Part 3 (1/2)

Burton presently found himself gazetted as Captain Scott's a.s.sistant; and having learnt the use of the theodolite and the spirit level, he went on December 10th (1844) with a surveying party to Hyderbad [66] and the Guni River. The work was trying, but he varied it with hawking; and collected material for a work which he published eight years later with the t.i.tle of Falconry in the Valley of the Indus. He then made the acquaintance of three natives, all of whom a.s.sisted him in his linguistic studies, Mirza Ali Akhbar [67], Mirza Daud, and Mirza Mohammed Musayn. Helped by the last he opened covertly at Karachi several shops with the object, however, not of making profit, but of obtaining intimate knowledge of the people and their secret customs.

Then he put on long hair and a venerable beard, stained his limbs with henna, and called himself Abdullah of Bus.h.i.+re, a half-Arab. In this disguise, with spear in hand and pistols in holsters, he travelled the country with a little pack of nick-knacks. In order to display his stock he boldly entered private houses, for he found that if the master wanted to eject him, the mistress would be sure to oppose such a measure.

All his life he loved to disguise himself. We shall see him later as a Greek doctor, a Pathan Hakim, and an Arab shaykh. His shops had plenty of customers, for he was in the habit of giving the ladies, especially if they were pretty, ”the heaviest possible weight for their money,”

though sometimes he would charge too much in order to induce them to chaffer with him. He learnt most, however, from the garrulity of a decayed beauty named Khanum Jan, who in her springtide had married a handsome tailor. Her husband having lost the graces of his person, she generally alluded to him affectionately as ”that old hyena.” This couple proved a Golconda for information. Burton had not long studied these and other persons before coming to the conclusion that the Eastern mind is always in extremes, that it ignores what is meant by the ”golden mean,”

and that it delights to range in flights limited only by the ne plus ultra of Nature herself. He picked up miscellaneous information about magic, white and black, Yoga [68], local manners and customs such as circ.u.mcision, both female and male, and other subjects, all of which he utilised when he came to write his Notes and Terminal Essay to The Arabian Nights, particularly the articles on Al Islam and woman. Then, too, when at Bombay and other large towns he used to ransack the bazaars for rare books and ma.n.u.scripts, whether ancient or contemporaneous.

Still, the most valuable portion of his knowledge was acquired orally.

11. A Dangerous Mission, 1845.

About this time it was reported to Sir Charles Napier that Karachi, though a town of only 2,000 souls, supported no fewer than three houses which were devoted to a particular and unspeakable vice [69] which is said to be common in the East. Sir Charles, whose custom it was to worm out the truth respecting anything and everything, at once looked round for someone willing to make enquiries and to report upon the subject.

Burton being then the only British officer who could speak Sindi, the choice naturally fell upon him, and he undertook the task, only, however, on the express condition that his report should not be forwarded to the Bombay Government, from whom supporters of Napier's policy ”could expect scant favour, mercy, or justice.” Accompanied by his Muns.h.i.+, Mirza Mohammed Hosayn s.h.i.+raz, and disguised as a merchant, Burton pa.s.sed many evenings in the town, made the required visits, and obtained the fullest details, which were duly dispatched to Government House. But in 1847, when Napier quitted Sind ”he left in his office Burton's unfortunate official.” ”This,” says Burton, ”found its way with sundry other reports to Bombay, and produced the expected result. A friend in the secretariat informed me that my summary dismissal had been formally proposed by one of Sir Charles Napier's successors, but this excess of outraged modesty was not allowed.” [70] A little later, however, Burton had to suffer very severely for this unfortunate occurrence. Of course he heard regularly from home. His father was still immersed in blow-pipes and retorts, his mother still mildly protesting.

His sister, who had won to herself for her loveliness the name of ”the Moss Rose,” was married to General Sir Henry Stisted [71], his brother Edward was practising as an army doctor; his Grandmother Baker was dead.

[72]

12. The Persian Beauty.

During one of his rambles he formed the acquaintance of a beautiful olive, oval-faced Persian girl of high descent. We are told that her ”eyes were narcissi, her cheeks sweet basil,” her personal charms together with her siren voice and sweet disposition caused him to fall in love with her; but he had scarcely learnt that his pa.s.sion was reciprocated before she died. We are told also that for many years he could never think of her without pain; and that when, some time after, he narrated the story to his sister he revealed considerable emotion.

Miss Stisted thought she could see references to this episode in Burton's poem The Kasidah, portions of which were written some three years later: ”Mine eyes, my brain, my heart are sad--sad is the very core of me.” This may be so, but the birth of a litter of pups, presented to him by his beloved bull terrier, seems to have taken the edge off his grief; and his tribute to one of these pups, which received the name of Bachhun, is really affecting.

The ”Acting Commissioner” of the time was General Jacob of the Sind Horse, who wore a helmet of silver and a sabre-tache studded with diamonds. This, however, was not from pride or love of display, but because he held it policy in those who have to deal with Hindus not to neglect show and splendour. ”In the eyes of Orientals,” he used to remark, and Burton endorsed the saying, ”no man is great unless he is also superbly dressed.” As Jacob stuttered, one of his correspondents thought his name was J. J. J. J. J. Jacob, and terribly offended the testy General by writing it so. A brave and self-confident, but rancorous old man, Jacob by his senseless regulations brought the Indian army to the verge of ruin. This peccadillo was pa.s.sed over, but a more serious offence, his inability to play whist, was remembered against him by his brother officers right to the day of his death. [73]

13. A Simian Dictionary.

When the Sikh war broke out Burton resigned his post under Scott in order to take part in the campaign in the Punjab, but peace being proclaimed a few weeks later, after the battle of Sobraon, Burton had no opportunities of distinguis.h.i.+ng himself. So he returned to his studies, and now became ambitious to understand not only the people but also the monkeys of India. Consequently he collected some forty of them, made them live and eat after the manner of humans; and studies them as they mowed and gibbered. He would then talk to them and p.r.o.nounce the sounds they made, until at last they could conduct quite a conversation together. Burton never divulged this talk, which, of course, may have been of a confidential nature, but he compiled a Simian Dictionary, and thus to some extent antic.i.p.ated the work of Mr. R. L. Garner.

Unfortunately the dictionary was some years later destroyed by fire.

14. Duality.

We shall often notice in Burton's life what Burton himself called his dual nature. In the tale of Janshah in The Arabian Nights we read of a race of split men who separated longitudinally, each half hopping about contentedly on its own account, and reuniting with its fellow at pleasure. If Burton in a pre-existent state--and he half believed in the Pre-existence of Souls--belonged to this race, and one of his halves became accidentally united to one of the halves of somebody else, the condition of affairs would be explicable. In any circ.u.mstances, he was always insisting on his duality. For example--a kind-hearted man, who detested cruelty to animals, nevertheless he delighted, as we have seen, in the sport of c.o.c.king; an ambitious man, who wore himself out with his studies yet he neutralised all his efforts to rise by giving way to an ungovernable temper. He would say just what he thought, and no man could have exhibited less tact. Thus he managed to give offence, and quite unnecessarily, to his superior officer, Colonel Henry Corsellis, and they were henceforth at handgrips.

Among his favourite books was Jami's Beharistan. The only pity is that he did not take the advice proffered in the Third Garden:

”If Alexander's realm you want, to work adroitly go, Make friends more friendly still, and make a friend of every foe.”