Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/60

50 He holds by his side his State sword, the hilt of which is studded with precious stones. To all this “glory” might have been added the matchless Koh-i-noor diamond, for this prince was the heir of “The Mountain Light,” his father, the Maharajah Runjeet Singh, having been its last possessor; but the great diamond was sent as a present to Queen Victoria, and he himself is handsome and happy enough without it.

How significant of the resources of India is the fact that every article on the person of this princely man, from the gold and gems on his head to the embroidered slippers on his feet, is the production of his own country, and all of native manufacture! How quietly in this respect he outshines the Broadway “exquisite” or Parisian belle, whose finery must be sought for in a score of climes and imported from many lands!

The Maharajah is considered one of the handsomest of his countrymen. The excellent wood-cut here representing him does not, however, do justice to his black, lustrous eyes, or his finely formed features and intelligent look.

The education of the gentlemen of India is sadly deficient. Conducted in the Zenana, among ladies ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, their mental training and acquisitions are usually of the most superficial sort, and destitute of healthful stimulus. But the gentleman here represented is one of the exceptions to this rule; and as he has had the moral courage to separate himself from heathenism and receive the Christian faith, the reader may be pleased with some further notice of him.

He is the first royal person in India who has become a follower of Jesus Christ. His highness is the son and heir of the Maharajah Runjeet Singh, who, from the ferocity and valor with which he conducted his wars and ruled his people, was called “The Lion of the Punjab.” The old gentleman's policy left his nation in confusion, and the English power, in the wars that resulted, found his forces to be the sturdiest foe with whom they had ever measured swords in India. Runjeet died in 1839, and his son, this Duleep Singh, then only four years old, was placed upon the throne. His