Page:Volunteering in India.djvu/44

30 than plausible rogues! They are blessed with what in common phraseology would be termed “iron constitutions,” rarely, if ever, seem sick or sorry, have no experience of medicine, and, as a matter of fact, it would be impossible to find a healthier race in Asia, or discover a more pre-eminently jovial set of fellows than they are. And they possess an amount of rational “chaff” during convivial feasts very seldom, if ever, to be found among people so completely isolated and secluded from foreign intercourse as they always have been; and this is all the more striking, when at such feasts and annual festivals they become strenuous worshippers of Bacchus, and when it is by no means exceptionally rare for these martial spirits to drink off at a draught, or gulp down, full “tumblers” (called kuttoras) of some form of alcohol, stronger than raw rum, as if the liquor were water!

In addition to their military equipments, they carry (as may be said of the whole nation) the ancient weapon of Nipal — namely, the terrible kokre, which, parenthetically described, is a massive curved knife some twenty inches long and about five broad, manufactured from the finest-tempered steel, and whetted with an edge as sharp as that of a razor. The reader, who may not have seen the kokre used, cannot by mere description form any conception of its power in the hands of a strong man skilful in the art of wielding it. Even we ourselves, while looking on at some Nipalese sacrificing animals to their gods, could hardly believe our eyes when we saw the head of a buffalo