DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15173#0092
74-
ENTER PESHAWUR.
CHAP. III.
to the fresh arrival of troops : for they have a
custom of shouting on such occasions. We have
already compared this potentate with Porus; and
the similar stratagem by which Alexander defeated
that pi-ince will also be remembered. As the
Greeks had terrified his predecessor on the Hy-
daspes, the Seiks now frightened the Afghans by
their shouts and pasans.
As we traversed the plain to Peshawur, I felt
elevated and happy. Thyme and violets perfumed
the air, and the green sod and clover put us in mind
of our native home. The violet has the nan^e of
"ffooli pueghumbur" or the rose of the Prophet,
par excellence, I suppose, from its fragrance. • At
Peerpaee, which is a march from Peshawur, we
were joined by six horsemen, whom the chief sent
to escort us. We saddled at sunrise, though it
rained heavily, and accompanied the party to the
city, trying sorely the patience of the horsemen,
by declining to halt halfway, that they might give
timely information of our approach. We pushed on
till near the city ; when their persuasion could be
no longer resisted. " The chief sent us to welcome
you, and has ordered his son to meet you outside
the city," said their commander, " and we are now
within a few hundred yards of his house." We
halted, and in a few minutes the eldest son of the
chief made his appearance, attended by an elephant
and a body of horse. He was a handsome boy,
about twelve years old, and dressed in a blue tunic,
with a Cashmeer shawl as a turban. We dismounted
on the high road, and embraced; when the youth
ENTER PESHAWUR.
CHAP. III.
to the fresh arrival of troops : for they have a
custom of shouting on such occasions. We have
already compared this potentate with Porus; and
the similar stratagem by which Alexander defeated
that pi-ince will also be remembered. As the
Greeks had terrified his predecessor on the Hy-
daspes, the Seiks now frightened the Afghans by
their shouts and pasans.
As we traversed the plain to Peshawur, I felt
elevated and happy. Thyme and violets perfumed
the air, and the green sod and clover put us in mind
of our native home. The violet has the nan^e of
"ffooli pueghumbur" or the rose of the Prophet,
par excellence, I suppose, from its fragrance. • At
Peerpaee, which is a march from Peshawur, we
were joined by six horsemen, whom the chief sent
to escort us. We saddled at sunrise, though it
rained heavily, and accompanied the party to the
city, trying sorely the patience of the horsemen,
by declining to halt halfway, that they might give
timely information of our approach. We pushed on
till near the city ; when their persuasion could be
no longer resisted. " The chief sent us to welcome
you, and has ordered his son to meet you outside
the city," said their commander, " and we are now
within a few hundred yards of his house." We
halted, and in a few minutes the eldest son of the
chief made his appearance, attended by an elephant
and a body of horse. He was a handsome boy,
about twelve years old, and dressed in a blue tunic,
with a Cashmeer shawl as a turban. We dismounted
on the high road, and embraced; when the youth