The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #21373   Message #3034202
Posted By: Jack Campin
17-Nov-10 - 06:58 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
The tune for "The Quartermaster's Store" is the second part of the Pathan War March, "Zachmi Dil"("The Wounded Heart"), used by pipe bands in the British Army since they learned it from the Afghans in 1880 (the song was in pidgin Hindustani, not Pushtu).. The tune is printed in _Cabar Feidh_, the regimental tunebook of the Seaforths and Camerons.

But. That march is two unrelated tunes glued together (the first in 6/8, the second in 2/4), and maybe the gluing took place long after the first tune was adopted. I haven't yet looked at 19th century cources for it. It seems that "Power in the Blood" dates from 1899, well after that Afghan campaign song. The fragmentary words Lewis Winstock quotes in _Songs and Music of the Redcoats_ for "Zachmi dil" are for the 2/4 part, though:

There's a boy across the river with a bottom like a peach
Alas, I cannot swim.