1 THE COURT OF THE SIKH SOVEREIGNS. 99
2 " He was a very able negotiator ; insidious be*
3 yond measure, and a complete master of the
4 science of humbug. He was the mouthpiece of
5 the stupid Sikh sirdars, and as he almost always
6 formed the head nominally of the missions they
7 were occasionally sent on, he had their free leave
8 to talk, while they sat by and listened in silence
9 und admiration to the voluble flow of his ceaseless
10 harangues. Nightingales of esteem warbled in
11 meadows of attachment, and rivers of devotion
12 rushed into oceans of afiection, &c. &c. His
13 other most important duty was interpreting the
14 Maharajah's words. Few besides the Faquir,
15 Dhyan Singh, Heera Singh, and a few attend-
16 ants, could readily understand him, so severe had
17 the paralysis of his tongue become latterly. A
18 few inarticulate growlings of the old lion were
19 quite enough to vivify the Faquir's imagination,
20 and so lengthy often was his paraphrase of the
21 Maharajah's verbal text, that one became in-
22 clined to wonder with Mons. Jourdain, " whether
23 one word in Turkish could mean so much ?"
24 But the Faquir knew business ; he knew as well
25 what words meant as any man that ever took up
26 the profession of a diplomatist. Sometimes, to-
27 wards the end of an entertainment, the Faquir's
28 task of interpretation became very difficult : the
29 Maharajah, adding the paralysis of strong drink
30 to his natural inclination to indistinctness, used to
31 F 2