AFGHANS, are a people in India who inhabit a province of CABUL or CABULISTAN (see Encycl.), and have always been connected with the kingdoms of Persia and Hindostan. They boast of being descended of Saul the first king of Israel; of whose advancement to the royal dignity they give an account which deviates not very widely from the truth. They say indeed, that their great ancestor was raised from the rank of a shepherd, not for any princely qualities which he possessed, but because his stature was exactly equal to the length of a rod which the angel Gabriel had given to the prophet Samuel as the measure of the stature of him whom God had destined to fill the throne of Israel.