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104 the Am-Khás, but no less beautifully decorated. Here he would sit, surrounded by his Court, and 'grant private audiences to his officers, receive their reports, and deliberate on important matters of state.' This later reception was almost as ceremonious as the earlier one, but there was no space for reviews of cavalry: only the officers who had the honour to form the guard paraded before the Emperor, preceded by the insignia of royalty, the silver fish, dragon, lion, hands, and seales, emblematic of the various functions of sovereignty.

Close to the Hall of Audience was the imperial mosque, with its gilded dome, where Aurangzíb daily conducted the prayers. On Fridays he went in state to the Jámi' Masjid, the beautiful mosque which Sháh-Jahán completed just before his deposition. It stands on a rocky platform in the centre of Delhi, in a great square where four streets meet. The roads were watered before the procession passed, and soldiers kept the way. An advance guard of cavalry announced the approach of Aurangzíb, and presently the Emperor appeared, riding beneath a canopy on a richly caparisoned elephant, or seated upon a dazzling throne borne by eight men upon a gorgeous litter, while the nobles and officers of the Court and mace-bearers followed on horseback or in palankins.

'If we take a review,' concludes Bernier, 'of this metropolis of the Indies, and observe its vast extent and its numberless shops; if we recollect that, besides the Omrahs,