ghurkas and severed arms

Today I bought two of the infamous Ghurka knives from the guard downstairs. He wanted $90 but since I bought to he came down to $80 a piece. These are good knives, heavy steel with a crooked blade. The handle end is wrapped yak leather as is the hard the sheath. Two little knives come with it, one sharp, one a sharpener. The guy told me in broken English that these were the national weapon of Nepal.
The Ghurkas have an intimidating reputation though most of the ones that work for Global are older and a few are overweight. But, they are tough. The reason the Ghurkas don’t carry their knives when on duty is because of an incident a few months ago. A drunk American coming through a check point grabbed a Ghurka on watch from behind. Reflexively the Ghurka grabbed his knife, gave a whack and the guys arm had to be surgically reattached.
Its all part of the legend – if a Ghurka draws his knife it MUST draw blood before it can be returned to the sheath. Back in the colonial days, the British used Ghurkas for crowd control in Hong Kong. They’d form a line, fix bayonets and walk into the crowd. That’s how the Ghurkas came to be working here today.When the British decided to take over India most of the subcontinent rolled over for them. But as they approached the Ghurka region of Nepal the locals fought savagely, nearly to the last man. This gained the respect of the Crown and Ghurkas have employeed as elite units in the British Army ever since.