Wow!

I just learned something odd. I like Central Asia, and have been studying/reading up on the British experience there for a few years now. Today I was rereading Karl Mayer's "Tournament of Shadows" tome. (Kipling immortalized Connolly's phrase "the great game" in Kim, and "tournament of shadows" was what Count Nesselrode called it from the Russian side.)

Turns out that Alexander "Bokhara Burnes" was kin to Robert Burns! Now we all know Robert Burns, of course, but if you don't know about Alexander Burnes, you're missing a humdinger of a story. From traveling through Sikh territory prior to its conquest by the British East India Company to the trip to Bokhara and on to the tragic denoument in Kabul during the First Afghan War, Burnes was pretty much a stud duck.

Soldier, scholar, linguist, spy, diplomatist (and seducer of Afghan women), Burnes traveled far and wide, was brave beyond any reasonable measure, and inspired a generation of young lads (at least!).

How odd, the things we discover!