Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/160

 "I was forced to yield," writes Roe.

Next Jehangir demanded to know who the hats were for; his women liked them, he added. Roe answered that three were sent to his Majesty and the fourth was his (Roe's) own to wear.

"Ah," said Jehangir, "then you will not take them from me, for I like them, and yours I will return if you need it and will not bestow it on me."

What could Roe do but put a smiling face upon the loss of his hat?

A picture representing Venus and a satyr provided material for more dangerous controversy. From what Roe says it seems that Jehangir suspected that the allegory of the picture was directed against Asiatics, the satyr, with its dark-coloured complexion, being a repulsive embodiment of the race, while the fair Venus was presumably the spirit of the West, shown leading the ogre of the East in bondage.

"What was the meaning of the picture?" he asked.

Neither Roe nor Terry could satisfy him on the point. Nevertheless, he annexed the picture with the rest.

Anon he turned his attention to "some carved animal figures, very ridiculous and ill-shaped ordinary figures, the varnish off and no beauty."

What were they sent for?

"I was really ashamed," wrote Roe, "and answered it was not my fault; those that seized them must bear the brunt; but that they were not intended for him, but sent to show the forms of beasts with us."

Jehangir replied quickly—

"Did you think in England that a horse and bull were strange to me?"