As reports emerge of Russia’s Wagner Group likely recruiting Gurkhas, an anecdote in Byron Farwell’s 1984 book, The Gurkhas, stands as an enduring tribute to the legendary hardiness of these hill people from central Nepal.

According to this story, no doubt embellished in every rum-induced retelling in British and Indian army messes, in 1931 at Razmak, on the North-West Frontier region that borders Afghanistan, a mess-mule of the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Gurkha Rifles kicked a Gurkha sergeant in the head with its iron-shod hooves.