[22]. [Much of this is from Sir W. Jones, Wilford and Paterson (Asiatic Researches, i. 253, iii. 141, viii. 48). Herodotus (i. 216) ascribes the custom of Sun sacrifice to the Massagetae.]
[23]. [The Mughal emperors followed the same practice (Manucci i. 98).]
[24]. In his delight for this diversion, the Rajput evinces his Scythic propensity. The grand hunts of the last Chauhan emperor often led him into warfare, for Prithiraj was a poacher of the first magnitude, and one of his battles with the Tatars was while engaged in field sports on the Ravi. The heir of Jenghiz Khan was chief huntsman, the highest office of the State amongst the Scythic Tatars; as Ajanbahu, alike celebrated in either field of war and sport, was chief huntsman to the Chauhan emperor of Delhi, whose bard enters minutely into the subject, describing all the variety of dogs of chase.
[25]. A hog in Hindi; in Persian khuk, nearly our hog [?].
[26]. Chief of Salumbar.
[27]. Chief of Hamirgarh.
[28]. [On the slaughter of the boar representing a corn-spirit see Sir J. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed. Part v. vol. i. 298 ff.; Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, 2nd ed. 290 f.]
[29]. He has been the father of more than one hundred children, legitimate and illegitimate, though very few are living.
[30]. That this can be done without any loss of dignity by the Sahib log (a name European gentlemen have assumed) is well known to those who may have partaken of the hospitalities of that honourable man, and brave and zealous officer, Colonel James Skinner, C.B., at Hansi. That his example is worthy of imitation in the mode of commanding, is best evinced by the implicit and cheerful obedience his men pay to his instructions when removed from his personal control. He has passed through the ordeal of nearly thirty years of unremitted service, and from the glorious days of Delhi and Laswari under Lake, to the last siege of Bharatpur, James Skinner has been second to none. In obtaining for this gallant and modest officer the order of the Bath, Lord Combermere must have been applauded by every person who knows the worth of him who bears it, which includes the whole army of Bengal. [James Skinner, 1778-1841. See Compton, Military Adventurers, 389 ff.; Buckland, Dict. Indian Biography, s.v.]
[31]. Evinced in the presentation of the sriphala, the fruit of Sri, which is the coco-nut, emblematic of fruitfulness.