manner, brought him to me. The poor fellow was in the greatest state
of alarm; he had evidently never seen a Feringhi before, and fancied
that his last hour had arrived. I put a rupee into his hand, and
endeavoured to make him understand that we were neither robbers nor
murderers, but travellers who had lost their way; he was naturally
incredulous, for certainly our appearance gave but small indication of
our respectable character.[*] At length we were obliged to intimate
that his fears might be realized unless he showed us the way to Keune,
which we eventually reached in the evening, much exhausted with our
excursion.

[* 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.)