bend their heads before these scriptures, and exclaim, "Wah! Gooroojee ka khalsa! wah! Gooroojee ke futteh!" A great quantity of cakes, made of wheat, butter, and sugar, are then placed before the volumes of their sacred writings, and covered with a cloth. These holy cakes, which are in commemoration of Nanuk's injunction, to eat and give others to eat, next receive the salutation of the assembly, who then