New Britain herald., 1917-02-16
kHATTAHS MAKE !. EAGER FIGHTERS
Are Dandies Too-and As for the
 Ladies'


 British Headquarters in Mesopo- tania. Feb. 16.-The Khattaks are | the dandies of the Indian army. They 1 are like the Celts of the British army, army, reckless, generous, improvi- 1 dent, mercurial, altogether a friendly !! with the queer kink that one finds in l all Pathans that primitive sensitive point of honor or shame which pug 'zles the psychologist The Khattaks kept their spirits up all through the hot weather. They are too lively sometimes. As soon as the drum and oboe sound they start at-calling and make their work fly. The Khattaks are as responsive to the oboe as the Highlanders to the bag pipe, but they are more demonstra- tive. It is good thing to be near when the Khattak rifles leave camp. At the first sound of the drum and oboe they break into a wild treble shriek, tailing off, perhaps, with the balbala, the Pathan imitation of the gurgling of the camel.
 These tribesmen are easily excited. seldom dispirited, and if so, only for short time. Their eagerness is sometimes a positive danger during at attack. At Sheik Saad it was diff ficult to hold the Khattak company Lack while the regiment on their left Was coming up; they were all for going ahead and breaking the line; and in the end it was a premature sortie of the Khattaks that precipitat- ed the assault.
 Old Shere Khan, typical Khattak, the other day killed right inside the regimental lines a rival for his wifes affections and he could not have done anything else. The mans offense car ried it's own sentence in the minds of all decent thinking Khattaks. Before the deed the subadar-major begged the adjutant to get the rival. Sher ,Gul, we'll away before the night; otherwise he said there would be trouble but the adjutant could not look into the case until the next morning. In the meantime, to safe guard Sher Gul. he told the subador io see that twenty stout men slept around his bed.
 The subadar made it fifty but to no avail At one in the morning the adjutant was called out quietly to see the remains of Sher Gul. His head was lying on the edge of the bed a hatchet in beded in the skull. He
  ing round him. They had all slept like the dead, and nobody had heard "the blow There was no evidence eainst Shere Khan whatever; public opinion was on his side
 "zam, sZan and Zar''-land, women and gold-according to the Persian proverb are at the bottom of all out rage and with nine Khattaks out of ten, it is Zan.
 The Khattak thinks no end of his personal appearance. He dresses tc kill and loves to go and parade in the bazar in his gala kit. He will spend hours over his toilet peering at himself in the glass all the while without a trace of self-consciousnes though his neighbors may be almos as interested in the performance a: he. Then, with his hair neatly o1let and traim to the level of the lobe o his ear, he will stride flores in h f1owery waistcoat of plum color O maroon velvet with golden braid spotless white baggy trousers flower behind his ear, a red handker chief in his pocket, a cane in his hand and for headgear 9 high kohat lung iplack witt yellow and crimson ends and a kuls- covered with gold.
 Every Khattak is a bit of blood Is his country a showy exterior be tokens the gallant in both senses O the word A woman of parts will no . look at a man unless he has served in the army or is at least something of Ducaneer.