Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/491

Rh with the head shaved, except the coodamy or queue suffered to grow from the crown, and the body bare from the waist upwards. The dress of the soldiers, with the addition of an upper garment of cotton, would illustrate that of the peons or police of the present day.

Mysore, in its general aspect, is pleasing, and gives an impression of prosperity and progress. The streets are regular, and the bazaar (trading street) looks quite brilliant with its shops filled with bright-coloured silks, gay cotton goods, cloth, carpets, and other articles of merchandise. In the fruit-stalls were melons and white grapes, hanging in rich clusters, fair to the eye, and, as we found on trial, most refreshing to the parched lips of the weary invalid melting under a tropical sun. In an open space, a large number of elephants stood chained by the feet to well-fastened stakes, some feeding on long grass brought for them from the fields, others holding in their trunks large branches from the neighbouring trees, with which to brush the flies from their black, hairless sides.

Since the fall of Seringapatam, Mysore has greatly increased in population, in consequence of its being the residence of the rajah (king)