The Afghan War of 1879-80: Being a Complete Narrative of the Capture of Cabul, the Siege of Sherpur, the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the Brilliant March to Candahar, and the Defeat of Ayub Khan, with the Operations on the Helmund, and the Settlement with Abdur Rahman KhanHensman, Howard
History
The Afghan War of 1879-80: Being a Complete Narrative of the Capture of Cabul, the Siege of Sherpur, the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the Brilliant March to Candahar, and the Defeat of Ayub Khan, with the Operations on the Helmund, and the Settlement with Abdur Rahman Khan
and the Char Chowk be blown to the four winds of heaven.
The bazaar is covered in at some height above the stalls, which can be
numbered by the hundred; and is very narrow and cramped. It would be
impossible to describe in detail the arrangement of the shops; but the
most attractive were certainly those of the silk merchants, whose goods,
with their brilliant colours and fine texture, were openly displayed.
Richly-braided caps and coats; boots elaborately worked in gold and
silver; cutlery and cloths, both English and native; sweets, fruit on
every hand in huge heaps, grain, spices, saddles, harness for mules and
camels, piles of blankets and felt _numdahs_ of wonderful patterns, and
scores of other articles that I cannot set down, succeeded each other as
stall after stall was passed; and a further medley was formed by the
heaps of parched gram and _chupaties_ (flat unleavened cakes), plates of
horrible stews and greasy-looking messes which were exposed for sale.
Next a butcher’s shop full of meat curiously cut up and hung about in
admired disorder, would be a _kabob_ stall, the keeper of which would be
cooking his dainty morsels in the open air, and tempting passengers to
try his savoury little sticks. In all the small squares which I have
before mentioned as giving the name to the bazaar, groups of men were
lounging or squatting about the tank in the middle of the open space,
and here, doubtless, much of the bartering with strangers and merchants
from a distance is carried on. The buildings in the squares are more
pretentious than elsewhere, rising to a height of three or four stories,
and their fronts and chief doorways are handsomely ornamented.
Our ride through was soon over, and we arrived at the street where we
had turned off to Chandaul in about an hour and a half from the time of
entering the city. Only one mosque was passed on the way, just as we
were leaving the Char Chowk, and the voice of a _moollah_, shrieking
“Allah-il-Ullah,” and perhaps cursing us under his breath, could be
heard within the courtyard, rising over all the din made by our horses
as they stumbled over the rough ground. Whatever fanaticism there may be
in Cabul—and that it is highly fanatical historical events have only too
sadly shown—it is clearly under a cloud now; and as long as we remain in
the Bala Hissar, with a force ready for all contingencies, it can never
make much headway. Our march through having been happily ended, Sir F.
Roberts drew rein outside the Lahore Gate, and watched the infantry
brigades file out with bands playing and colours flying. Thus ended our
second and final triumph in the humiliation of Cabul, and now there lies
before us the work of detection and punishment of those who shared in
the massacre of our Envoy. That there are many in the city all our
information leads us to believe, and we are not likely to let them
escape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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