Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/35

 Highness's Gwalior; if every man were allowed four wives, and obliged to keep them separate, the little island could never contain them; they would be obliged to keep the women in vessels off the shore, after the fashion in which the Chinese keep their floating farmyards of ducks and geese at anchor."

"Is your husband angry with you?" asked the Brija, the favourite attendant of her Highness. "Why should you imagine it?" said I. "Because you have on no ornaments, no jewellery."

The Bāiza Bā'ī sent for the wives of Appa Sāhib to introduce them to me. The ladies entered, six in number; and walking up to the gaddī, on which the Bā'ī was seated, each gracefully bowed her head, until her forehead touched the feet of her Highness. They were fine young women, from fifteen to twenty-five years old. The five first wives had no offspring; the sixth, who had been lately married, was in expectation of a bābā.

Appa Sāhib is the son-in-law of the ex-Queen; he married her daughter, the Chimna Bā'ī, who died of fever at the time they were driven out of Gwalior.

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NATIVES.

The natives are extremely superstitious respecting the lucky and unlucky marks on horses. The following are some of the marks best known, respecting which their ideas are curious:

The favourable marks are the deōband, the bhora, and the panch kalian.

The unlucky marks or aiibs are the sampan, siyah-tālū, small eyes, and a star of a particular sort on the forehead.

The deōband is the feather on the chest: this mark is very rare, and the best of all marks. If a horse have the deōband, it is the rok or antidote to the sampan and all other bad marks.

The bhorahs are the two feathers, one on each side of the neck, just under the mane. If there be two bhorahs turning towards the ears of the horse it is favourable, a very good sign. If there be only one bhora it is tolerably good. If the feather turn towards the rider it is called the sampan; a bhora on one