furnishes recruits to an army in Europe.
It is usual to address them as " Sahib! " and
they never forget, nor allow their chiefs to
forget, that, in becoming soldiers, they have
not ceased to be gentlemen. An attempt to
degrade them or to interfere with their religion
would, of course, produce an outbreak; but
whatever bad news may be wafted to us from
India, I believe, and always shall believe,
that the Irregulars, well led by officers they
like and respect, will be found as true as
steel. If they mutiny, depend upon it there
is some flaw in the personnel of their
officers. I could cite a hundred cases in
which these troopers have shown a
devotion to officers whom they really loved and
esteemed, that has few parallels in European
history. And I am sure that if, in the
Russian war, their offers to volunteer for the
Crimea had been accepted, the Cossacks
would have been thoroughly checkmated in
their own Parthian style of fighting. The
class of military adventurers from which the
Irregulars are drawn is one peculiar to Asia,
and reminds one strongly of the feudal ages.

Younger sons of courtly noblemen, whose
ancestors stood around the peacock throne of
Aurungzebe, sons of Zemindars, Potails,
Omrahs, and so forth—some from Rajpootana,
but mostly children of Mahometan land-
holders—come in and offer themselves, with
horse, weapons, and accoutrements, to the
recruiting agents of the Irregular Cavalry.
Nothing would tempt these proud youngsters
—most of whom are first-rate horsemen,
familiar with arms from childhood—to
shoulder a musket in the line, or to take
service in the regular cavalry. But, in the
Irregulars—where they retain their eastern
dress and saddle, and associate only with
their equals—they are so willing to engage,
that at a month's notice the existing force
might be trebled. Every man is obliged,
before enlisting, to prove himself perfect
master of his weapons and his charger. He
is required to manage a horse at full speed,
with a saddle and without, to strike a spear
into a tent-peg at full gallop and to draw it
from the ground, to hit a mark with carbine
and pistol, and to cut through a roll of felt
lying on the ground, as he dashes by at the
full stride of his horse, and bends over his
saddle-bow to use the razor-like sword. The
swords of the Irregulars are always of a
keenness that contrasts wonderfully with the
blunt reaping-hooks of English dragoons.
Not that they are all, or even usually, of
Khorassan manufacture. Most of them are
of English steel, and owe all their sharpness
to careful grinding and leathern scabbards.
The skill to which some of the Irregulars
attain, both with the lance and sword, is
extraordinary. Long ago, in the Madras
presidency, I witnessed a sort of mock
tournament given by the privates of Skinner's
Horse, in which such horsemanship was
displayed as would have astounded Astley's
performers; while some of the troopers
carried away a tent-peg on their spears, twenty
times running, at full speed.

In horsemanship, the Indian Mahometans
far surpass the more broad-breasted and
robust Affghans; and, although in the Punjab,
we could draw any number of stout recruits
from the mountains, yet the natives of the
peninsula are generally preferred. In one
manoeuvre, the Oriental horseman is inimitable.
He keeps his horse (with a murderous
bit) so well in hand that, when an English
dragoon charges him, he wheels off as if on a
pivot, and deals a cut across the back of his
enemy's neck that generally puzzles the
surgeon. I myself remember a Sikh cavalier, who,
in one of the Sutlej affairs, cut down three
European troopers—two dragoons, namely,
and a lancer—whose lance was cut through as
well as his neck, and I saw the fellow killed,
not far from where Lord Gough was standing,
by a native trooper, who outwitted him at
his own game of back-blows. Then the
wonderful lightness of these riders, compared
with European dragoons or hussars, is one
reason for the great length of the marches
they perform; which have often amounted to
eighty, and, in one or two cases, to a hundred
miles, in twenty-four hours. But, then, the
Irregulars ride, on an average, some twelve
or thirteen stone, while our Light Dragoons
are seldom less, in marching order, than
twenty or two-and-twenty stone; a pretty
tax on the powers of an Indian horse of not
above fourteen hands and a-half in height,
the usual stature! The Irregulars might
march round and round a European regiment
on a journey without the latter even
discovering it.

In many corps, the privates are allowed to
choose their own saddles, which are of wood,
cloth, leather, felt, or velvet, as the rider
pleases; but which must be covered by a
uniform regimental saddle-cloth. Felt and
cloth saddles, made without trees or wood-
work, are generally preferred; though of a
somewhat heating texture, and, if made
much lighter than twenty-eight pounds
English, they wring a horse's withers and
rub his back. All light felt or cloth saddles
turn out failures. The bits are murderous
things, with prickles of steel that subdue a
charger in a moment; but, if the bridle be
unskilfully used, a tortured horse will often
fling himself down, or rear till he falls back
and crushes his rider. The great aim of
Orientals is to break a horse down, and get
him so under control as to check or wheel
him in a moment; and, for military purposes,
this answers well, although it ruins the
animal's stride for a gallop. In some corps,
soldiers have been allowed to wear chain,
armour, after the old Indian fashion; but,
besides spreading a bad spirit among the
men, the chain-mail is sure to be driven in by
a ball, and so render fatal a gun-shot wound
that might otherwise have been trifling.