He,
meanwhile, now plunging into the midst of a battalion of consomahs, now
cleaving to the chine a screaming and ferocious bobbachee,* rushed on,
like the simoom across the red Zaharan plain, killing with his own hand,
a hundred and forty-thr--but never mind--'ALONE HE DID IT;' sufficient
be it for him, however, that the victory was won: he cares not for the
empty honors which were awarded to more fortunate men!
* The double-jointed camel of Bactria, which 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.
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