3-077-647 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Christmas with the Lushai Expedition - sketches by Lieutenant H. W. E. [sic] Cole, 2nd Goorkhas, 1890. 'V.C. race for muleteers - each man to rescue a gram-bag riding a mule bare-backed; Dinner - Xmas Day in a Bamboo Hut; one of the spectators; Kookrie cutting competition for goorkhas - each man to cut ten bamboos with a goorkha knife, each bamboo to be cut with a single stroke. The man completing his task first to win...entertainments got up to cheer the officers and troops...The officers ate their Christmas dinner in a commodious bamboo hut, sitting mostly on the deal packing-cases which had contained their stores of biscuit, canned meat from Chicago, and Bass's beer...their Christmas pudding was dished up in an ordinary hand-basin. Nevertheless, there was good cheer in camp at Demagiri; and the health of friends in England was toasted with affectionate remembrance...the Goorkha has unequalled dexterity in wielding his national weapon, the "Kookrie," a broad, sharp-pointed, curved large knife, which in his hands is more terrible than a sword, and which is also the tool for cutting down bamboos to clear the jungle path. The muleteers...were practised in carrying bags of "gram," a species of grain, held before them as they rode at full speed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.