The servants have all got their state livery given them to-day; an immense amount is expended on scarlet and gold to show our sense and grandeur to the natives up the country. I had just begun to write, when I heard a great movement on the staircase leading to my rooms, and then the old khansamah walked in with a considerable body of followers. He has lived here for fifty years, and is a fine old man, with a long white beard, and rules us all. He was in a transport of vanity with his dress, which is perfectly beautiful, both turban and tunic. He talks English, and did the honours of himself in this way: ‘I come with my kitmutgars and chowkeydars to make salaam to Ladysheep. My dress very beautiful; I got gold lace here and there, and have a crown and stars on shoulders, which nobody else has. Chowkeydars one row gold lace more than kitmutgars, but all less than me.’ I expressed my profound admiration, and then they all beat their foreheads and walked out. Ten minutes after there was another movement, and the nazir, who is George’s head man, walked in with his twenty hurkarus, who answer to our footmen. He reads and writes English, and
Page:Letters from India Vol 2.pdf/100
88
LETTERS FROM INDIA.
