Can't help but jump in, my Anglophile tendencies are too deep.
Re: the quote from "Gunga Din"
You may talk o' gin and beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it......
Kipling was writing from the viewpoint of those troops on the Indian
frontier who were in daily battle with the Pathans in the Hindu Kush, a
protracted and bloody conflict that pretty much defined the British Empire.
"Penny-fights" were minor skirmishes that only required a handful (a
"penny's worth") of soldiers, unlike the deadly battles fought in the
Himalayas and Karakoram of Pakistan. Aldershot was the training facility
in England, where most of the army was based, and the most dangerous enemy
was the barmaid, rather than the tribesman whose prized trophy was a pair of
someone else's testicles. So, he's making fun of the behind-the-lines
soldier, who's safe at home or at worst breaking up bar-room brawls.
Sorry. There's too much trivia in this brain, and it leaks out
sometimes....
Mike in Asheville
'65 TR-4A CTC57508
|