THE NEPAULESE GUAEDS 269 
the Sikkim trade, the Vakeel has more interest than his 
master in excluding strangers), were short, stout, thick-set 
Bhoteas, clad in purple worsted dressing growns, fastened 
round the middle by a belt, bare headed and footed, very 
dirty and ill-favoured withal. 
Next conspicuous to these are my Nepaul guards, just 
arrived to accomyamj me to the Nepaul frontier and co7iduct 
me from thence ; the Havildar (Corporal, I believe) is a 
small, fine-boned man, with little hands and small Hmbs 
and ankles, well-knit and active, of the Kawass tribe, who 
boast descent from the Kajpoots and are generally in Nepaul 
the slaves of the Eajah's body, sometimes soldiers and, more 
rarely, rise to the rank of gentlemen. He looks business- 
like and trusty, is very handsome, swarthy, with small 
moustache, broad forehead, bright open eye, good nose, 
handsome mouth, and small prominent chin. A pretty httle 
turban sits nattily on his head, of black, woven with silver 
thread, and the number of his corps worked in silver in 
front, right over a red mark on his forehead which bespeaks 
his caste amongst the Hindus. His coat is a loose rover-like 
jacket of purple with silk braid in front, over a white under 
garment of cotton, open down the right breast and exposing 
his chest and long neck. A checked cummerbund is folded 
many times round his middle and over his nether garments, 
which are short, loose, and broad. What with his jaunty 
dress, careless air, and roving eye, he would pass for a sea 
free-booter (out of Cooper's novels for instance, but less 
mannered and theatrical and more real than the tricked 
out coxcombs of that author, who are the prototypes of 
Mr. T. P. Cooke,^ rather than real fire-eaters). 
The Goorkha Sepoys are immense fellows, stout and 
brawny, of curious cast of feature, heavy jowled and rather 
small eyed ; they wear small linen skull caps over long care- 
fully combed and jet black hair which hangs in heavy folds 
down the side of the head ; they wear too scarlet loose 
jackets, very bright and gaudy, with a kookry stuck in the 
cummerbund and heavy iron sword at their side. 
1 Thomas Potter Cooke (1786-1864) served in the navy till the peace of 
1802, and then took to the stage, being, as Christopher North put it, ' the best 
sailor out of all sight and hearing that ever trod the stage.' His greatest 
success was in the part of William in Douglas Jerrold's ' Black-Eyed Susan.' 
Another famous part of his vras in ' Frankenstein.' 
