THE AMIR AND HIS MEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2007, 19 May 1885, Page 2

THE AMIR AND HIS MEN.

Tuk Amir has at length arrived at Rawul Pindi (suites the Bombay Gazette of Apnl 3id) after a progress tlntlier whien was slow fnough to be stately ; and fu> reception at tlu Viceroy' 3 camp has Oeen as imposing as the drenching rain ami the sodden state of the giound would sutler it to be. If it wanted m brilliancy, it uas because the pageantiy of empires io not superior to mud and rain. And so we must change our historic parallel for the great occasion, finding it no longer in Hie Field of the Cloth of Gold, but in th» Feast of Pikes in the Champs de Mara 9.") yeais ago. There was impel ial splendour, but it was bedraggled and bemired. At the ceremony Abdurrahman wasattued in military uniform resembling that of a Turkish officer, of cloth, decorated onlj by a pair of orders on the breast. Hu appearance was in strik'ng contiast wilh that of Ins rough follow or.-., and his re ception of tho Go\ eminent representati\es was thoroughly dignified. The Finn's court attendants were diessed in a \auety of costumes of most cunoui stylt'b. They presented a lemarkable -spectacle as they pushed and^bowed their way at the Ainu's heels, a score of widely-ditfeiing Affghan tiibes being represented amongst them. Beams with costly hookahs for the Amir's use, seivants with bundles and pots and pans for his household, roughly equipped soldiers and councillors came together into the station courtyard. The Amir has brought his deaf and dumb painter, iiis personal cook (whose duty is to first tabte all the Amir's meals before they are served), a docter, a chaniberlaiu, and a host of hookah and pansttpari boys. Five hundred meu have arrived, infantry and cavalry. Their nondesciipt character and oddly assorted arms provoked out bursts of laughter as they passed to their camp in the Amir's compound. No two were dre*&ed alike, save for a cape of rough sacking, which serves also as a hood. The general impiession among European! is that such desperadoes were never before seen off a theatric*! stage Their guns are of various sizes, a.<d all carefully carried in canvas covers. The cavalry aro aimed also with lances. The officers are ondistinguishable from their men, whose faces bear traces of severe inarches and \ cry rough weather, and they seem as if personal clean liness were a virtue unknown to them. Their muddy aud tattered garments give them the look of having just passed through a long winter campaign, or as if they had just issued fro;n the casual waul of an English workhouse. The mo3t conspicuous peisons in the throng were two Übbeg orderlies, whose savage countenances were «et off by gigantic hats of black bearskin. They w ere armed to the teeth, carrying ntlo iv hand aud a knife and sword at their side. Each was encircled by a cartridge-belt filled with ball cartridges of every description. They ttiike terror into all beholders. The Amir's followcia liteially bustled with weapons of the most formidable character, and their looks did not belie their reputation for ferocity,