e owing to
the absence of sewers the stench was at times unendurable. Near the
town was a great shallow artificial pond which abounded in huge sleepy
crocodiles, sacred animals which were tended by a holy fakir, and one of
Burton's amusements was to worry these creatures with his bull terrier.
Tired of that pastime, he would muzzle a crocodile by means of a fowl
fastened to a hook at the end of a rope, and then jump on to its
back and take a zig-zag ride. [65] The feat of his friend, Lieutenant
Beresford, of the 86th, however, was more daring even than that. Here
and there in the pond were islets of rank grass, and one day noticing
that the crocodiles and islets made a line across the pond, he took a
run and hopped from one crocodile's back on to another or an islet until
he reached the opposite side, though many a pair of huge jaws snapped
angrily as he passed.

Burton presently found himself gazetted as Captain Scott's assistant;
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 title of Falconry in the Valley of the Indus. He then made
the acquaintance of three natives, all of whom assisted 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 Bushire, 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 garr