peech in his own peculiar vernacular. It was a tremendous
smacking of tremendous lips, and the expression which overspread his
speaking countenance was of gusto, appreciative, and such as accords
with lip-smacking.

But a very fair man (very fair beside the Negroes, Somalis, Arabs and
others our little black and brown brothers), a man with grey-blue eyes,
light brown hair and moustache, and olive complexion, said to the
originator of the Idea in faultless English, if not in faultless taste
"You damned swine".

A look of profoundest disgust overspread his handsome young face, a face
which undoubtedly lent itself to very clear expression of such feelings
as contempt, disgust and scorn, an unusual face, with the thin
high-bridged nose of an English aristocrat, the large eyes and pencilled
black brows of an Indian noble, the sallow yet cheek-flushed complexion
of an Italian peasant-girl, and the firm lips, square jaw, and prominent
chin of a fighting-man. It was essentially an English face in
expression, and essentially foreign in detail; a face of extraordinary
contradictions. The eyes were English in colour, Oriental in size and
shape; the mouth and chin English in mould and in repose, Oriental in
mobility and animation; the whole countenance English in shape, Oriental
in complexion and profile--a fine, high-bred, strong face, upon which
played shadows of cruelty, ferocity, diabolical cunning; a face admired
more quickly than liked, inspiring more speculation than trust.

The same duality and contradiction were proclaimed in the hands--strong,
tenacious, virile hands; small, fine, delicate hands; hands with the
powerful and purposeful thumb of the West; hands with the supple
artistic fingers and delicate finger-nails of the East.

And the man's name was in keeping with hands and face, with mind, body,
soul, and character, for, though he would not have done so, he could
have replied to the query "What is your name?" with "My name? Well, in
full, it is John Robin Ross-Ellison Ilderim Dost Mahommed Mir Hafiz
Ullah Khan, and its explanation is my descent from General Ross-Ellison,
Laird of Glencairn, and from Mir Faquir Mahommed Afzul Khan, Jam of
Mekran Kot".

In Piccadilly, wearing the garb of Piccadilly, he looked an Englishman
of the English.

In Abdul Rehman Bazaar, Cabul, wearing the garb of Abdul Rehman Bazaar,
he looked a Pathan of Pathans. In the former case, rather more sunburnt
than the average lounger in Pi