rter-circle, as sharp as the sharpest razor, and the blade as
rigid as cast-iron. Now, my experience is that none of our very best
English swords could have cut like this one. A sword of that quality
would cut through a man's skull or thigh-bone without the least quiver,
as easily as an ordinary Birmingham blade would cut through a willow.

I may also mention the case of a young officer named Banks, of the
Seventh Hussars, who was terribly cut up in charging through a band of
Ghazis. One leg was clean lopped off above the knee, the right arm cut
off, the left thigh and left arm both cut through the bone, each wound
produced by a single cut from a sharp, curved _tulwar_. I don't know if
the young fellow got over it;[64] but he was reported to be still alive,
and even cheerful when we marched from Lucknow.

In this matter of sword-blades, I have no wish to dogmatise or to pose
as an authority; I merely state my observations and opinion, in the
hopes that they may lead to experiments being made. But on one point I
am positive. The sharpening of our cavalry swords, if still the same as
in 1857, receives far too little attention.

FOOTNOTES:

[62] In which case they would have been simply ridden over.

[63] These remarks of Mr. Mitchell's are quite true as regards curved
swords; but he forgets that the _point_ is the most effective attack
against Eastern swordsmen.

[64] He did not.

APPENDIX D

THE OPIUM QUESTION

On the afternoon of the 19th August, 1892, I left Cawnpore for Lucknow.
As I was a few minutes before time, I walked along the railway-platform
to see the engine, and, strange to relate, the engine attached to the
train which was to take me into Lucknow (under circumstances very
different from those of 1857) was No. 93! In 1857 I had crossed the
Ganges in the ranks of the Ninety-Third Highlanders, with the figures 93
on the front of my cap, and here I was, under very different
circumstances, revisiting Lucknow for the first time thirty-five years
after, and the engine to the train was No. 93! I need not say that I
lifted my hat to that engine. As a matter of fact, I never do pass the
old number without giving it a salute; but in this instance I looked
upon it as a happy omen for the success of my journey.

I took my seat in the carriage, and shortly after was joined by a
gentleman whom I took to be a Mahommedan; but to my surprise he told me
that he was a Christian employed in the Educational D