n at last
a Kurdish chief rode up with a hundred men at his back and demanded
to know our business, Ranjoor Singh called Abraham to interpret. We
could easily have beaten a mere hundred Kurds, but to have won a
skirmish just then would have helped us almost as little as to lose
one. What we wanted was free leave to ride forward.

"Where are ye, and whither are ye bound? What seek ye?" the Kurd
demanded, but Ranjoor Singh proved equal to the occasion.

"We be troops from India," said he. "We have been fighting in Europe
on the side of France and England, and the Germans and Turks have
been so badly beaten that you see for yourself what is happening.
Behold us! We are an advance party. These Turkish officers you see
are prisoners we have taken on our way. Behold, we have also a
German prisoner! You will find all the Turks between here and Syria
in a state of panic, and if plunder is what you desire you would
better make haste and get what you can before the great armies come
eating the land like locusts! Plunder the Turks and prove yourselves
the friends of French and English!"

Sahib, those Kurds would rather loot than go to heaven, and, like
all wild people, they are very credulous. There are Kurds and Kurds
and Kurds, nations within a nation, speaking many dialects of one
tongue. Some of them are half-tame and live on the plains; those the
Turks are able to draft into their armies to some extent. Some of
the plainsmen, like those I speak of now, are altogether wild and
will not serve the Turks on any terms. And most of the hillmen
prefer to shoot a Turk on sight. I would rather fight a pig with
bare hands than try to stand between a Kurd and Turkish plunder, and
it only needed just those few words of Ranjoor Singh's to set that
part of the world alight!

We rode for very many days after that, following the course of the
Tigris unmolested. The tale Ranjoor Singh told had gone ahead of us.
The village Kurds waited to have one look, saw our Turkish prisoners
and our Sikh turbans, judged for themselves, and were off! I believe
we cost the Turkish garrisons in those parts some grim fighting; and
if any Turks were on our trail I dare wager they met a swarm or two
of hornets more than they bargained for!

Instead of having to fight our way through that country, we were
well received. Wherever we found Kurds, either in tents or in
villages, the unveiled women would give us DU, as they call their
curds and whey, and barl