And most of the hillmen prefer to shoot a Turk on sight.

I would rather fight a pig with bare hands than try to stand between a Kurd and Turkish plunder, and it only needed just those few words of Ranjoor Singh's to set that part of the world alight! We rode for very many days after that, following the course of the Tigris unmolested.

The tale Ranjoor Singh told had gone ahead of us.
The village Kurds waited to have one look, saw our Turkish prisoners and our Sikh turbans, judged for themselves, and were off! I believe we cost the Turkish garrisons in those parts some grim fighting; and if any Turks were on our trail I dare wager they met a swarm or two of hornets more than they bargained for! Instead of having to fight our way through that country, we were well received.

Wherever we found Kurds, either in tents or in villages, the unveiled women would give us DU, as they call their curds and whey, and barley for our horses, and now and then a little bread.

When other persuasion failed, we could buy almost anything they had with a handful or two of cartridges.