When His Highness drew near I stood up and took off my turban:—this is not a difficult matter, one seizes the top of the conical cap round which the turban is tightly wound. The Armenian who was with me said, “Salaam aleikoum,” and when His Highness looked up I bowed. He asked me how I was, and then descending from the palanquin he walked slowly to the chair. I was very glad to see him walking again. It was a cloudy and windy day, and presently His Highness turned to me and desired me to cover my head lest I took cold.
Then the portrait I had just painted was brought forward for His Highness to see. He was pleased with it, and surprised that I should have painted it without a sitting. He told me it required certain alterations, chiefly in the colouring, and he gave directions for the portrait I had painted in Turkestan to be taken down from the Palace and brought to my house to correct this one by;
“For,” said he, “that is an exact likeness.”
I was at the Durbar about three hours, and His Highness told me many things; among others was this:—There were out in the garden several companies of soldiers drawn up before him, young men and lads, perhaps, 300. Of these there were about twenty of whom he wished to make officers. He said:
“These men are gentlemen; their fathers and their grandfathers were gentlemen and men of position, but such is the ignorance of the people I govern that not one of them can read or write: they know nothing. What work can they do? None. They can quarrel and fight; it is all they are fit for.”
He told me that he had given orders for them to be taught, so that they would be able, at least, to write and read a letter.
He had a regiment of boy soldiers—the “Mahomedan Regiment,” these also he had directed to be taught reading and writing.
One incident occurred which may be interesting:
A soldier of the guard, a man whom I had attended in Mazar, a handsome fellow who seemed to be always laughing, came up to His Highness to report an arrest he had made. He said that while he was on guard over His Highness’s tent an intruder approached and he challenged him. No answer being returned he tried to persuade him to go away, saying:—