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January 3.

AST night was the people's night. The masses of Delhi, and the crowds of humble folk whom these festivities have drawn to the Imperial City, were allowed to wander whither they would without let or hindrance. As night fell they streamed in thousands towards the great open space between the Jumma Masjid and the Fort. They swarmed on the steps of the mosque. They were packed in dense crowds around the maidan. They filled the roads converging upon the scene of the great display. They covered every rooftop, crammed every balcony, and clung to every tree which afforded a possible coign of vantage. The whole area was surrounded by an excited, good-humoured, noisy, chattering throng. Until last night one thought that nothing delighted the Orient so much as elephants. Now it is clear that if the inhabitants of an English village crave for circuses, the people of India revel in nothing so much as fireworks.

Let me try to convey an impression of the scene as it was revealed when the first radiance of coloured fires drove darkness away for a while. In the foreground the giant mosque, its arcades and the roofs