A special issue of Peshwar Tribune for subscribers only, containing another Winkle ‘s ballad, an outstanding masterpiece, which summarizes last events on the frontier with the help of members archives (stolen? not at all, just borrowed), describing one of the most emblematic and outstanding character: Mulehead Khan
New adventures and unexpected surprises only on Peshwar tribune, the source of the discerning Khan.
THE BALLAD OF MULEHEAD KHAN
🏔?
(A Frontier Legend in Verse)
By Khyber’s wind and Kurram’s stone,
Where eagle and vulture wheel alone,
There rides a chief no man may ban—
They call him Mulehead, stubborn Khan.
He mocks the Raj with a jackal’s cry,
He spits at the Redcoat passing by,
And every hillman takes his stand
When Mulehead lifts his iron hand.
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Yet not the British hold his spite—
For rival Khans he longs to fight.
Umra the sly, with his silver tongue,
A feud eternal, old as sung.
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Since youthful days their paths were crossed,
In rival hunts, in wagers lost;
Umra and Mulehead, foes by fate,
Two stallions bound to clash, not mate.
The Mad Guru raves with a firebrand creed,
A prophet of darkness, of wrath and greed;
And Mulehead swears, by steel and plan,
To break that heretic, man to man.
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From Black Mountain’s shade came brothers grim,
Hashim and Sikander, fierce and dim;
But fate struck swift, their banners torn,
And Gul Akbar Khan to the front was borne.
A zealot true of TMWWBK,
He thundered of rules, of the “proper track”;
Yet doubts he sowed of Mulehead’s way,
Till Mulehead’s triumphs won the day.
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For Mulehead is fox, and Mulehead is snake,
His cunning paths no foe can break;
And even Gul Akbar, fierce of tongue,
Will bow when Mulehead’s song is sung.
And when the captured general lay in chain,
Mulehead smiled, and bided his gain;
Freed he the man, yet set the snare,
A lesson of fox and serpent there.
Now Gul Akbar, once doubting, sees,
The master’s mind, the cunning decrees;
Faith renewed, his zeal reborn,
By Mulehead’s hand, the storm is shorn.
Powinda too, the wandering guide,
Sought Mulehead’s counsel, walked beside;
Through dust and raid his steps were true,
For Mulehead’s wisdom carried through.
And Mulehead prays on mountain’s height,
That Mad Guru abandon spite;
That Umra’s path no longer stray,
But join TMWWBK’s true way.
April 25, 2011, 08:17:58 PM
