the classic
reader may recollect is mentioned by Suidas (in his
Commentary on the Flight of Darius), is so called by the
Mahrattas.

"We marched after the battle to Delhi, where poor blind old Shah Allum
received us, and bestowed all kinds of honors and titles on our General.
As each of the officers passed before him, the Shah did not fail to
remark my person,* and was told my name.

* There is some trifling inconsistency on the Major's part.
Shah Allum was notoriously blind: how, then, could he have
seen Gahagan? The thing is manifestly impossible.

"Lord Lake whispered to him my exploits, and the old man was so
delighted with the account of my victory over the elephant (whose trunk
I use to this day), that he said, 'Let him be called GUJPUTI,' or the
lord of elephants; and Gujputi was the name by which I was afterwards
familiarly known among the natives,--the men, that is. The women had a
softer appellation for me, and called me 'Mushook,' or charmer.

"Well, I shall not describe Delhi, which is doubtless well known to the
reader; nor the siege of Agra, to which place we went from Delhi; nor
the terrible day at Laswaree, which went nigh to finish the war. Suffice
it to say that we were victorious, and that I was wounded; as I have
invariably been in the two hundred and four occasions when I have found
myself in action. One point, however, became in the course of this
campaign QUITE evident--THAT SOMETHING MUST BE DONE FOR GAHAGAN. The
country cried shame, the King's troops grumbled, the sepoys openly
murmured that their Gujputi was only a lieutenant, when he had performed
such signal services. What was to be done? Lord Wellesley was in an
evident quandary. 'Gahagan,' wrote he, 'to be a subaltern is evidently
not your fate--YOU WERE BORN FOR COMMAND; but Lake and General Wellesley
are good officers, they cannot be turned out--I must make a post for
you. What say you, my dear fellow, to a corps of IRREGULAR HORSE?'

"It was thus that the famous corps of AHMEDNUGGAR IRREGULARS had
its origin; a guerilla force, it is true, but one which will long be
remembered in the annals of our Indian campaigns.

*****

"As the commander of this regiment, I was allowed to settle the uniform
of the corps, as well as to select recruits. These were not wanting as
soon as my appointment was made known, but came flocking to my standard
a great deal faster than to the regular corps in the Company's serv