About this item: 20.500.12592/q8wxg3
From Pall Mall to the Punjab Or With the Prince in India
1876
Summary
When darkness comes on and the lamps are lit when the coloured fires burn in the courts of the temples and the light is reflected frolia house to house by the burnished metal work for which streets in Ilombay are famous the sight is magnificent in the extreme ; even now in the daytime it is marvellous to the unaccustomed eye. [...] Yet when the ear once became accustomed to the strange thumping'of the drum the harsh noises drawn by the bows of the players from the hurdy-gurdies the shaking of the tambourine and the jingling of little bells which the girls wore on their ankles and wrists it was after all by no means an unpleasant sound. [...] He is a stately little fellow this Maharajah only thirteen years old though he may be ; and he stops at the edge of the carpet till the Viceroy reaches it with all the dignity of a great sovreign takes his place in the chair of honour as though it were the throne of Southern India and converses with the Viceroy with all the affability and ease of an accoplished man of the world. [...] Men of the body-guard stiffen in position the viceregal suite is in its place and the Viceroy is already past the middle of the carpet ere the little Prince is through the doorway. [...] Then the chiefs stood round the hall the Maharana advanced to the Vieerty's carriage and taking his Excellency by the right hand led him to a couch at the head of the saloon and gave him the seat of honour as to a superior monarch.
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