horseback, although there are some crack cavalry regiments of Sikhs in the English service that can hold their own with any horsemen in the world, they are surpassed by Afgháns and Hindustánis who are inferior to them as infantry. In the Mahárájá's army the infantry were the pick of the youth of the country; only the handsomest and strongest men were selected, while the cavalry were irregular troops, the contingents of his different Sirdárs, and not appointed for any considerations of bravery or strength. The horses were small, weak, and ill-bred, and the accoutrements were of the roughest and coarsest kind. In the armies of the Sikh States at the present day, all of which I have often reviewed and inspected, and one of which it was my duty to reorganise, the same practice prevails. The infantry are in size and physique equal to the Sikhs in the British army: while the cavalry regiments have been turned into a hospital for old and decrepit pensioners, who can sit on a horse, although they cannot fight or perform any service requiring bodily exertion.
I have already referred to the Akális as the only infantry soldiers who, in the old Khálsa days, enjoyed any consideration. The Mahárájá was afraid to interfere too closely with these men; for though little better than drunken savages, they were supposed by the Sikhs to possess a semi-sacred character, and were, moreover, useful when desperate deeds were to be done which the rank and file of the army might have declined. They nearly embroiled the Mahárájá
