Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/96

vaccination, claims numerous victims, was the beau idéal of a soldier, strong, spare, active, courageous, and enduring. An excellent horseman, he would remain the whole day in the saddle without showing any sign of fatigue. His love for horses amounted to a passion, and he maintained an enormous stud for his personal use collected from every part of India, Arabia, and Persia. He was also a keen sportsman and an accomplished swordsman. At Rúpar, in 1831, he competed with success with his own troopers and those of Skinner's Horse in tent-pegging and feats of swordsmanship. His dress was scrupulously simple. In winter and spring he wore generally a warm dress of saffron-coloured Kashmír cloth; in the hot weather white muslin without jewel or ornament, except on occasions of special display or state. This simplicity in the matter of personal adornment may often be observed in native princes or statesmen of intellectual eminence. Like Europeans, they despise the decorations of savages and women. The late Mahárájá Túkají Ráo Holkar of Indore, Rájá Sir Dinkar Ráo, and Sir Sálár Jang the great minister of the Nizám, habitually dressed as plainly as the humblest of their employés. But Ranjít Singh did not require jewels to make him conspicuous. It was strange indeed to observe how complete was his ascendency, even when he had become feeble, blind, and paralysed, over his brilliant court of fierce and turbulent chiefs. Fakír Azizuddin, who had been sent on a mission to Lord William