This image represents a scene on the River Sutledge, not far from the Pauk-Puttun in the Punjaub, a country in the north-west of Hindoostan Proper. A number of the Punjaubees occupy the fore-ground, some of them are busily engaged in cooking, others in conversation, while the boatmen, in the boats peculiar to the Punjaub, are seen to the left. On the middle bank is a faithful delineation of "the Persian Wheel," used for irrigating the fields, and which is turned by a couple of bullocks, and when in motion, its shrill and squeaking noise may be heard miles off, indicating a village at no great distance; the driver is on a seat carried forward at the end of a beam, supported over the horizontal wheel. At a short distance are two females in crimson dresses, the usual color in this part, carrying water-pots on their heads, this drudgery, among the lower orders in the East, being usually performed by the softer sex. Sketches in Afghanistan, Henry Graves & Co. and W.H. Allen & Co., London, 1842. Letterpress title printed in blue incorporating list of plates, tinted lithographic title, dedication leaf, 25 tinted plates by Louis and Charles Haghe. This is one of the earliest collections of views of Afghanistan. James Atkinson, the celebrated translator of Firdausi’s Shah Nameh and one of the first Europeans to explore Afghanistan, was on of the pioneers of oriental studies. The lithographers Louis and Charles Haghe were involved in a number of important publications in the 1840’s and 1850’s and are celebrated for the particular high quality of their work.