Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: explorer, adventurer, scholar, mystic, stud. As an officer in the Honourable East India Company, Burton traveled extensively throughout the world in the capacity of a secret agent. He traveled incognito, disguised as a wanderer, throughout the Near East and Africa. As a master linguist and as an expert practitioner of various world religions, he was able to become the first Westerner to enter the forbidden African city of Harar. He traveled to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca as a Muslim. He introduced the words pajamas and safari to the English language. He wrote numerous books detailing his travels. He discovered and translated the Kama Sutra and The Perfumed Gardens, and translated the Arabian Nights. He was the co-discoverer of Lake Tanganyika in Africa, and laid the groundwork for Speke and Grant's discovery of the source of the Nile, Lake Victoria. Born in Torquay, Devonshire, England in 1821, Burton became an Oxford man. But do not be mislead! Here was no effete, fey, whiny, pencil-necked, wimpy, 90-pound, pansy, classical-music listening, "fag-" smoking poetry-reading, badminton-playing, crochet-knitting, girlie-voiced Englishman of the typical ilk, nowadays embodied by wimpy actor Hugh Grant. No, he was a man's man! Described as tall, dark, romantic-looking and with "gypsy eyes," Burton was a strapping, robust man, whose physical strength would serve him well throughout his years of adventuring. Burton is one of those figures in history whose presence in modern times would seem impossible. He sneered at the idea of cowardice, and never backed down from danger. During his life, he undertook perhaps one of the most difficult and treacherous tasks imaginable: the penetration of the forbidden cities of Islam. He was able to enter and, even more significantly, leave the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and the Forbidden City of Harar. Had he been discovered, the penalty would have been death. As an agent for the East India Company, he was bound by duty to explore areas of the world that might be useful strategically and politically to England. Far from merely carrying out his duties, Burton possessed a strange and mystical need to stare into the abyss. He wanted to risk his life. Often, as when he went in search of the source of the Nile, he had to convince his superiors to grant permission for traveling. When writing of his journey to Mecca, Burton stated that he wished to "prove, by trial, that what might be perilous to other travelers was safe to me." In order to prepare for his travels, Burton went to some extreme lengths. By the time of his death, Burton was able to speak 30 languages in numerous dialects, each with a flawless accent. In whichever disguise he chose to adopt, he meticulously dressed himself in appropriate clothing. This was just the surface of the groundwork he laid for his explorations, and the thoroughness with which he made himself ready, along with his shrewdness and unlimited courage, led to his success as an agent. As part of his preparations, Burton had himself circumcised. This was an absolute necessity for travel in Arab countries, for if he had remained uncircumcised and was discovered, he would be instantly identifiable as a Westerner. Circumcision was the sine qua non of the Arab world. During 1844 and 1845, Burton went out on expeditions for his superiors, to parts of Sind, into the Indine delta, up the Indus River, to the edges of Punjab and through the Baluchi hills. All the while, he was disguised as a Muslim, passing himself off as a laborer, a merchant or a dervish, a kind of vagabond-cum-holy man. He was never discovered as the Englishman he really was. The role of holy man was a welcome one for Burton, as he had a lifelong fascination with religion. He studied Islam, Sufism and Hinduism. He was so well versed in these religions that he was able to become accepted in their faiths by those who had been lifelong devotees. While in India, he studied Hinduism. In 1834, Burton's Hindu teacher officially allowed him to wear the Brahminical thread, the janeo. This was no small achievement. The sacred cloth is only awarded to a member of the highest caste, the Brahmins. The only possible way to become part of this elite group, according to Hinduism, is to be born a Brahmin, or to die and be re-born as one. Learning to become a Brahmin is not an option. As Burton's biographer Edward Rice wrote, "This was a rare and unheard-of honor for a young man from another culture, another that bore much enmity to Hinduism and everything it represented. The janeo, Hindus emphasize, is a privilege never given to an outsider." Later, while living in Sind, Burton began to masquerade as a whirling dervish. The whirling dervish is an ecstatic dance in which the dervishes heat irons in a fire and stick them in their mouths, biting and licking them. They also stick swords in their bodies, covering themselves with wounds. Although these wounds are supposed to be completely healed by the shaykh's prayers, Burton was found, at the time of his death, with hundreds of mysterious scars all over his body. As a Muslim, Burton immersed himself not only in religious studies and prayer, but in every aspect of religious life. As his biographer wrote, "To be initiated into Islam is one thing; to live as a Muslim was something more demanding. Islam is not only a religion; it is the very hearty of existence, of daily life, a way of speaking, of thinking, eating, sleeping, and defecating, of attitudes and outlook. Even the mention of the Holy Prophet Muhammad demanded the addition of the phrase, 'Peace be upon him!'" While practicing as a Sufi, Burton undertook the grueling Chilla, a 40-day feast, followed by sacred dancing, known as sama. Certainly, to go to such extreme lengths is remarkable. Burton could have stopped short of the many tests he imposed upon himself. Rice seems to think that Burton was, privately, a devout follower of all the religions he embraced. Rice interprets Burton's secret belief as Gnosticism, a mystical set of beliefs which transcends traditional religion. Jinx believes Rice is taking this theory too far. While Burton was in the holy city of Medina, he drank alcohol, a strictly forbidden practice among Muslims. And during his stay in Sind, Burton described himself in the third person as "a very clever gentleman, ,who knew everything. He could talk to each man of a multitude in his own language, and all of them would appear equally surprised by, and delighted with, him. Besides, his faith was every man's faith. He chanted the Koran, and the circumcised dogs considered him a kind of saint. The Hindoos [sic] respected him, because he always had a devil in an inner room. At Cochin he went to the Jewish place of worship and read a large book, just like a priestá" Although Burton may have been fascinated by and perhaps to some measure believed in what he was studying, it is dubious that he felt true reverence for other cultures. Burton endured great hardships during his journeys. While en route to Medina, Burton's caravan was attacked. Shots were fired and twelve men perished in the skirmish, along with camels and other beasts of burden. Although Burton's travels to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca were ones in which the possibility of execution was a constant, they had been accomplished by several other Westerners in the past, most of whom had been sold into slavery by the Turks. There had also been a few Westerners who had traveled unmolested - always, of course, incognito. Burton often spoke of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss explorer who had traveled to Mecca in the early part of the 19th Century. As impressive as Burton's expeditions to Mecca and Medina were, and for all the fame they brought him, there was an even more elusive treasure Burton coveted, one feat that had never before been accomplished by any Westerner: to enter the forbidden city of Harar in East Africa. The legend of Harar held that if ever an outsider entered the city, it would fall within a generation. This indeed happened not too long after Burton penetrated its walls. All whites were forbidden entrance to the city, as were African Christians, such as the Abyssinians. The penalty for an outsider discovered inside, of course, was death. Undaunted, Burton prepared a caravan for Harar and set out in 1854. Dressed to the nines in Arab garb, and insisting that his entourage masquerade as his followers, Burton invented for himself the persona of Haji Mirza Abdullah. The term haji referred to the fact that he had completed journey, or hajj, to Mecca. Haji is a title of great honor. After an arduous journey in the desert the expedition espied "about thirty miles distant, and separated by a series of blue valleys. . . a dark speck upon a tawny sheet of rubble. . . Harar." Burton entered the city, a six-shooter concealed in his waist belt, with the intention that if he were threatened he would run up to the chief and hold him hostage. He described the men of Harar as "large half-naked savages." The chief himself appeared as, rather than a fearsome figure, "a little Indian Rajah, an etiolated youth twenty-four or twenty-five years old, plain, thin-bearded, with a yellow complexion, wrinkled brows and protruding eyes." His first impressions notwithstanding, Burton was very careful to remain in good graces of the chief, lest he be summarily executed. The chief was ruthless and bloodthirsty. As Burton said, "The government of Harar is the Emir. These petty princes have a habit of killing and imprisoning all those who are suspected of aspiring to the throne." Finally, after weeks in the chief's presence, Burton was granted permission to leave the city. It was not his decision as to when he could leave, so Burton, knowing that such a decision was, at best, mercurial, left in the middle of the night in case the chief should change his mind. Burton visited prostitutes while in Harar, remarking in his writings of a practice known as Kabbazah, wherein the vaginal muscles contract during sex. Burton was fond of detailing his sexual adventures as well as his other explorations. In fact, Burton was a scandalous figure in Victorian England, who most likely would have been more highly decorated at an earlier time in his life had he been less sexually obsessed. His journals and writings are full of his encounters with prostitutes from all over the world, and include an account of the commonplace practice of British military men interacting with the bubu, or black woman, while stationed in India. It was a practice Burton himself participated in. Many of his journals are lost forever, burned by his widow, Isabel Arundel, whom he married in his fortieth year. It is suspected that many of these passages were burned because they contained erotic content, erotic content that did not involve Mrs. Burton. Burton's next goal was to find the source of the Nile River, a goal that was, sadly, unfulfilled. He was now traveling with John Hanning Speke, a strange character who for fun shot pregnant deer to examine their fetuses. It is also unclear whether Speke tried to seduce Burton at some point during the expedition; it is very likely. Burton was constantly annoyed with Speke, a brave but foolish man whose claims of past expeditions were fabricated. Burton, Speke and their entourage were attacked in the middle of the night by a Somali tribe. The two leaders barely escaped alive, and many in their party were killed. Speke was severely beaten, and nearly died from his injuries. As for Burton, a spear was thrown into his face, piercing one side of his jaw, exiting through the other. He remained in such a state for hours until the spear could be removed. A huge scar graced his face for the rest of his life. Burton and Speke went on to discover an uncharted lake in 1858, Lake Tanganyika. An illness Burton had contracted made him incapable of attaining one of his great goals, to find the Nile source. This feat was accomplished by Speke and Captain James Augustus Grant in 1863. Burton was knighted. He traveled throughout North and South America for a while, was stationed in a remote village in South America, and ultimately moved to Trieste, Italy, where he spent his remaining years working on translations such as the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, and writing his memoirs. Burton's life was the embodiment of adventure. In all the many languages he mastered, there was one word that held no meaning for him: cowardice. Never one to back down from a challenge or danger, Burton repeatedly risked his very life in order to seize the jewels of discovery. He was the last of the great explorers.