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the capital. If the Maharajah were to tire of Jeypore and return to Amber, the town would accompany him, for without the Court the town would die. Traveling in India must be done very early in the morning, and, although the visitors had had a severe day's journey, they left for Amber at seven in the morning. A squadron of the Maharajah's cavalry accompanied them. They are fine horsemen, and wear quilted uniforms of printed cotton. The drive through Jeypore was interesting, from the fact that they were now in a native city, under native rule. Heretofore the India they had seen was India under Englishmen; but Jeypore is sovereign, with power of life and death over its own subjects. The city is purely Oriental, and is most picturesque and striking. There are two or three broad streets, and one or two squares, that would do no discredit to Paris. The architecture is Oriental, and, as all the houses are painted after the same pattern, in rose color, it gives you the impression that it is all the same building. The streets had been swept for the coming of the visitors, and men, carrying goatskins of water, were sprinkling them. Soldiers were stationed at various points to salute, and sometimes the salute was accompanied with a musical banging on various instruments of the national air. The best that India can do for a distinguished American, is “God Save the Queen."

There are gas lamps in Jeypore; this is a tremendous advance in civilization. One of the first things General Grant heard in India, was that in Jeypore lived a great prince, a most enlightened prince, quite English in his ideas, who had gas lamps in his streets. He had a theatre almost ready for occupancy; there was a troupe of Parsee players in town, who had come all the way from Bombay, and were waiting to open it. The Maharajah was sorry he could not show the General a play.

To go to Amber, General Grant and party must ride

elephants, for after a few miles the hills come, and the roads are broken, and carriages are of no value. Camels or horses could be used, but the Maharajah had sent elephants, and they were waiting for them under a grove of mango trees, drawn up by the side of the road, as if to salute. The principal elephant wore a scarlet cloth, as a special honor to the General. The elephant means authority in India, and, when you wish to do your guest the highest honor, you mount him on an elephant. The Maharajah also sent sedan chairs for those who preferred an easier and swifter convey

ance.

Mrs. Grant chose the sedan chair, and was switched off at a rapid pace up the ascending road by four Hindoo bearers. The pace at which these chairs is carried is a short, measured quickstep, so that there is no uneasiness to the rider. The rest mounted the elephants. Elephantriding is a curious and not an unpleasant experience. The animal is under perfect control, and very often, especially in the case of such a man as the ruler of Jeypore, has been for generations in the same family. The elephant is under the care of a driver, called a mahout. The mahout sits on the neck, or more properly the head, of the elephant, and guides him with a stick or sharp iron prong, with which he strikes the animal on the top of the head. Between the elephant and mahout there are relations of affection. The mahout lives with the elephant, gives him his food, and each animal has its own keeper. The huge creature becomes in time as docile as a kitten, and will obey any order of the mahout. The elephant reaches a great age. It is not long since there died at Calcutta the elephant which carried Warren Hastings when Governor General of India, a century ago. There are two methods of riding elephants. One is in a box like the four seats of a carriage, the other on a square quilted seat, your feet hanging over the sides, something like an Irish jaunting car. The first plan is

good for hunting, but for comfort the second is the better. At a signal from the mahout the elephant slowly kneels. When the elephant rises, which he does two legs at a time, deliberately, the rider must hold on to the rail of the seat. Once on his feet, he swings along at a slow, wabbling pace. The motion is an easy one, like that of a boat in a light In time, if going long distances, it becomes very

sea.

tiresome.

Arrived at Amber, the General found Mrs. Grant with her couriers, having arrived some time before, and had mounted to a window high up in the palace, and was waving her handkerchief. The visitors had reached the temple while worship was in progress. Dr. Hendley informed the General that he was in time to take part in the services and to see the priest offer up a kid. Every day in the year in this temple a kid is offered up as a propitiation for the sins of the Maharajah.

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The temple was little more than a room in the palace — a private chapel. At one end was a platform raised a few inch es from the ground and coverea over. On this platform were the images of the gods- of the special God. Whatever the god, the worship was in full progress, and there was the kid ready for sacrifice. Entering the enclosure, the visitors stood with uncovered heads; only some half a dozen worshipers were crouching on the ground. One of the attendants held the kid, while the priest was crouching over it, reading from the sacred books, and in a half humming, half whining chant blessing the sacrifice, and as he said each prayer putting some grain or spice or oil on its head. The poor animal licked the crumbs as they fell about it, quite unconscious of its holy fate. Another attendant took a sword and held it before the priest. He read some prayers over the sword and consecrated it. Then the kid was carried to the corner, where there was a small heap of sand or ashes and a gutter to carry away the blood. The priest

continued his prayers, the kid's head was suddenly drawn. down and with one blow severed from the body. The virtue of the sacrifice consists in the head falling at the first blow, and so expert do the priests become that at some of the great sacrifices, where buffalo are offered up in expiation of the princely sins, they will take off the buffalo's head with one stroke of the sword. The kid, having performed the office of expiation, becomes useful for the priestly dinner.

Of the palace of Amber the most one can say is that it is curious and interesting as the home of an Indian King in the days when India was ruled by her Kings, and a Hastings and a Clive had not come to rend and destroy. The Maharajah has not quite abandoned it. He comes sometimes to the great feasts of the faith, and a few apartments are kept for him. His rooms were ornamented with looking-glass decorations, with carved marble which the artisan had fashioned into tracery so delicate that it looked like lacework. What strikes one in this Oriental decoration is its tendency to light, bright, lacelike gossamer work, showing infinite pains and patience in the doing, but without any special value as a real work of art. The general effect of these decorations is agreeable, but all is done for effect. There is no such honest, serious work as you see in the Gothic cathedrals, or even in the Alhambra. One is the expression of a facile, sprightly race, fond of the sunshine, delighting to repeat the caprice of nature in the curious and quaint; the other has a deep, earnest purpose. This is an imagination which sees its gods in every form in stones and trees and beasts and creeping things, in the stars above, in the snake wriggling through the hedges - the other sees only one God, even the Lord God Jehovah, who made the heavens and the earth and will come to judge the world at the last day. As you wander through the courtyards and chambers of Amber, the fancy is amused by the charac

ter of all that surrounds you. There is no luxury. All these Kings wanted was air and sunshine. They slept on the floor. The chambers of their wives were little more than cells built in stone. Here are the walls that surrounded their section of the palace. There are no windows looking into the outer world, only a thick stone wall pierced with holes slanting upward, so that if a curious spouse looked out she would see nothing lower than the stars. Amber is an immense palace, and could quite accommodate a rajah with a court of a thousand attendants. There were some beautiful views from the terrace. The General would like to have remained, but the elephants had been down to the water to lap themselves about, and were now returning refreshed to bear us back to Jeypore. The visitors had only given themselves a day for the town, and had to return the call of the Prince, which is a serious task in Eastern etiquette.

Mr. Borie was much exhausted by his ride and the heat of the sun, and was prevailed upon to make the descent in a chair, as Mrs. Grant had done. Returning to Jeypore the same day, our party were very tired, and early sought

rest.

The following day, at Jeypore, the General visited the school of arts and industry, in which he was greatly interested, one of his special subjects of inquiry being the industrial customs and resources of the country. This school is one of the Prince's favorite schemes, and the scholars showed aptness in their work. Jeypore excels in the manufacture of enameled jewelry; some of the specimens seen were exceedingly beautiful and costly. The Mint was visited, and here the workmen were seen beating the coin and stamping it.

At the collection of tigers, a half dozen brutes were cage, each of whom had a history. There were man-eaters; one enormous creature had killed twenty-five men before

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