You may talk o' ginger beer
When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
But in Victory or Defeat,
You'll do better with a sweet,
An' you'll lick the ‘airy feet of 'im that's got it.
Now in Afri's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Is Majesty the Kyng,
Of all them ‘alfling crew
The finest bloke I knew
Was our regimental Bestie, Gamgee Din.
It has been said, and truly, that an army marches on its stomach.
Captain Giglamps of the Halflingland Rifles will tell anyone who will listen that a Halfling army fights on its stomach.
Similar to the Bhisti of India, the Bestie of Halfligland are both a tribe and an occupation.
In the distant past when the halfings received the Word from the Author, the Bestie also received the gift of candy floss. The creation of this great confection is a closely guarded secret among the members of this endogamous community.
The word "Bestie" itself derived from the Common Tongue "best friend":, a reference to the common ancestor of the Bestie, known only as "the Old Gaffer", who brought candy floss to the wounded Bandobras Took and fought off the goblins sure to have killed that worthy, in a time before the great halfling diaspora.
Today the Bestie accompany any military expedition mounted by the Halflings of Halflingland, in order to sustain the troops in their time of need.
As a result of Albion military expeditions in Halflingland, both candy floss and the Besties who serve have become a topic of ballads in the Salons of Londinium.
Gamgee Din is one such Bestie of whom we shall see more in upcoming episodes.
Blog link is included below for completeness but there is no need to go there as the content is the same"
link
looks at a fast-assembly naval kit for the Age of Sail.
