Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/92

 are also appropriately decorated with the feathers of the peacock, heron, parrot and goose.

The chamara or cliauri is next in dignity to the umbrella, and may be made either of strips of sandal-wood, or of ivory ; but the most esteemed are those made of the tail of the Himalayan yak. The Prince has a pair of yak-tail chauris, and also of murchals , mounted on elaborately jewelled and enamelled handles. To put gems and enamel on peacock feathers would seem like adding another hue to the rainbow, but there is no “ wasteful and ridiculous excess” in the masterly way in which the Jaipur artist has used the feathers and gems, and his secret enamels, to mutually enhance each other’s effect. Nothing can be richer than his materials, nothing more harmonious and effective than the manner in which he has combined them. The popes always have peacock feathers borne before them at their enthronement, and no doubt the custom was derived at some distant date from the East. There is a sayiban in the arms room of the India Museum made of a talipot palm leaf, with a conventional tree pattern worked on it, which in form and detail is exactly like the fan-like ensign represented in the Nineveh marbles as borne before the kings of ancient Assyria. The royal howdahs and the painted open palanquin in the arms room are most picturesque- looking objects, and are valuable examples of strong and massive goldsmith’s work, and Indian ivory and wood carving and turning.