It was only a few years ago
that the following adventures occurred.
An order reached regimental headquarters to detail a cavalry soldier who
could speak Persian, and one stout of heart and limb, to accompany a
British officer on a mission of considerable danger and uncertainty. He
was to call at a certain house, on a certain day, in Karachi, and to ask
for the name of Smith. Shah Sowar was the trooper selected, and when he
arrived at the place of tryst he was ushered into the presence of Smith.
Smith, however, was not Smith at all, but somebody quite different; not
that it mattered much, for Smith was only his Karachi name.
Next day, on board ship, he became the Sheikh Abdul Qadir, on his way to
Mecca or where not; and from that moment commenced the troubles of the
redoubtable Shah Sowar. To anyone who has the least knowledge of Asia
the extraordinary difficulty which any European must experience in
disguising himself as a man of an Eastern race will be apparent. By dint
of living for years as Asiatics, exceptional linguists like Vambery and
Burton have undoubtedly been able to pass unchallenged, but anyone
possessing qualities short of theirs must inevitably be discovered a
dozen times a day. The way we eat and drink, the way we walk and sit,
the way we wear our clothes and boots, the way we wash,--every little
thing is absolutely different from the methods and manners of the East.
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