ulity 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
circumcision, 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 manuscripts, 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 Munshi, Mirza Mohammed Hosayn Shiraz, and disguised as a merchant,
Burton passed 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 modest