Lieutenent Colonel Rattray (Cave of) [Cave of Ali Masjid]

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unspecified -cave in the mountain- was used in the late 1830ies by a certain Lieut. Colonel Rattray (note 1) as an abode (troglodyte dwelling) somewhere near the fort of Ali Masjid (note 2) on the eastern (Pakistan) side of Khyber Pass (note 3). Colonel John WOOD (1841 / 1872, 1976: 159) finds subtle words to honour a collegue who was unexpectedly not in the pay of the Honorable East India Company and, on top of that, an ill-conditioned, dissipated-looking Englishman; slip-shod, turbaned, and robed in a sort of Afghan dishabille -- having more the look of a dissipated priest than a military man. His abode was a cave in the mountain, from which he and his hungry followers levied black-mail on the passing Kafilas [caravans]. The Seik [sic! Sikh] fortress of Jamrud [note 4] was at this time dependant for water on the stream that runs through Khyber, and the chief occupation of the young Lieut. Colonel, for so he styled himself, was to stop this supply, and again to permit it to flow o being bribed to do so.An unspecified -cave in the mountain- was used in the late 1830ies by a certain Lieut. Colonel Rattray (note 1) as an abode (troglodyte dwelling) somewhere near the fort of Ali Masjid (note 2) on the eastern (Pakistan) side of Khyber Pass (note 3). Colonel John WOOD (1841 / 1872, 1976: 159) finds subtle words to honour a collegue who was unexpectedly not in the pay of the Honorable East India Company and, on top of that, an ill-conditioned, dissipated-looking Englishman; slip-shod, turbaned, and robed in a sort of Afghan dishabille -- having more the look of a dissipated priest than a military man. His abode was a cave in the mountain, from which he and his hungry followers levied black-mail on the passing Kafilas [caravans]. The Seik [sic! Sikh] fortress of Jamrud [note 4] was at this time dependant for water on the stream that runs through Khyber, and the chief occupation of the young Lieut. Colonel, for so he styled himself, was to stop this supply, and again to permit it to flow o being bribed to do so.