110 THE GOORKHAS IN 1857. 



been cut, polished, and well set up by these regimental func- 

 tionaries respectively, he is turned out a smart little gem, so 

 to speak, of a soldier, with a sparkle of unpresuming swagger 

 about him, which is quite in keeping with his brave, inde- 

 pendent spirit. 



The men generally enlisted for the Goorkha battalions are 

 those inhabiting certain mountain provinces of the Nepal ter- 

 ritory, a few only corning from the valley of Nepal proper, 

 which is chiefly peopled by the Newars, a race which was 

 originally conquered by the Goorkhas, and who are more of 

 a mercantile than a military class. The " Goorung " and 

 " Mugger " classes are those from which the best soldiers are 

 drawn. The Goorkhas show their Tartar origin distinctly in 

 their features, and they are almost invariably strong and stout- 

 limbed, but as a rule short. An idea of their stature may be 

 formed when I say that the average height of the battalion I 

 first joined was somewhere about 5 ft. 2 in. But their hearts 

 are as large as their frames are short and tough. Indeed, 

 their pluck and faithfulness to their " salt " have now become 

 proverbial. For example, I may mention their behaviour 

 during the Indian mutiny in 1857, when the Goorkha regi- 

 ments were among the comparatively few of the Bengal army 

 that were to be depended on. In that memorable year the 

 Sirmoor Eifle Battalion (now Prince of Wales' Own Goorkhas), 

 under the command of Major (now General Sir Charles) Eeid, 

 was the first regiment, British or native, to take the field, 

 and the first to pull a trigger against the mutineers. And at 

 the siege of Delhi it formed a permanent portion of the main 

 picket on the " Eidge " in front of the camp, where it was 

 under the fire morning, noon, and night of nearly all the 

 enemy's heavy guns for three months and eight days. During 

 this period it assisted in repulsing twenty-six different attacks 

 upon the Eidge, besides taking part in two assaults on the 

 enemy's position, and had 327 men killed and wounded out 

 of 490 of all ranks that first took the field, as shown by the 



