"Show him in, Brooklands," said Waller; "he is no less a personage than Taj Mohammed Khan. He expressed a wish to see us yesterday, when I met him near the gate of the Shah Bagh;* so remain for a few minutes, Jack."
* Royal Garden.
"Khan—is he a chief?" asked Denzil.
"Not at all," replied Waller; "it is used as Esquire with us—a title given in England to every fellow who wears a black coat; so everybody is a Khan (i.e. noble) in Cabul. The world of snobbery reproduces itself everywhere; and here he comes stroking his long beard with an air of solemn satisfaction," he added, as an Afghan gentleman of tall and imposing appearance, was ushered into the apartment, making low salams as he advanced.
CHAPTER III.
THE WARNING.
The Afghan who entered was tall and muscular, but spare in person and was a very good representation of his active, bold and warlike race. His features were keen and sharp; his nose thin and aquiline; his eyes, black, glittering and piercing; but his complexion was scarcely darker than that of an ordinary Spaniard or French Catalan. The scalp of his head was shaved; but this peculiarity of the Soonies—an orthodox Mohammedan sect in opposition to the Persians who are followers of Ali—was concealed by his head-dress, a loonghee, or cloth worn turbanwise, of a bright blue check with a red border and drooping gold fringe.
His costume was extremely simple and consisted of a camise or blouse of scarlet stuff, with loose sleeves, wide baggy trowsers of dark cotton reaching to half-boots that were closely buttoned to the limb. Over his shoulder—as the season was winter—hung a large mantle of finely-dressed sheepskin well tanned, with the soft fleecy wool inwards, and round his waist a Cashmere shawl worn as a girdle, and therein he carried a pair of brass-butted flint-lock pistols, an Afghan knife and dagger. His sabre with cross-hilt and crooked blade dangled nearly in front of him, and on his left wrist, secured by a silver chain, sat a hooded hawk; for now in the nineteenth century, as in Europe ages ago, falconry is a favourite sport of the hardy Afghans.
Such was the remarkable figure which the three young officers rose to greet. Unlike the cringing servility of the slimy Hindoo, the bearing of the Afghan mountaineer is proud, but grave and full of natural dignity; and few were nobler in Cabul than their visitor Taj Mohammed Khan, son of the Hereditary Wuzeer Golam Mohammed, a strenuous adherent of the reigning Shah Sujah and friend of the British Government, which upheld that feeble monarch on his shaky throne.
Taj Mohammed was a very devout Mussulman, and most strictly obeyed the Koran in all its precepts (save one), repeating his prayers five times daily; namely in the morning, when noon is past, in the evening before sunset, and after dark, ere the first watch of the night be passed; but he could not resist an occasional glass of wine.