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Ahmad Shah, though not standing more than five feet eleven inches, was one of the tallest men in the country. His personal strength is said to have been very great, and many of his feats are recorded; one I remember was, that he had broken a gun-barrel in half with his hands. He must now be a man between sixty five and seventy years of age. The Gylfo’s eyes were not large, but dark and penetrating, his eyebrows large and black, his nose and mouth well formed, his beard a little silvered, and his expression highly indicative of shrewdness and intelligence; of which, considering the nature of his country, and that he had never quitted it so as to be able to gain one single correct idea of any other, he was certainly possessed to a surprising extent. I have known him remark, that such and such news had arrived from this or that quarter, with a view of hearing what I had to say; and the accounts of what I knew to be true or untrue were always warped and conflicting, so that be might easily be excused form believing them. But I never detected him in a falsehood; and from the first day of my arrival until that to my departure, and he invariably rose from his seat to receive me whenever I entered his presence, whether he was alone or in full durbar.

“The Khan’s costume resembled that of the other sepahis; he wore a large, loose, drab-colored turban of Tibetan shawl, with the nether end spreading widely and gracefully over the left shoulder, in which respect their head dress differs from that of any other Musalmans that I have seen. A collarless frock of warm , undyed, native cloth, was so adjusted, as to display in front the upper part of a red vest,  or tunic; beneath it, reaching to the knees, and on the outside, around the waist, was tied the kumurbund, or rolled shawl, and the broad leathern belt, to which were fastened the powder-horn, the steel and tinder-box, a bag containing bullets, and other paraphernalia. Another leathern belt, across the shoulder, supported his sword, and hi large loose trousers (very often of a dark-red color) were confined below the knee a la Persa, by a cloth bandage wrapped in folds downwards to the feet, which were enveloped in sandals made of the skin of the ibex.”