Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/70

 which nearly covered the animal. The legs and tail of the horse were dyed red—the former up to the knees, and the latter half-way to the haunches—an emblem, well understood by the crowd, of the number of enemies which this military chief was supposed to have killed in battle, and that their blood had covered his horse thus far. The chief himself was dressed with the utmost magnificence, loaded with jewels, which hung, row upon row, round his neck, in his turban, on the hilt of his sword and dagger, and over his dress generally, while a bright cuirass shone resplendent on his breast. Add to this a face and person handsome and majestic, and you have the man as he delighted to be seen on the occasion.

But even this was outdone a few months ago on the occasion of the visit of one of Queen Victoria's sons, the Duke of Edinburgh, to India. A part of the pageant was the procession of elephants. These animals, one hundred and seventy in number, and the finest in size and appearance in India, were each decorated in the richest housings, and ridden by the Nawabs and Rajahs who owned them, each trying hard to outvie the other. Perhaps the Maharajah of Putteallah carried off the palm. The housings of his immense elephant were of such extraordinary richness that they were covered with gold and jewels. The Maharajah, who rode on him, wore a robe of black satin embroidered with pearls and emeralds. The howdah—seat on the elephant's back—in which the Rajah of Kuppoorthullah sat, was roofed with a triple dome made of solid silver.

This passion of ostentation and show breaks over all bounds on the occasion of their marriage ceremonies, and is permitted to know no limit but their means, nor sometimes even that. Sleeman narrates of the Rajah of Bullubghur—whom the writer saw in such different circumstances twenty years after these events, on trial for his life in the Dewanee Khass of Delhi, in 1857, as will be described hereafter—that on the occasion of his marriage in 1838 the young chief mustered a cortege of sixty elephants and ten thousand followers to attend him. He was accompanied by the chiefs of