The arrival turned out to be a messenger from the Palace with a letter and a parcel from His Highness. The parcel was a sample case of cigars, and the letter, in the Amîr’s handwriting, directed me to smoke and choose: I was to let His Highness know which were the best, and he would order a supply of them. The Amîr’s writing is peculiar. He uses a steel pen, not the native reed pen: like many other illustrious men, he cannot be considered a good penman. The next day was dull and rainy, but we had a glorious sunset. The sky, in its depth, was a perfect blue, which grew fainter and faded to primrose as it neared the mountains half hid in the piled up clouds. The summits, huge and rugged, had torn through the layers of cloud and shone red in the sun: their bold and rigid outlines, casting deep purple shadows, were cut off from the calm of the sky by the heavy clouds piled up behind them. These great masses, though seemingly almost as solid as rock, had softer outlines than the rugged peaks, and they showed great billowy waves of red light and deep shadow. Below the peaks the clouds hung in drawn-out layers, the lights and shadows becoming lost in grey and brown: lower, all was lost in a depth of deep purple blue, which mingled with the rich green brown of the darkened and foreshortened treeless plain. Sharp against all this depth of purple and green were the leafless branches and myriad branchlets of the trees of Mazar, red gold in the sun. [Illustration] CHAPTER XVIII. THE LEVEE ON NEW YEAR’S DAY. The Mahomedan New Year’s Eve. Presents. The “Izzat” medal. Coinage of Afghanistan: Rupees: Pice: the “Tilla.” Levee on New Year’s Day. The guests: Maleks and Governors: The British Agent. Presents to the Amîr. The Levee as a picture. Lunch. Chess as played in Afghanistan. The great rider among men: his fall. The Amîr as a Pathologist. The steam-engine pony: his paces: his wickedness. Sight-seeing with the Princes. The Temple of Mazar. The booths at the entrance to the Temple. The Park of Mazar. Native music. The Afghan dance. The wrestling contests: Turkoman _v._ Mazari. Kabuli wrestling. March 21st is the Mahomedan New Year’s Day. On New Year’s Eve one of the Chief Secretaries was announced. He entered, accompanied by some servants carrying two trays with cloths over them. After the usual salutations the Secretary gave me a letter. It was from His Highness requesting my acceptance of the accompanying presents. [Sidenote: The “Izzat” Medal.] The cloths were lifted and I found that His Highness had conferred upon me the gold Afghan Medal of Honour and had presented me with five thousand rupees. The medal was for the work I had done among the sick during the past year, and the rupees for the portrait.