Snatched up at random

I was as shocked by their accuracy as by their callousness, but Uliba merely remarked that a Galla warrior could hit any target up to fifty yards with a spear or a knife or even a stone snatched up at random.


Flashman on the March, pp.103-4, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, accuracy.

Plainly must

…the man was plainly must,* doolali, afflicted of Allah, too long in the hills altogether — but one doesn’t like to say so, straight out, not to a chap who affects tartan pants and has a Khyber knife across his lap.


*Must is the madness of the rogue elephant. Doolali = insane, from Deolali Camp, inland from Bombay, where generations of British soldiers (including the editor) were received in India, and were supposedly affected by sunstroke.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, pp.203-04, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, TAGHERE.

Not a knife

…I hacked at his face; a Bowie is not a knife, by the way, but a two-foot pointed cleaver, and if I’d got home it would have been brains for supper…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.145, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, Bowie knife.

Genial mountain scoundrels

A tough customer, by the looks of him; one of those genial mountain scoundrels who’ll tell you merry stories while he stabs you in the guts just for the fun of hearing his knife-hilt bells jingle.

Flashman at the Charge, p.222, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,scoundrel, genial.

A sight of omen

…they were a sight of omen to me, for the last time I’d seen them they’d been standing back to back in the bloodied snow of Gandamack, with the Ghazi knives whittling ’em down, and Souter with the flag wrapped around his belly. I never see those 44th facings but I think of the army of Afghanistan dying in the ice-hills, and shudder.

Flashman at the Charge, p.60, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Afghanistan, Gandamack.