When they undertake to pay a visit of ceremony it is, to our views, very singular what form and punctiliousness they deem to be indispensable. The whole establishment seems turned out for the purpose, for the larger the “following” so much the more you are expected to be impressed with the standing and dignity of the great man who has come to honor you with his call. An outrunner or two reaches your door in advance, and announces the master's approach; then come an armed squad, and his confidential servant, or “vakeel,” and behind them the great man himself on his elephant, or in his palanquin; another crowd of retainers bring up the rear, the whole train numbering from thirty to sixty persons, or even more. Often, as I have looked at them, have I been reminded of the figure in the Revelations, where the blessed dead are represented as accompanied on their way into the kingdom of heaven by the escort of the good deeds of their faithful lives, which rise up to accompany them as so many evidences of their devotion to God—“Their works do follow them.” The interview is merely a ceremony. The lady of the house is not expected to make her appearance; but where the visit is to a missionary family the lady generally does show herself, and, joining in the conversation, watches the opportunity to say a word for the truth of the Gospel. The native gentleman is evidently amazed, though he conceals it as well as he can, at her intelligence and her self-possession in the presence of another man than her husband, so unlike the prejudices that fill his mind about the female members of his own household. No doubt, amazing are the descriptions he carries home of what he has seen and heard on such an occasion.
But it is in connection with “durbars,” governmental levees and marriage festivals, that the whole force of the native passion for parade and ostentation develops itself. As a sample: At the durbar some time ago in the Punjab, Diahn Singh, one of the nobles, came mounted on a large Persian horse, which curveted and pranced about as though proud of his rider. The bridle and saddle were covered with gold embroidery, and underneath was a saddle-cloth of silver tissue, with a broad fringe of the same mate-
