Dear Roberta,
Tonk was then a small native state on the eastern edge of
Rajputana, sandwiched between Bhopal to the south and Gwalior to the
north. It was a small but warlike nation and one Ahmed Khan, who
later became a Chief of Tonk, had been a leader of mercenaries employed by
the East India Company when they had had trouble with Pindari
freebooters before 1820. A Tonk jezail was a locally made long
barrelled musket with a curved butt, in the poem used by a man from Bikaneer, an
area in the north-west of Rajputana.
The Yusufzais were Pathans and one of the main Eastern Aghan
tribes, living just north and east of the Khyber Pass, and Kipling used the
adjective 'Khyberee' to describe a tribesman living in the area of the
Pass.
A dah was a Burmese dagger or short sword.
Yours,
with best wishes for 2005,
Roger Ayers
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:42
AM
Subject: What Happened
Dear Listmembers,
I’m currently compiling NRG
notes on ‘What Happened’.
I turn to the wisdom of the list
for a couple of elements I found in the text, i.e., ‘Tonk’, ‘Khyberee’,
‘dah-blade’: I could only infer these are brands and kinds of weapons but I
couldn’t get very far. Might anybody perhaps help with more specific clues ?.
Many thanks in
advance!
Best wishes for the new year,
Roberta Baldi
