was barren and unpromising, without participating in the wild and
grand features which generally characterize these regions. Fuel was
with difficulty procured, and our camp was but scantily furnished with
even the most necessary supplies.




CHAPTER VII.


On the 1st of July we left this sad region, and pitched our tents
some five miles further onwards, in a pleasant meadow, where we met a
brother of Dost Mahommed, the well-known Sird[=a]r Jubber Kh[=a]n, who
arrived in the course of the day from the interior of Toorkist[=a]n,
and encamped close to us. He was then on his way to Cabul, having
in charge the women and children belonging to the seraglio of the
ex-king. He invited us to pay him a visit, which we did in uniform,
and found him an agreeable old gentleman, with manners far more
polished than the generality of his countrymen, who, though not
deficient in a certain national savage grace, frequently shock our
European notions of propriety by their open disregard of what we are
accustomed to consider the decencies of society; but Jubber Kh[=a]n
seemed to have all the good qualities and few of the vices so
prevalent in the Affgh[=a]n character. No doubt that superior polish
of manner was derived from his more extensive intercourse with
Europeans. During our visit he presented us each with a small silver
Mahommedan coin, saying at the same time with peculiar grace and
dignity that he was now a poor man, and entirely dependent on the
generosity of the British; that the coin was of no intrinsic value,