Escort.
The Sirdars brought an escort of lancers and Seik cavalry: the latter party were entirely dressed in yellow, and had just returned with Sham Sing from the campaign against Syud Ahmed, who had long carried on a fanatical war in this country, and had been lately killed.
Among the party, a boy was pointed out, who had been nominated to the command held by his fallen father,—a Seik rule admirably calculated to feed the military spirit of their nation. We rode among them, evidently much to their delight, and to our own amusement. The chiefs wore many valuable jewels; but these ornaments did not become the wrists and brows of such warriors.
Seik ladies.
We had now an opportunity of seeing the Seik ladies, who are not less peculiar in their appearance than their husbands. They knot the hair at the crown, and throw a white robe over it, which entirely envelopes the body, and gives a conical shape to the head. They pull up the hair so tight to form this knot, that the skin of the forehead is drawn with it, and the eyebrows are considerably removed from the visual organ. As may be imagined, this fashion does not improve their personal appearance, yet it is general among all classes of the females. The Seik ladies are not so handsome as their husbands; their features are sharp and regular. They are not confined to their houses as strictly as the Mahommedan women; for the Seiks, in matrimony as well as religion, differ widely from the followers of the Prophet.
In the evening of the 16th, we had a second visit from the deputation of yesterday, who brought us a sum of 700 rupees, with an announcement from the Maharaja that that amount had been fixed on as our daily allowance during our further stay in the Punjab. I accepted the sum, but did not consider it proper to allow of such wasteful munificence being in future continued.
At noon, on the 17th of July, we came in sight of the lofty minarets of the King’s mosque at Lahore, and might have reached the ancient capital of the Moghul empire, and the termination of our protracted voyage; but the ceremonial of our entrée required arrangement, and we halted three or four miles from the city, at the earnest request of our conductors. As the sun set, I saw, for the first time, the massy mountains which encircle Cashmere, clothed in a mantle of white snow. I felt a nervous sensation of joy as I first gazed on the Himalaya, and almost forgot the duties I owed to our conductors, in contemplating these mighty works of nature.
CHAP. VI.
LAHORE.
Enter Lahore.
On the morning of the 18th of June we made our public entrance into Lahore. The Maharaja’s minister, Uzeez-o-Deen, and Raja Ghoolab Sing, with the principal men of the state, met us at a distance of three miles from the city, escorted by a guard of cavalry and a regiment of infantry. We were introduced to these personages by Captain Wade, the political agent of government at Lodiana, who had been deputed to Lahore on the occasion, and was accompanied by Dr. A. Murray. The sight of these gentlemen, after our long absence from European society, excited the most pleasurable feelings. Our reception was also most gratifying, heightened, as it was, by the reflection that our undertaking had been this day brought to a safe and successful issue. We alighted at a garden about a mile from Lahore, the residence of M. Chevalier Allard, whose manners and address were engaging and gentlemanlike. We here parted with the deputation, after receiving a large sum of money and a profusion of sweetmeats in the name of the Maharaja.