I wear a pair of long boots, riding breeches, a white tunic and necktie, a solar helmet with a crimson silk puggaree, and a crimson cummberbund under my belt. We are very natty and tidy here, and the fellows turn out as if they were going to an “at home”.
-Frank Power, September 1, 1883, Letter to his Brother from Khartoum
Two months after writing this letter, all the British officers and most of the 12,000 Egyptian troops whom Power had come to Sudan to accompany into battle against the Mahdi were either dead, captured, or in flight across the desert. But at least he was dressed for their funerals.
On my first trip on the Darb I wore blue jeans, a Brooks Brothers crew neck sweater my uncle and aunt had given me for Christmas, and much of the time a woolen ski hat. I would have looked ridiculous in a pith helmet and puggaree, especially standing beside Muhammad in his Taqiyya [Skullcap, from the verb Taqā, He feared God] or Mas’ood in his ‘Imma [Turban, from the verb ‘Amma, It became Universal, All-Embracing].