ON the third day after our arrival our movements had been made known in the neighbourhood. A telegram came from Dholpore, sent by Colonel Deniehy, the Resident, who, on behalf of the Maharajah, wished us to make a stay at His Highness’s palace.
Having no further reason to prolong our stay at Agra, we “hooked on” to the train, and in three hours reached the Dholpore station, where the genial face of Colonel Deniehy greeted our landing in the young prince’s dominions.
Carriages, and an escort of mounted troopers, commanded by the prince’s staff officer, Goby Singh (one of the handsomest Indian officers we had met in our travels), led us to the palace!
Here the Maharajah gave us the heartiest welcome. He expressed his regret that the laws and customs of his country precluded him from admitting us to the interior of his “house,” but the ladies would be welcomed by the Rani (his mother), or the Maharani (his wife); whilst we of the sterner sex would be entertained by his good friend Colonel Deniehy in the part of the palace which had been specially prepared for us.
After this kind speech the young prince led the way to the dining-room, where a sumptuous repast had been prepared, but, as usual, our host sat as a looker-on only. After tiffin we visited our apartments, which showed the minutious solicitude of our hospitable entertainer. Every luxury had been provided for us—even a billiard-room.
So that we might not find the hours hang heavily on our hands, books, albums, and periodicals were in abundance on all the tables. At my bedside a few of the latest French novels were placed—new, but with leaves already cut, so that even this trouble might be spared!
I cannot convey a better idea of the strange but thorough hospitality of these people than to mention that whilst chatting with the Maharajah in the drawing-room, a fly came buzzing round my head, and I naturally chased it away once or twice with my hand. At a sign from the prince a servant crept noiselessly behind me, with a short cane, furnished with a round leather flap at the end of it. I discovered that this fellow’s duty was to keep off the flies—a duty he performed with extraordinary talent.
A “council” was held, and a plan drawn of excursions, hunting, and sight-seeing. Some of these, of course, only “the boys” and myself could attend; whilst later in the afternoons, when the sun’s rays were less intense, the ladies could join. It was during one of these afternoon drives that we witnessed one of the most impressive ceremonies of Indian customs—the cremation of the dead.
We had seen a good deal of cremation in Calcutta, where it is done in a special building, and where, at times, as many as half-a-dozen or more bodies are reduced to ashes in a few hours; but the matter-of-fact method adopted at the Calcutta cremating place are most repulsive.