[* Note: I was armed with a huge old-fashioned sword of the 11th
dragoons, purchased in the Cabul bazaar, (marked D-XI Dr.) and clad in
a green Swiss frock. I had a coloured turban wound in copious folds
round my head as a protection from the sun, beard of nearly three
months' growth, and accompanied by a ferocious-looking tribe of
Affghans, all unshorn as well as myself, created anything but
a prepossessing impression to a stranger. The reader will not,
therefore, feel surprised at the man's hesitation in meeting us.]
The chief of the fort at first declined furnishing us with any
supplies, though we offered liberal payment, declaring that he had
only sufficient for his own consumption; he, however, relented, and
sent us enough for our immediate wants. He afterwards came himself,
and informed us that we had acted very unwisely in mentioning at
Ghoree the route we proposed to follow, as one of the Sheikkallee
Huzareh chiefs, who was in a state of rebellion, had passed through
Keune the day before, and had stated that a party of Feringhis were
about to pass through his country with a quantity of odd looking boxes
filled with money, (alluding, I suppose, to the theodolite, &c.)
and that he would with his whole tribe waylay and rob us. This was
pleasant news, but we took the hint and determined to be on our guard.
In return for this piece of information, the inhabitants of Keune
expressed a desire to see the _Feringhis feed_; rather a novel
request, but one which we easily gratified by striking the walls of
the tent while we eat our dinner. The natives squatted down in a
circle outside the tent pins, and watched every morsel we put into our
mouths with the utmost interest and with many exclamations of surprise
and astonishment; and when before retiring for the night we as usual
had a skinful of water poured over us, their wonder knew no bounds;
they were evidently but slightly acquainted with the use of water as
applied for the purposes of cleanliness.
We left Keune at daybreak on the 30th, hoping to be able to make our
way to Badjgh[=a]r, distant about forty-five miles, by surmounting the
Keune pass and proceeding down the Surruk Kulla valley. The ascent
was long and steep, the distance we had to travel before reaching the
summit being above thirteen miles; and though we had been on the move
nearly all day, such were the difficulties of the pass that night
overtook us shortly after we had reached its crest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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