e months of it. Come you out and endure two and a half.
You are three years younger than I. Why do you sit at home and drill
new men? Remember:

The Brahman who steals,
The widow who wears ornaments,
The Rajput who avoids the battle,
Are only fit for crows' meat.

You write me that this is a war for young men? The old are not entirely
useless. The Badshah [the King] himself gave me the medal for fetching
in my captain from out of the wires upon my back. That work caused me
the coldness in my stomach. Old men should not do coolie-work. Your
cavalry were useless in France. Infantry can fight in this war--not
cavalry. It is as impossible for us to get out of our trenches and
exterminate the enemy as it is for the enemy to attack us. Doubtless
the cavalry brigades will show what they are made of in Egypt or
Persia. This business in France is all Artillery work and mines. The
blowing up of the Chitoree Bastion when Arjoon went to Heaven waving
his sword, as the song says, would not be noticed in the noise of this
war.

The nature of the enemy is to go to earth and flood us with artillery
of large weight. When we were in the trenches it was a burden. When we
rested in the villages we found great ease. As to our food, it was like
a bunnia's marriage-feast. Everything given, nothing counted. Some of
us--especially among your cavalry--grew so fat that they were compelled
to wrestle to keep thin. This is because there was no marching.

The nature of the enemy is to commit shame upon women and children, and
to defile the shrines of his own faith with his own dung. It is done by
him as a drill. We believed till then they were some sort of caste
apart from the rest. We did not know they were outcaste. Now it is
established by the evidence of our senses. They attack on all fours
running like apes. They are specially careful for their faces. When
death is certain to them they offer gifts and repeat the number of
their children. They are very good single shots from cover.

It is the nature of the enemy to shower seductions from out of their
air-machines on our troops in the lines. They promised such as would
desert that they would become Rajahs among them. Some of the men went
over to see if this were true. No report came back. In this way we
cleaned out five bad characters from our Company exactly as it used to
be in the little wars on the Border. May the enemy be pleased with
them! No man of any caste disgraced