This is almost like a house on wheels, isn’t it? There seem to be two stories in the wagon or carriage. We can see someone sitting in the upper part, and the lower floor appears to be filled with all sorts of things. How proud and haughty the camels look, with their noses up in the air!
In what country would you expect to see this carriage? Yes, it is in India, at Agra, a very beautiful city. There are such wonderful buildings in Agra that we should want to stay there a long time and admire them. One is called the Moti Musjid, or Pearl Mosque, and travellers say that it is exquisite. It is all of marble and has three beautiful domes like immense bubbles floating in the air.
The gem of Agra, though, is the Taj Mahal, a big tomb built centuries ago by one of the rulers, Shah Jehan, for his wife, whom he dearly loved. Just think, this building is standing now, after all these hundreds of years, and is still perfect! It has a beautiful big dome and a number of little ones, besides minarets and towers, and it looks like a marvellous dream building or a palace made by the fairies. Every little part of it is as perfect as a bit of jewellery. There are flowers inlaid in many colours, and exquisite mosaic work in different patterns; and in the dome is a wonderful echo that repeats a note again and again until it sounds like fairy music. Wouldn’t you like to visit this wonderful place?
Two-story Camel Wagons at Agra, India
From Stereograph, Copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood, New York
AN ELEPHANT FROM KHAIPUR
Here is another elephant dressed in elaborate trappings. His saddle cloth is very gorgeously embroidered and fringed, and he has a cloth over his head, which seems to cover up his eyes, but perhaps he can see through the fringe. He even has a bracelet or anklet around one of his fore feet—do you see it? The owner of all this magnificence sits on the elephant’s back in a howdah, a very much ornamented sort of chair.
With all its splendour, I am sure we should not find this a comfortable way of travelling, for as the elephant lumbers along, the howdah pitches first in one direction, then in another. We should feel as though we were at sea; and in the hot sun, without the bracing air we get on the water, it might be an unpleasant motion.
This elephant comes from Khaipur, a state in the western part of India. It is a very hot part of the country, and we should probably not be able to live there more than four months in the year, as the rest of the time it is intensely hot. Many of the Hindu people of Khaipur own large numbers of oxen, camels, sheep and goats; so they do not settle in one place to live, but go about, stopping wherever they find good pasture-lands. The chief man is called the mir; isn’t that a strange name? He has a very large estate, with big parks, and, I suppose, owns several elephants.