The Princes were at the “tomasha,” but His Highness the Amîr was, of course, unable to honour the sports by his presence. I was told, indeed, that he now very rarely does so; and the result has been that the sports have fallen off considerably.
New Year Congratulations.
The next day was “Naû Roz,” or the New Year’s Day. I was informed that His Highness would be able to receive me at three p.m. In the morning, therefore, I rode to the Babur Badshah Gardens to salaam the Sultana, who was staying in the Bungalow there. On the way I met Mahomed Omer and complimented him on his skill with the lance. He is a bright little fellow, and he seemed greatly pleased at being complimented. He was gorgeous in scarlet and gold, and was at the head of a troop of cavalry, in his exalted post of “Commander-in-Chief” to Prince Mahomed Omer.
At the gardens we had tea and cigarettes in a tent while our congratulations were taken in to the Sultana. I did not, of course, see Her Highness, and she sent the New Year greetings by her messenger, “Sirdar”—the girl-boy.
By the time we had returned to Kabul it was three o’clock, and I rode on to the Palace.
When I arrived His Highness was being conveyed in a palanquin to the Salaam Khana, where there were arranged for his inspection, rifles, sabres, cartridges, sword-sticks, rupees, and other productions of the workshops.
His Highness was kind enough to stop and enquire how I was. He evidently remembered—as I did—that at the last big reception of this kind I had been the invalid, for he asked if I had had any return of the illness. I was happy to tell him I was well, and that my greatest wish was that he might soon be the same. While His Highness was speaking. Col. Attaullah Khan, the British Agent, came and stood near me; by the side of such a splendid man I felt a stripling, for I am but a meagre six feet with my boots on.
When the inspection of arms was over, His Highness, followed by the Princes and the Courtiers, entered the Salaam Khana and took his seat on the couch in one of the end rooms. He kindly allowed me to be seated, though everyone else stood, and taking some cigars from a box he sent them to me by a Page boy, and invited me to smoke.
Presently, the Maleks, and Merchants, and others, who wished to make New Year’s offerings, were admitted. They stood just inside the doorway, and round the lower end of the room. The Court attendants took the presents and laid them on the ground in front of the Amîr.
There were rolls of silks and satins; lamps, musical-boxes, Russian boots, vases, Japanese cabinets, sugar, sweets, inexpensive writing-cases, pocket-knives, flowers, and in the midst of the medley I noticed a pair of trouser stretchers.