following from a letter addressed to Borrow by Hasfeldt years later?
-


"Do you still eat Pike soup? Do you remember the time when you lived
on that dish for more than six weeks, and came near exterminating the
whole breed? And the pudding that accompanied it, that always lay as
hard as a stone on the stomach? This you surely have not forgotten.
Yes, your kitchen was delicately manipulated by Machmoud, your Tartar
servant, who only needed to give you horse-meat to have merited a
diploma. Do you still sing when you are in a good humour? Doubtless
you are not troubled with many friends to visit you, for you are not
of the sort who are easily understood, nor do you care to have
everyone understand you; you prefer to have people call you grey and
let you gae."


Other friends Borrow made, including Nikolai Ivanovitch Gretch,
{112a} the grammarian, and Friedrich von Adelung, {112b}} who
assisted him with the loan of books and MSS. in Oriental tongues.

The story of Borrow's labours in connection with the printing of the
Manchu version of the New Testament, forms a remarkable study of
unswerving courage and will-power triumphing over apparently
insurmountable obstacles. The mere presence of difficulties seemed
to increase his eagerness and determination to overcome them.
Disappointments he had in plenty; but his indomitable courage and
untiring energy, backed up by the earnest support he received from
Earl Street, enabled him to emerge from his first serious undertaking
with the knowledge that he had succeeded where failure would not have