Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/66

which human beings were trampled under the elephant's foot (just for the fun of it, you know), where alleged offenders were buried alive, thrown down steep hills, pinned to the wall, rolled in barrels nailed inside? Where are thy Holi festivals, during which a hundred hired houris^[1] frolicked in naked charms in the palace compound, and invited, by a thousand arts, the whizzing liquid of the royal piclikári?^[2] Where are the marriages between doves^[3] and the attendant festivals? Where are the crusades against cats, because one of the feline tribe breakfasted on the feathered bridegroom? Where is thy bracing fever, thy benignant cholera, O land of my birth? Gone, gone are all thy glories, gone for evermore! And instead I see the jail and the court-house, parks and palaces, roads and tanks, schools and colleges; and that monster of a Municipal Commissioner! But enough of interrogatory apostrophisation; it leads to bad blood and bad grammar.

1. Verybrown nymphs.
2. Syringe. Mulhár Ráo Guicowár used to play at this very delectable game.
3. Khanderáo Guicowár celebrated the marriage of his two favourite doves with royal pomp.