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THE GURKHA

SOLDIER AND SHIKARI J A CHARACTER SKETCH (By an Anglo-Indian.) .Moore, of the 12tli Ghurka Jlillcs, was dining with'mo last night. His wounds havo boon patched up for the second time, and lie is going back to France, where ho will find none of the original officers of his own battalion left, savo possibly the colonel. "I am a bit pipped," he said. "I have just hoard that my orderly, poor old Tegh Bahadur, is dead—blown up by a hand grenade in a night attack. Ho was such a top-hole fcl'oiv." And ho began to tell mc of the shooting trips they had had together, and how Tegh. Bahadur had tuniod a bear out of a, - cavc and tackled a huge wounded boar in the forest with his kukri. ■ There are many races, castes, and creeds in the Indian Army; but every British' officer, whether it be through love or conviction, swears by his own men. This is as it should be, but speak-, ing as an outsider who knows a littlo of most of the Indian fighting stocks and not a great deal of, any, 1 have always envied the man who commands the "Gurk." Ho is first of all a soldier and a shikari, and honours his British officer as such—not because of his white skin, but because of tho steadfast virtues of his class. There is no soplusticated twentieth century race-feeling abou tho "Goorkh." He can bo perfectly at his ease with his regimental officer without any encroachment upon raspect. Something of the 6ame relations exist between the two as between a house mastor at one of our public schools and the big boys in his house. A Story of Tegh Bahadur. "He ivas an ugly little devil," Moore said, "and a chunk liad been torn out of his face by a leopard. I didn't take to him at first, until one day I was in the jungle at Ghoom and heard woodcutting in a forest reserve whero woodcutting is forbidden. It was in tho leave season, and everybody had cleared out and I was left in command. When I appeared in tho clearing I saw threo .pairs of heels scurrying away. I.recognised Tegh Bahadur, and called him to the 'orderly, room. "'You >vcre'cutting wood,'" I said. " 'Yes, sahib.' " 'You know it is against order3p' " 'Yes, sahib.' ■'"Why, did you run away?' " 'AVhen we saw the captain sahib coming we were frightened, and had to bolt.' " 'Is there any reason why, you should not be punished?' i : " 'Yes, sahib; it is a first offence. The colonel sahib never punishes a first offence.' " 'There were two others?' "'Yes, saliib.' " 'Toll me their names.' "No,' sahib. I cannot tell you their names. We do not betray one another. . . . Perhaps 'if 1 talk a littlo to them in the canteen they will como to you themselves and confess.' "Tho next day the two men came and confessed and were forgiven." A simple story with no point in it to one unversed in tho evasiveness of the more sophisticated' East. . "Soon afterwards," Moore continued, "wo were in Waziristant, Wana way, when the country was disturbed. I went out after markhor one afternoon without an escort, and I had an uncomfortable feeling all tho while that I was being stalked. '* It was live in tho evening when I noticed that a pointed rock near me cast an unnaturally bulging shadow. I covered it , with my rifle and waited. Soon a voice came from behind it: 'Don't shoot, sahib, it is me,' and after the voice there appeared tho forage cap and scarred face of Tegh Bahadur. "Ho was ashamed at being discovered. He didn't want the sahib to bo scuppered, he said, and seeing that I was not angry ho grinned sheepishly. But just think of it! He had been shadowing me the whole afternoon, and I had not twug it, and I was drawing my pay for training him, teaching him to stalk and scout!" Tiio fidelity of the man Moore took as a matter of course, but his story reminded me of a tradition that hold's in most Ghurka battalions. In 1 the attack tho British officer always runs a little ahead. - That is the custom whatever troops he -ieads; two : men in a company of Ghurkas aro told off to stand by him on either side. Against steal at least he must not fall. But, of course, this has to be a very-furtive proceeding. Highlander and Curkha. ■There is a.longstanding ailianco between the Highland regiments and the Gurkha. The Highlander is attached to him because of Jus cheery face, and tho face of the Gurkha is tlie inuex of his soul. He has tlio 'heart of a lion and the head of a child. No sepoy is so aepomlent on his sahib. in the trenches of Flanders he is thinking all tho whole, "This is- the country of the white man," and when all his officers are killed he is a little lost and bewildered. Ho is a cheery, but not a calculating, fighter. Ho loves a scrap, and likes to look into tlio whites of his enemy's eyes; but an enemy composed of terrible sounds, unseen shocks, and tortuous forms of death is a manifestation of tho devil with whom it is hard to cope alone. If there is one place where Togh Bahadur is tho hotter man it is in tho listening gallery of a mine. For his ear is as good as his eye. Hero one is happiest without imagination as ono sits waiting in the dark for sounds in.the neighbouring' sap, subtle as the footfall of a bear 011 wet leaves. The Gurkha's ear is truo; he does not hear sounds that are no sounds; lie is not haunted with the thought that' the hole where ho squats is the shape of a tomb. ' But in .the white mail's war as a rule in, the trenches under tho night flares' Tegh Bahadur is,as dependent on Moore as Moore is dependent on him in tho Himalayan jungle, his home. And apparently Tegh Bahadur was a very lovable littlo man. Moore, who has lost most of his pals, was sunk in depression half the night. Ho was thinking of camp fires in Sum and Baltistan and his trusty little friend squatting over the hot rhododendron ashes in his Gilgit boots and Balaclava cap, blowing tho embers into a flame and chattering between pull's, of rod bear and big sheep, and tho monster ibex which ho has marked down for tho sahib on tho morrow. Ono more of the'bright visions blotted out by tho Hun.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19151228.2.77

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 8

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,109

THE GURKHA Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 8

THE GURKHA Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 8

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