reached Hindostan. The General said he had enjoyed his visit, that he was pleased and surprised with the prosperity of the people, and that he should have felt he had lost a great deal if he had come to India and not have seen Jeypore. The Maharajah expressed regret that the General made so short a stay. The General answered that he came to India late, and was rather pressed for time from the fact that he wished to see the Viceroy before he left Calcutta, and to that end had promised to be in Calcutta on March 10th.

His Highness then made a gesture, and a troupe of dancing girls came into the courtyard. One of the features of a visit to Jeypore is what is called the Nautch. The Nautch is a sacred affair, danced by Hindoo girls of a low caste, in the presence of the idols in the palace temple. A group of girls came trooping in, under the leadership of an old fellow with a long beard and a hard expression of face, who might have been the original of Dickens's Fagin. The girls wore heavy garments embroidered, the skirts composed of many folds, covered with gold braid. They had ornaments on their heads and jewels in the side of the nose. They had plain faces and carried out the theory of caste, if there be anything in such a theory, in the contrast between their features and the delicate, sharply-cut lines of the higher class Brahmins and the other castes who surrounded the prince. The girls formed in two lines; a third line was composed of four musicians, who performed a low, growling kind of music on unearthly instruments. The dance had no value in it, either as an expression of harmony, grace, or motion. What may have been as an act of devotion according to the Hindoo faith I could not judge. One of the girls would advance a step or two and then turn around. Another would go through the same. This went down the double line, the instruments keeping up their constant din. I have a theory that music, like art, has a meaning that is one of the expressions of the character and aspirations of a people, and I am quite sure that an ingenious and quick-witted race like the Hindoos would not invent a ceremony and perform it in their temples without some purpose. The Nautch dance is meaningless. It is not even

it

VOL. II.-3

improper. It is attended by no excitement, no manifestations of religious feeling. A group of coarse, ill-formed women stood in the lines, walked and twisted about, breaking now and then into a chorus, which added to the din of the instruments. This was the famous Nautch dance, which we were to see in Jeypore with amazement, and to remember as one of the sights in India. Either as an amusement or a religious ceremony it had no value.

The Maharajah and his court looked on as gloomy as ravens, while the General wore that resigned expressionresignation tinted with despair-familiar to those of his Washington friends who had seen him listen to an address from the Women's Rights Association or receive a delegation of Sioux chiefs. But the scene was striking in many ways. Here was the courtyard of a palace, the walls traced in fanciful gossamerlike architecture. Here were walls and galleries crowded with court retainers, servants, dependants, soldiers. Here was the falconer in attendance on the prince, the falcon perched on his wrist—a fine, broad-chested, manly fellow, standing in attendance, just as I have seen in pictures representing feudal manners in early English days. Here was the prime minister, the head of the Jeypore government, a tall, lank nobleman in flowing, embroidered robes, with keen, narrow features that I fancied had Hebrew lines in them. Somehow one looks for the Hebrew lines in governing faces. I heard some romantic stories of the rise of the prime minister: how he had held humble functions and rose in time to sit behind the throne. They say he rules with vigor, is a terror to evil-doers, and has made a good deal of money. Prime ministers depend upon the will or the whim of the prince, and as the prince may die or may have some omen from the astrologers, or something may go wrong with the sacrifices-the kid's head not falling at the first stroke, or a like ominous incident-the tenure of power is like gambling. I suppose this noble lord with the aigrette of pearls in his cap, who looks with his thin, uneasy face on the coarse, shambling Nautch girls, has his trouble in wielding power. He must keep his eye on the priests, the astrologers, the eunuchs,

he prime minister sits the chief of the Brahmins, han, who wears a yellowish robe, his brow stamped ed caste, so holy that he would regard the bread unclean, a middle-aged, full-bodied, healthy priest,

more European in feature than his associates. He eats opium, as many high and holy men do in India, and you see that his fingers twitch restlessly. He is the favorite Brahmin and conscience-keeper of the Maharajah, receives large revenues from the temples, lives in a palace, and is a member of the King's Council. The younger man, carrying a sword, with a square, full head, is a Bengalese scholar or pundit, the Prince's private secretary, who speaks English, and looks as if one day he might be prime minister. The Maharajah sits as it were soused back into his chair, his eyes covered with heavy silver-mounted spectacles, very tired and bored, looking at the Nautch girls as though they were a million of miles away. He has been praying all day and has had no dinner. The scene is wholly Oriental the color, the movement, the odd faces you see around you, and the light, trifling, fantastic architecture which surrounds all. The shadows grew longer and longer, and Dr. Handley, evidently thinking that the dance had served every useful purpose, said a word to the Prince, who made a sign. The dance stopped, the girls vanished, and we all went into the main drawing-room, and from thence to the billiard-room. The Maharajah, as I have said, plays billiards when he is not at prayers. He was anxious to have a game with the General. I am not enough of a billiard player to do justice to this game. I never can remember whether the red ball counts or not when you pocket it. The General played in an indiscriminate, promiscuous manner, and made some wonderful shots in the way of missing balls he intended to strike. Mr. Borie, whose interest in the General's fortunes extends to billiards, began to deplore those eccentric experiments, when the General said he had not played billiards for thirty years. The Maharajah tried to lose the game, and said to one of his attendants that he was anxious to show the General that delicate mark of hospitality. But I cannot imagine a more difficult task than for one in full practice at billiards to lose a game to General Grant. The game ended, his Highness winning by more points than I am willing to print for the gratification of the General's enemies.

Then we strolled into the gardens and looked at the palace

the Prince took pleasure in showing the General, ked airy and beautiful in the rosy shadows of the 1. There were beds of flowers and trees, and the which comes so swiftly in these latitudes, brought ze. Then his Highness gave us each a photoyal person, consecrated with his royal autograph, te on the top of a marble railing. Then we d the grand hall of ceremony to take our leave. is a solemn act in India. We entered the spaere the Prince received the Prince of Wales. ne so rapidly that servants came in all directions les and torches that lit up the gaudy and glitAn attendant carried a tray bearing wreaths of jasmine. The Maharajah, taking two of these them on the neck of the General. He did the Grant and all the members of the party. Then g of gold and silken cord, he placed that on Mrs. pecial honor. The General, who was instructed sh resident, took four wreaths and put them on Le Maharajah, who pressed his hands and bowed Another servant came, bearing a small cup of gold taining attar of roses. The Maharajah, putting perfume on his fingers, transferred it to Mrs. kerchief. With another portion he passed his the General's breast and shoulders. This was of the party. The General then taking the perhis hands over the Maharajah's shoulders, and so ceremony, which in all royal interviews in the East to mean a lasting friendship. Then the Prince, al Grant's hand in his own, led him from the hall, rden, and to the gateway of his palace, holding his cime. Our carriages were waiting, and the Prince e, saying how much he was honored by the GenThe cavalry escort formed in line, the guard preand we drove at a full gallop to our home. And of the most interesting and eventful days in our