GATE-WAY OF GARDEN, TAJ MAHAL.
"It is at the end of a large garden where Moomtaz loved to wander. You pass a massive gate-way—itself a fine work of architecture—and look along an avenue of cypresses at the building of which you have heard so much. The view is somewhat spoiled by the garden, as you see only the tops of the minarets, and less than half the building itself. The best view is from the other side of the river, as it is quite unobstructed, and no part of the grand spectacle is lost. The central building and all its surroundings are included, and it is quite possible that the architect made his plans from this stand point.
FRONT VIEW OF THE TAJ MAHAL.
"First there is a broad platform of red sandstone at the end of thegarden, and about four feet above it. On this there is a marble platform eighteen feet high and 313 feet square, white marble entirely, or at least externally. There is a tower or minaret 137 feet high at each corner of this platform, and the building in the centre is 186 feet square, except that the corners are cut off opposite each of the towers. The mausoleum thus takes the form of an octagon, with four of its sides broader than the other four. Each of the broad sides has a grand entrance like a half-dome, that rises nearly to the cornice, while on each side of the entrance there are two arches, one above the other. Around this magnificent door-way are Arabic inscriptions, consisting of black marble inlaid upon pure white, and the spaces left by the curving of the arches are similarly ornamented with mosaic scroll-work. It is said that the whole of the Koran, or Mohammedan Bible, is on the walls of the Taj, and all of it inlaid in stone.
"There is a dome at each of the four corners of the building, while there is a large one in the centre that swells from its base, so that at a distance it looks like a ball suspended in the air. The architect's attemptin the construction of this great central sphere was as daring as it is successful. Doctor Bronson says that of all the domes he has seen in other parts of the world, none can compare in beauty with that of the Taj.
"Now picture the above in your mind if you can, and then add a mosque of red sandstone on either side, and on the level of the lower platform. I say 'on either side' for completing the idea at the risk of incorrectness. The building to our left, as we look from across the river, is really a mosque, and was intended for purposes of worship, while that on the right is of no sanctity whatever; it was simply erected for the artistic completeness of the picture, and is known as theJowab, or 'Answer.' Without these buildings the Taj appears too high for its breadth, but when they come in view the effect is perfect. Height and breadth are exactly proportioned, and it would need a very bold critic to suggest an alteration.
THE PRINCESS OF SHAH JEHAN.
"The tombs of Shah Jehan and his wife are in a vault beneath the floor, while the monuments for show are on the floor itself, and surrounded with a marble screen. If you have any doubt about the building having been erected for the lady, you will find it vanish as you enter; her tomb and monument are exactly beneath the centre of the dome, while those of her disconsolate husband are at one side. And here again is a marvel of the Taj workmanship; tombs, monuments, screen, walls, and pillars are covered with mosaic work, chiefly of flowers and scrolls, with many passages from the Koran. The scriptural texts are in black marble, but the flowers and scrolls are of jasper, carnelian, agate, and other semi-precious stones, with here and there an addition of mother-of-pearl. And in nearly every instance it is as carefully done as a Florentine brooch, and you do not wonder, when you have seen it, at the great cost of the work. It is as though we should attempt to cover the New York Post-office with frescoes as fine as the most delicate engravings on steel.
"We saw a single flower containing more than thirty pieces of stone, and yet the whole flower was not more than an inch in diameter. There are hundreds and hundreds of these flowers, and there is a vast amount of stems and scroll-work and sacred writings, and as you look around you are fairly bewildered with the display. Bishop Heber says the builders of the Taj 'designed like Titans and finished like jewellers;' the wealth and elaboration of the interior are in full keeping with its great external beauty and symmetry.
"There is a wonderful echo in the dome of the Taj; it repeats every sound of the voice with great distinctness, but will disappoint any one who tries to sing a complicated piece of music beneath it. If the notes are at all rapid, the echo runs them into one another, and makes a complete discord, but it is not so with very slow music. An English writer says the chord of the seventh produces a very beautiful effect, and it was this chord that Bayard Taylor heard and described as floating and soaring overhead in a long, delicious undulation, fading away so slowly that you hear it after it is silent, as you see, or seem to see, a lark you have been watching after it has been swallowed up in the blue vault of heaven.
"An English lady, who visited the Taj some years ago, said to her husband as they walked away from the building, 'If I could be assured of such a monument to my memory, I would willingly die to-morrow.' They were newly married, and the husband was not at all wealthy; consequently, the desired assurance was not given, and the lady did not die.Probably there are many ladies and men, too, that have seen the Taj who would share her opinion, as the building is, beyond dispute, the finest of its kind on the face of the globe."
GATE-WAY OF SECUNDRA GARDEN.
Thus ended Frank's letter. The Doctor pronounced it an excellent description of the Taj Mahal, and was sure it would be read with interest by all the Bassett family, and anybody else who could have access to it.
Fred's turn for letter-writing came next. An excursion had been arranged for visiting some interesting ruins at Futtehpoor-Sikra, twenty-one miles from Agra, and the account of this journey was assigned to Frank's cousin. The young man went at his task with great enthusiasm, and with the following result:
TOMB OF THE EMPEROR AKHAR AT AGRA.
"Futtehpoor-Sikra was once a city three miles in length, with a rocky hill in the centre. The Mogul Emperor, Akbar, father of the Emperor Juhangeer, selected it as a royal residence, and built one of the finest palaces in all India on the rocky hill I have mentioned. The city has gone, and its site has been converted into fields; the ruins of the palace remain, and are the most extensive we have yet seen. They are a century older than the Taj Mahal, at Agra, and are not in as good a state of preservation. When I tell you that for nearly a mile along a rocky ridge you have an almost unbroken succession of buildings, you can understand that the palace and its surroundings were on a grand scale.
"To go there we found it necessary to 'lay a dawk,' as they say in India—that is, to arrange for relays of horses along the road. The manager of the hotel attended to the matter and sent out horses the day before we were to visit Futtehpoor-Sikra: there were two relays, one seven miles out and the other fourteen miles, and at each relay we found the horses ready, so that there was no delay in changing. We rolled along over an excellent road, and in two and a half hours we covered the twenty-one miles between Agra and our destination. In many places the road was shaded with tall trees; paroquets and other tropical birds were playing in the branches, and several times we saw monkeys swinging from the limbs, and evidently enjoying themselves.
"The country is generally flat and very fertile; but there are not many objects of interest to be seen on the way. The route we followed is the old one of the emperor's, and we saw traces of a canal that was built for irrigating the land at the time Shah Juhangeer made his home here. We kept a sharp lookout for the ruins, and soon after we passed the twenty-first mile-post there they were. We stopped at what was oncethe emperor's business-office, but is now kept as a restaurant for the accommodation of visitors; it is at the entrance of the palace grounds, and in just the place where you might expect an office to be situated.
ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT MOSQUE OF DURGAH.
"I am afraid I should weary you if I attempted to describe all the buildings, and so I will pick out a few of the most important. There is, in the first place, the great mosque which some have pronounced the finest in India, and it certainly is a magnificent structure. It is known as the Durgah, and has an entrance that reminded us of the gate of the Taj Mahal, but in some respects it is more imposing. It is said that the entrance did not belong to the mosque originally, but was erected a good many years after the completion of the latter. The mosque is on the highest part of the ridge, and you must climb a series of steps to reach it; the view from the top is quite extensive, and would amply repay the fatigue, even if there were no mosque there to interest us.
"Between the gate-way and the mosque there is a paved court-yard 433 by 366 feet, and the date on the main arch of the building corresponds to our year 1571. The pavement is in good condition, and so is that of the mosque itself; the Government applies the revenues of certain grounds in the vicinity to the preservation of the buildings at Futtehpoor-Sikra, and for the last twenty or thirty years they have not suffered any injury. The mosque has three domes, and a long façade, decorated with texts from the Koran, and with other inscriptions of Moslem origin. It is much larger than the Pearl Mosque, at Agra, but not half so pretty.
"I must tell you that a holy hermit named Sheik Selim lived here in a cave, and it was through his orders to the father of Juhangeer that the palace was built. They showed us the cave close to the mosque where the hermit lived, and hid himself away from the wolves and foxes, and then they brought us to his tomb, which is in the great court-yard I have described. As a work of art it is most remarkable, and we lingered some time to study it.
"The inside of the building containing the tomb is ornamented with paintings and mosaics of flowers, and over the tomb itself there is a canopy set with mother-of-pearl, which presents a beautiful appearance. A wide gallery or veranda runs around the outside of the building; there is a dome in the centre, and the eaves project so as to cover the gallery, and shelter anybody who may be there from the rain.
"The screen between the gallery and the enclosure containing the tomb is of white marble wrought into a sort of lace; Bayard Taylor says it looks as though it had been woven in a loom, and certainly when you examine it from a distance of ten or twenty yards it resembles lace more than anything else. You never saw any carving in marble as pretty as this is, and I wonder that the idea has not been taken up and utilized by marble-workers of to-day. The screen extends all the way round the building, and admits light enough into the interior to give a fine effect to the canopy and other surroundings of the saint's tomb. The whole building is forty-six feet square, and every inch of its surface is finished with the greatest care.
THE PANCH MAHAL.
"We went through the great stables where the emperor's horses were kept, and then to the throne-hall, the council-hall, the houses of the emperor's wives, and to so many other buildings that I can hardly remember the names of them. A curious edifice is the Panch Mahal, which is five stories in height, and each story smaller than the one below it. The use of this strange building is not known.
"Then the guide took us to the Pachisi Board, which is a court-yard laid out in squares something like a chess-board, and surrounded by an elevated gallery. The emperor used to play pachisi—an Eastern game something like backgammon—on this 'board,' and the ladies of the harem acted as 'pieces,' and stepped from one square to another as the moves were made. At one corner of this yard there is a building where the ladies used to play 'hide-and-seek' or 'blindman's-buff;' at least that is the story they tell at the palace, but some of the historians say the place was nothing more nor less than a treasure-room. It must have been a wonderful spot in the days of its glory.
"There are fountains and pools in various parts of the palace-grounds, and one very pretty tank where the empress used to go to bathe. Outside of the walls of the mosque is a deep pool, and here there were half a dozen natives who offered to jump from the walls to the water, a distance of almost a hundred feet. They wanted half a rupee each, and we agreed to pay them, and so they climbed up and jumped. It was a fearful distance, and when they struck the water one after another it sounded like hitting a hammer against a board. In the first part of the descent they kept their limbs in active motion, but as they neared the water they brought their feet close together, and went in as straight as arrows.
"According to the historians, the emperor never lived long at Futtehpoor-Sikra, as Sheik Selim complained of the noise of having the whole court around him, and asked the emperor to move away. The latter then went and built Agra, on the banks of the Jumna; the whole court, with the people of the city around it, moved to the new site, and the wonderful palace was deserted, and has remained so ever since.
"We came back to Agra in the same way, and in the same time as we rode out in the morning. The excursion of the day was one that we shall long remember."
It was just about sunrise when our friends entered the train that was to carry them from Agra to Delhi, a ride of 120 miles along the valley of the Jumna. The boys devoted a part of the time on the road to making an acquaintance with Delhi through the books that were drawn from their satchels; before the train rolled into the station they were well aware that the city claims an antiquity of more than 2000 years, but its history is involved in obscurity until the eighth century. From that date it has been the scene of several attacks and sieges, the last having occurred in 1857, at the time of the Indian Mutiny, when the power of the kings of Delhi was completely broken. The foundations of the present city were laid about 250 years ago by the Emperor Shah Jehan, who determined to exceed anything that had been done at Agra by his grandfather, the great Akbar. The palace or citadel is enclosed by a wall a mile and a half in circuit, and the city by a continuous wall of granite nearly six miles long. The citadel has two gates, and the city ten, all strongly fortified and capable of defence, as the history of the Mutiny sadly illustrates in the loss of English life at the final capture.
Delhi is one of the most interesting cities of India, partly on account of its historical richness and partly by reason of the many varieties of people to be met on its streets, and the splendor of its buildings. That it proved to be so to our young friends is shown by their account of what they saw and did during their visit. There was too much for either of them to write alone; so they wisely divided the labor, and made a joint production for the edification of their families and friends. We are permitted to copy the letter in full:
"Delhi, India, January 15.
"We have seen so much here that we don't know where to begin, and when we have started we sha'n't know where to leave off. Perhaps we had best take things in the order in which we saw them, and if wefind our letter is getting too long we can represent the last half of our sight-seeing by two or three 'et cæteras.'SCENE ON THE CHANDNI CHOWK, DELHI."The first thing we did was to go to the Chandni Chowk, which is the Broadway of Delhi; it is more than a hundred feet wide, and has a row of shade-trees in the centre, while on each side are the shops of the wealthy merchants. From morning till night it is crowded withpeople, and you see more varieties here a dozen times over than you do on Broadway in New York, or on the boulevards of Paris. There are men from Cashmere and Thibet; men from Southern India and Nepaul—Hindoos, Parsees, Arabs, Afghans, and various other tribes and nationalities that we cannot name without making a long list. There are men on horseback, with saddles and trappings richly set in silver, and possibly adorned with semi-precious stones; every little while you see carriages of European construction in which natives are riding, and occasionally a stately elephant moves along with an elegant howdah on his back. Then there are camels from the north, sometimes a dozen of them in a train, each bearing a burden of costly merchandise from the looms of Cashmere, or of grain from the fields around the great city. Native buffaloes are numerous, some with packs on their backs after the manner of camels, and others drawing rude carts with wheels hewn out of single blocks of wood. The scene is more thoroughly Asiatic than any we have yet encountered, and the people have so much color in their dresses that the moving crowd makes you think of a Japanese picture. In spite of the show of poverty in the coolie water-bearers and other low-class laborers, the picture of the Chandni Chowk suggests a great deal of wealth, and you almost expect to see in the next moment the cortege of a Mogul emperor entering by one of the gates and marching majestically toward the palace in all the splendor of the ancient days.MERCHANTS OF DELHI."We went into several of the shops where shawls and other products of Indian looms are for sale; and we also visited the famous jewellery establishments of Delhi where silver is wrought into a great many fantastic forms. If anybody wonders what becomes of all the silver that is taken out of the ground, he has only to come to India. This country, with China and one or two others of the East, has long been known for absorbing a vast amount of silver every year; it is made into jewellery and sold to all classes of people, but principally to those who cannot afford anything more costly. When you remember that there are 200,000,000 people in India, and nearly all of them wear as many silver ornaments as they can afford, you will not be surprised at the consumption of silver."We bought some shawls after considerable bargaining, and also some specimens of Delhi jewellery that are very pretty to look at, and possibly to wear. One form of jewellery is made by setting the claws of the tiger into brooches, ear-drops, bracelets, and the like, and the ingenuity of the natives is well displayed in the fanciful forms they give to this kind of work. Then we bought some miniatures painted on ivory, chiefly of theMogul emperors and empresses, with a few faces of modern days. The native painters produce these portraits in all the fineness of a steel engraving, and in brilliant colors; there can hardly be a prettier piece of painting in the world than a Delhi miniature. There was such an abundance of these paintings offered, that it took us some time to make a selection; the dealers came to the hotel every day after breakfast and dinner, and it seemed as though every one of them had at least a hundred pictures for sale.THE DEWAN-I-KHAS, DELHI."The fort or citadel was the next sight after the Chandni Chowk. Formerly there were about a dozen large buildings in it, and many small ones; but nearly all of the latter and some of the former were destroyedat the time of the Mutiny, or within a few years after it. The finest of the public ones were preserved, and they are certainly great curiosities. There are two magnificent halls—the Dewan-i-Am and the Dewan-i-Khas. In the former the emperor used to give public audience to any one who wished to present a petition, while the latter was a hall of private audience, where nobody could come without special invitation. Both of them are of white marble, and their ceilings are beautifully carved with all sorts of curious designs. The pillars that support the roof are very large, and you only get an idea of their real size when you see a man standing near one of them. The Dewan-i-Khas is smaller than the other, and is more like a pavilion than a room, as it is open on three sides, and the wind can circulate freely through it. They say that the ceiling was once composed of gold and silver filigree-work made by the jewellers of Delhi, and cost a great deal of money; the same room contained the famous 'Peacock Throne,' which received its name on account of its back being made to represent an outspread peacock's tail, set with diamonds and other precious stones. We cannot do better than copy the description of it:"'The throne was six feet long and four broad, composed of solid gold inlaid with precious gems. It was surrounded by a gold canopy supported on twelve pillars of the same material. Around the canopy hung a fringe of pearls; on each side of the throne stood twochattahs, or umbrellas, symbols of royalty, formed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and with handles of solid gold eight feet long, studded with diamonds. The back of the throne was a representation of the expanded tail of a peacock, the natural colors of which were imitated by sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and other precious gems. Its value was estimated by Tavernier, a French jeweller, who saw it, at £6,000,000, or $30,000,000.'"When we heard about the peacock throne you can be sure we wanted to see it, and asked the guide to show us where it was. He said it was carried away by the great Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah, when he captured Delhi in 1738, and ordered its inhabitants to be massacred. More than 100,000 were killed by his command, and history says that he sat in the Dewan-i-Khas with the captured monarch, while the troops were obeying his command and slaughtering everybody on whom they could lay their hands. Men, women, and children were butchered, and the property carried away from Delhi amounted to a great many millions. The throne was in the centre of the room, and the place where it stood is occupied by a block of marble. We tried to picture the scene whenShah Jehan was in the height of his power, and before the Persians had come to plunder him. According to all accounts, Delhi must have been superior to any other city of the East in barbaric splendor, and her wealth was something fabulous. When the English captured the place, in 1857, the soldiers were allowed to plunder the palace, and they carried away millions of dollars' worth of diamonds, and gold, and other precious things."On the block of marble where the peacock throne stood we saw an inscription in Arabic, and asked what it was. The guide said it was famous all over the world, and was as follows: 'If there be an elysium on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.' The Arabic words are 'Agar furduse baru-i-zamin ast, hamin ast, hamin ast, hamin ast.'JAMMA MUSJID, OR GREAT MOSQUE."We left the palace and proceeded to the Jamma Musjid, or Great Mosque, one of the finest in all India. It stands on a small hill; and as the minarets are 130 feet high, a view from the top of one of them includes the whole of Delhi and a large extent of country around it. To enter it we climbed a long flight of broad steps, and then crossed a court-yard 450 feet square, with a marble tank in the centre. The court-yard has steps on three of its sides, but the principal entrance is on the east, and this was the one our guide led us to. The mosque is on the west side of the court, and is a handsome building, 200 feet by 120; it has three marble cupolas, and is paved throughout with slabs of white marble with a black border, so that its appearance is very rich. There is a good deal of marble carving in and about the mosque, and we were not surprised to learn that it took ten years to complete the building. The proportions of the interior are not as fine as those of the Pearl Mosque, at Agra, and it is evident that the architect tried to make a large building, rather than a strictly handsome one."The whole city of Delhi was spread out at our feet like a map, as we looked from the minarets of the mosque. We could trace the streets, or at any rate all the principal ones, and our guide showed us the public buildings, and the points that were made memorable during the Mutiny. But we found our attention drawn to the ruins around Delhi quite as much as to the city itself. Far as we could see toward the south we discovered masses of ruins, or scattered tombs and other buildings; they cover an area ten or eleven miles long by six in width, and it is said that no less than five different cities have been built here. Delhi has been called the Rome of Asia, and certainly the comparison does not appear a bad one."Having seen the ruins of the old cities from a distance, we naturallywanted to examine them closely. So our second day was devoted to an excursion, and we started early in the morning for a drive among the remains of ancient Delhi."We had our heads filled with tombs, walls, forts, old palaces, towers, and similar things, before we returned. The sight could not fail to impress us with the grandeur of the city of the Mogul emperors, and since we left home we have seen no better illustration of the changes which time works than in Delhi and the surrounding country. Empires and kingdoms that had their capitals here have been overthrown one after another, and in each instance the conquerors have shown little or no respect for the conquered. Magnificent tombs are decaying, palaces are crumbling into ruins, and the gardens which were once the secluded retreats of crowned heads are converted into fields and pastures. Where once were the crowded streets of a populous city there are now only a few straggling natives, who subsist on gratuities received from strangers, and the walls of the forts have gone to decay so that they would be utterly useless for purposes of defence.THE KUTTUB MINAR."The most famous of the sights in the vicinity of Delhi is the Kuttub Minar, which is said to be the tallest column in the world. We are not quite certain as to the correctness of this statement, and will give the figures, so that anybody may correct us. It is divided from the base to the summit into five different stories, and each story has a balcony at its top. The distance between the balconies diminishes in proportion to the diameter of the column, so that as you look upward from the base the column appears a good deal higher than it really is. The lower story is shaped like a polygon, but the others are round, with deep fluting all the way up."The first three stories are of fine red sandstone, while the two upper ones are mostly of marble. The whole height of the column is 240 feet, and it is thought that it was originally not far from 300 feet. It is fifty feet in diameter at the base, and thirteen at the top, and is ascended by 375 steps. We did not find the ascent very fatiguing, as we rested at each of the balconies, and took things as easily as we could. Fortunately for us, the day was cool, and there was a fine breeze that required us to put on our overcoats as soon as we reached the top.THE IRON PILLAR."It is not exactly known when the tower was begun or completed, but the inscriptions on and around it indicate that it was built about seven hundred years ago, and the work occupied twenty or thirty years. Evidently somebody wanted to excel it, as there is the beginning of another structure of the same character, but twice the circumference, about500 feet away. The first story of this new edifice was never completed, and from present appearances it never will be. All around the Kuttub Minar there are ruins of mosques and temples, some of Hindoo and others of Moslem origin. The nearest and largest was the Jamma Musjid, or Great Mosque, of old Delhi, and was built from the ruins of twenty-seven Hindoo temples that were pulled down after the Mohammedans captured the city, abouta.d. 1193. There is one arch fifty feet high and twenty-two feet wide, and one of its rooms was 135 feet long, with a roof supported on five rows of marble and sandstone pillars."From the ruins of the mosque the guide took us to a well about eighty feet deep, where a group of natives were ready to jump to the water on payment of a small sum. We had seen the same thing at Futtehpoor-Sikra, and were in a hurry to get through with the ruins, and so we refused to witness the performance. The guide told us that the men expected every traveller to pay them for taking this extraordinary leap; that it was their means of living, and they did not pretend to do any other work. The water is said to be very cold, as the sun rarely shines upon it, and nobody can tell how old the well is, or by whom it was made.TREES IN THE COURT-YARD OF THE MOSQUE."In the court-yard of the mosque is an iron pillar twenty-two feet high, with a capital at the top, which is said to date from the Hindoo king who ruled before the Mohammedans came here. The tradition is that he dreaded the fall of his dynasty, and consulted the Bramin priests; they told him that if he could sink an iron pillar, and make it pierce the head of the snake-god Lishay, who supported the world, his kingdom would endure forever. He sunk the shaft, and after a whiletook it up, to see what effect it had had; it was found covered with blood, and then the priests told him he had hurt the snake without killing him, and his kingdom would come to an end. Their prediction was verified, for soon after this event the Moslems came and captured his kingdom, and put him and many of his followers to death."There are some tall trees growing in the court-yard. We did not realize how large they were till we saw a group of natives seated beneath one of them, and waiting to beg from us as we approached. Some of these trees are very old, and show conclusively that the place has been in ruins for a long time."We spent two or three hours around the Kuttub Minar, and then returned to Delhi, stopping on the way to see the tombs of several kings and queens, whose names would not be particularly interesting to you, and who have been dust and ashes for hundreds of years. The Government preserves these tombs from injury, and appoints keepers to look after them; but before the English took possession of India there was a good deal of destruction and negligence. It seems to have been the rule with these Eastern monarchs to destroy the works of their predecessors, rather than to preserve them; and if they failed to do so in any instance, it was because the destruction would cost too much, or require a long time."There is enough around Delhi to keep a visitor occupied for at least a week, and if he is greatly interested in antiquities he might stay here a month and find something new every day. We are afraid of becoming tedious, and so we will cut this letter short, and say good-bye to Delhi."
"We have seen so much here that we don't know where to begin, and when we have started we sha'n't know where to leave off. Perhaps we had best take things in the order in which we saw them, and if wefind our letter is getting too long we can represent the last half of our sight-seeing by two or three 'et cæteras.'
SCENE ON THE CHANDNI CHOWK, DELHI.
"The first thing we did was to go to the Chandni Chowk, which is the Broadway of Delhi; it is more than a hundred feet wide, and has a row of shade-trees in the centre, while on each side are the shops of the wealthy merchants. From morning till night it is crowded withpeople, and you see more varieties here a dozen times over than you do on Broadway in New York, or on the boulevards of Paris. There are men from Cashmere and Thibet; men from Southern India and Nepaul—Hindoos, Parsees, Arabs, Afghans, and various other tribes and nationalities that we cannot name without making a long list. There are men on horseback, with saddles and trappings richly set in silver, and possibly adorned with semi-precious stones; every little while you see carriages of European construction in which natives are riding, and occasionally a stately elephant moves along with an elegant howdah on his back. Then there are camels from the north, sometimes a dozen of them in a train, each bearing a burden of costly merchandise from the looms of Cashmere, or of grain from the fields around the great city. Native buffaloes are numerous, some with packs on their backs after the manner of camels, and others drawing rude carts with wheels hewn out of single blocks of wood. The scene is more thoroughly Asiatic than any we have yet encountered, and the people have so much color in their dresses that the moving crowd makes you think of a Japanese picture. In spite of the show of poverty in the coolie water-bearers and other low-class laborers, the picture of the Chandni Chowk suggests a great deal of wealth, and you almost expect to see in the next moment the cortege of a Mogul emperor entering by one of the gates and marching majestically toward the palace in all the splendor of the ancient days.
MERCHANTS OF DELHI.
"We went into several of the shops where shawls and other products of Indian looms are for sale; and we also visited the famous jewellery establishments of Delhi where silver is wrought into a great many fantastic forms. If anybody wonders what becomes of all the silver that is taken out of the ground, he has only to come to India. This country, with China and one or two others of the East, has long been known for absorbing a vast amount of silver every year; it is made into jewellery and sold to all classes of people, but principally to those who cannot afford anything more costly. When you remember that there are 200,000,000 people in India, and nearly all of them wear as many silver ornaments as they can afford, you will not be surprised at the consumption of silver.
"We bought some shawls after considerable bargaining, and also some specimens of Delhi jewellery that are very pretty to look at, and possibly to wear. One form of jewellery is made by setting the claws of the tiger into brooches, ear-drops, bracelets, and the like, and the ingenuity of the natives is well displayed in the fanciful forms they give to this kind of work. Then we bought some miniatures painted on ivory, chiefly of theMogul emperors and empresses, with a few faces of modern days. The native painters produce these portraits in all the fineness of a steel engraving, and in brilliant colors; there can hardly be a prettier piece of painting in the world than a Delhi miniature. There was such an abundance of these paintings offered, that it took us some time to make a selection; the dealers came to the hotel every day after breakfast and dinner, and it seemed as though every one of them had at least a hundred pictures for sale.
THE DEWAN-I-KHAS, DELHI.
"The fort or citadel was the next sight after the Chandni Chowk. Formerly there were about a dozen large buildings in it, and many small ones; but nearly all of the latter and some of the former were destroyedat the time of the Mutiny, or within a few years after it. The finest of the public ones were preserved, and they are certainly great curiosities. There are two magnificent halls—the Dewan-i-Am and the Dewan-i-Khas. In the former the emperor used to give public audience to any one who wished to present a petition, while the latter was a hall of private audience, where nobody could come without special invitation. Both of them are of white marble, and their ceilings are beautifully carved with all sorts of curious designs. The pillars that support the roof are very large, and you only get an idea of their real size when you see a man standing near one of them. The Dewan-i-Khas is smaller than the other, and is more like a pavilion than a room, as it is open on three sides, and the wind can circulate freely through it. They say that the ceiling was once composed of gold and silver filigree-work made by the jewellers of Delhi, and cost a great deal of money; the same room contained the famous 'Peacock Throne,' which received its name on account of its back being made to represent an outspread peacock's tail, set with diamonds and other precious stones. We cannot do better than copy the description of it:
"'The throne was six feet long and four broad, composed of solid gold inlaid with precious gems. It was surrounded by a gold canopy supported on twelve pillars of the same material. Around the canopy hung a fringe of pearls; on each side of the throne stood twochattahs, or umbrellas, symbols of royalty, formed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and with handles of solid gold eight feet long, studded with diamonds. The back of the throne was a representation of the expanded tail of a peacock, the natural colors of which were imitated by sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and other precious gems. Its value was estimated by Tavernier, a French jeweller, who saw it, at £6,000,000, or $30,000,000.'
"When we heard about the peacock throne you can be sure we wanted to see it, and asked the guide to show us where it was. He said it was carried away by the great Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah, when he captured Delhi in 1738, and ordered its inhabitants to be massacred. More than 100,000 were killed by his command, and history says that he sat in the Dewan-i-Khas with the captured monarch, while the troops were obeying his command and slaughtering everybody on whom they could lay their hands. Men, women, and children were butchered, and the property carried away from Delhi amounted to a great many millions. The throne was in the centre of the room, and the place where it stood is occupied by a block of marble. We tried to picture the scene whenShah Jehan was in the height of his power, and before the Persians had come to plunder him. According to all accounts, Delhi must have been superior to any other city of the East in barbaric splendor, and her wealth was something fabulous. When the English captured the place, in 1857, the soldiers were allowed to plunder the palace, and they carried away millions of dollars' worth of diamonds, and gold, and other precious things.
"On the block of marble where the peacock throne stood we saw an inscription in Arabic, and asked what it was. The guide said it was famous all over the world, and was as follows: 'If there be an elysium on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.' The Arabic words are 'Agar furduse baru-i-zamin ast, hamin ast, hamin ast, hamin ast.'
JAMMA MUSJID, OR GREAT MOSQUE.
"We left the palace and proceeded to the Jamma Musjid, or Great Mosque, one of the finest in all India. It stands on a small hill; and as the minarets are 130 feet high, a view from the top of one of them includes the whole of Delhi and a large extent of country around it. To enter it we climbed a long flight of broad steps, and then crossed a court-yard 450 feet square, with a marble tank in the centre. The court-yard has steps on three of its sides, but the principal entrance is on the east, and this was the one our guide led us to. The mosque is on the west side of the court, and is a handsome building, 200 feet by 120; it has three marble cupolas, and is paved throughout with slabs of white marble with a black border, so that its appearance is very rich. There is a good deal of marble carving in and about the mosque, and we were not surprised to learn that it took ten years to complete the building. The proportions of the interior are not as fine as those of the Pearl Mosque, at Agra, and it is evident that the architect tried to make a large building, rather than a strictly handsome one.
"The whole city of Delhi was spread out at our feet like a map, as we looked from the minarets of the mosque. We could trace the streets, or at any rate all the principal ones, and our guide showed us the public buildings, and the points that were made memorable during the Mutiny. But we found our attention drawn to the ruins around Delhi quite as much as to the city itself. Far as we could see toward the south we discovered masses of ruins, or scattered tombs and other buildings; they cover an area ten or eleven miles long by six in width, and it is said that no less than five different cities have been built here. Delhi has been called the Rome of Asia, and certainly the comparison does not appear a bad one.
"Having seen the ruins of the old cities from a distance, we naturallywanted to examine them closely. So our second day was devoted to an excursion, and we started early in the morning for a drive among the remains of ancient Delhi.
"We had our heads filled with tombs, walls, forts, old palaces, towers, and similar things, before we returned. The sight could not fail to impress us with the grandeur of the city of the Mogul emperors, and since we left home we have seen no better illustration of the changes which time works than in Delhi and the surrounding country. Empires and kingdoms that had their capitals here have been overthrown one after another, and in each instance the conquerors have shown little or no respect for the conquered. Magnificent tombs are decaying, palaces are crumbling into ruins, and the gardens which were once the secluded retreats of crowned heads are converted into fields and pastures. Where once were the crowded streets of a populous city there are now only a few straggling natives, who subsist on gratuities received from strangers, and the walls of the forts have gone to decay so that they would be utterly useless for purposes of defence.
THE KUTTUB MINAR.
"The most famous of the sights in the vicinity of Delhi is the Kuttub Minar, which is said to be the tallest column in the world. We are not quite certain as to the correctness of this statement, and will give the figures, so that anybody may correct us. It is divided from the base to the summit into five different stories, and each story has a balcony at its top. The distance between the balconies diminishes in proportion to the diameter of the column, so that as you look upward from the base the column appears a good deal higher than it really is. The lower story is shaped like a polygon, but the others are round, with deep fluting all the way up.
"The first three stories are of fine red sandstone, while the two upper ones are mostly of marble. The whole height of the column is 240 feet, and it is thought that it was originally not far from 300 feet. It is fifty feet in diameter at the base, and thirteen at the top, and is ascended by 375 steps. We did not find the ascent very fatiguing, as we rested at each of the balconies, and took things as easily as we could. Fortunately for us, the day was cool, and there was a fine breeze that required us to put on our overcoats as soon as we reached the top.
THE IRON PILLAR.
"It is not exactly known when the tower was begun or completed, but the inscriptions on and around it indicate that it was built about seven hundred years ago, and the work occupied twenty or thirty years. Evidently somebody wanted to excel it, as there is the beginning of another structure of the same character, but twice the circumference, about500 feet away. The first story of this new edifice was never completed, and from present appearances it never will be. All around the Kuttub Minar there are ruins of mosques and temples, some of Hindoo and others of Moslem origin. The nearest and largest was the Jamma Musjid, or Great Mosque, of old Delhi, and was built from the ruins of twenty-seven Hindoo temples that were pulled down after the Mohammedans captured the city, abouta.d. 1193. There is one arch fifty feet high and twenty-two feet wide, and one of its rooms was 135 feet long, with a roof supported on five rows of marble and sandstone pillars.
"From the ruins of the mosque the guide took us to a well about eighty feet deep, where a group of natives were ready to jump to the water on payment of a small sum. We had seen the same thing at Futtehpoor-Sikra, and were in a hurry to get through with the ruins, and so we refused to witness the performance. The guide told us that the men expected every traveller to pay them for taking this extraordinary leap; that it was their means of living, and they did not pretend to do any other work. The water is said to be very cold, as the sun rarely shines upon it, and nobody can tell how old the well is, or by whom it was made.
TREES IN THE COURT-YARD OF THE MOSQUE.
"In the court-yard of the mosque is an iron pillar twenty-two feet high, with a capital at the top, which is said to date from the Hindoo king who ruled before the Mohammedans came here. The tradition is that he dreaded the fall of his dynasty, and consulted the Bramin priests; they told him that if he could sink an iron pillar, and make it pierce the head of the snake-god Lishay, who supported the world, his kingdom would endure forever. He sunk the shaft, and after a whiletook it up, to see what effect it had had; it was found covered with blood, and then the priests told him he had hurt the snake without killing him, and his kingdom would come to an end. Their prediction was verified, for soon after this event the Moslems came and captured his kingdom, and put him and many of his followers to death.
"There are some tall trees growing in the court-yard. We did not realize how large they were till we saw a group of natives seated beneath one of them, and waiting to beg from us as we approached. Some of these trees are very old, and show conclusively that the place has been in ruins for a long time.
"We spent two or three hours around the Kuttub Minar, and then returned to Delhi, stopping on the way to see the tombs of several kings and queens, whose names would not be particularly interesting to you, and who have been dust and ashes for hundreds of years. The Government preserves these tombs from injury, and appoints keepers to look after them; but before the English took possession of India there was a good deal of destruction and negligence. It seems to have been the rule with these Eastern monarchs to destroy the works of their predecessors, rather than to preserve them; and if they failed to do so in any instance, it was because the destruction would cost too much, or require a long time.
"There is enough around Delhi to keep a visitor occupied for at least a week, and if he is greatly interested in antiquities he might stay here a month and find something new every day. We are afraid of becoming tedious, and so we will cut this letter short, and say good-bye to Delhi."
From Delhi the party continued its railway journey to Umballa, 161 miles, without stopping, as there was nothing of importance to be seen along the route. Doctor Bronson had telegraphed the day before their departure for dawk garries to be engaged to carry them to Simla, and when the train reached the station a messenger informed them that the carriages had been secured. What the dawk garry is, and what was to be done with it, was a matter of some interest to the boys, as this was their first journey away from the line of the railway. How their curiosity was satisfied we will learn in the next chapter.
It was nine o'clock in the evening when our friends reached Umballah, and they wisely concluded not to begin their journey till the following morning. They found that the carriages would be ready at daylight, and so they retired early in the hotel attached to the railway-station, and had a comfortable sleep. They were called in good season, and by the time their breakfast was finished the baggage had been piled on the top of the vehicles that were to carry them. With the first streak of dawn they were off.
THE DAWK GARRY.
Two garries had been engaged—one for the Doctor alone, and theother for the boys. They were not unlike the vehicles they had already seen in the cities of India, except that they were larger and stronger, in order to adapt them to the rough travel of the mountains. Each carriage is capable of carrying two persons of medium size, and it is arranged so that a bed can be made up on the floor in case of night journeys. For all journeys away from the railways the dawk garry is in universal use, where the roads will permit, and in the days before the completion of the railway across India it was indispensable. It is not a very comfortable conveyance, but a vast improvement on no conveyance at all.
Three horses were attached to each garry, one between the shafts, and one on each side of him. They rattled along at a very fair pace, as the road was good, and the drivers were anxious to finish the journey as soon as possible. There were a good many jolts on account of mud-holes or other inequalities, but, on the whole, the progress was satisfactory, and the boys enjoyed the ride immensely. About every six miles they changed horses; and as there is a good deal of travel on the route, and the carriage company understands its business, the changes were made very quickly.
HORSEBACK-RIDE IN THE HIMALAYAS.
For the first forty miles the road was level, as it lay along the flat valley of the Ganges. They reached Kalka, which is at the base of the foot-hills, and then began to ascend toward Simla. Until a few years ago there was no carriage road beyond Kalka, and travellers were obliged toride on ponies or be carried by men, and sometimes at present the supply of horses is exhausted, and the old method must be resorted to. When the rush begins for Simla in the early summer there are not sufficient horses for the service, and unless a visitor has made his arrangements beforehand he will be compelled to adopt human locomotion, while others, more fortunate, ride in the rapid garry.
There is a considerable variety of vehicles for man-transport, including the palanquin, sedan-chair, and dhoolie, which have been mentioned already. The conveyances which were new to the eyes of the boys were thebareilly dandy, and thejampan; and while they were looking at them the Doctor said they must get well into the mountains to see another, theton-jon.
A BAREILLY DANDY.
The bareilly dandy is a cane chair in an oval frame that extends into a pole at each end, and for the convenience of the rider the chair is made to incline a little backward. Four bearers carry the burden, and are relieved at frequent intervals, so that eight men are required for a journey, besides the additional torch-bearers and other attachés. For mountain travel it is desirable to have each team composed of two tall and two short men; in going uphill the short ones take the front position, so that the chair may be kept nearly level, and the arrangement is reversed during a descent. Thejampanis much like thedandy, with the addition of a cover like an umbrella, to keep off the heat in the sunshine and the water during a shower or storm.
A TON-JON.
Theton-jonis used in the roughest parts of the mountains, where the dandy and jampan cannot go, and is a very simple contrivance. The largest and strongest of the mountaineers are alone capable of performingthe service, and their pay is equal to that of four ordinary men who carry a palanquin or similar vehicle. The ton-jon is a cane chair, strapped to the back of a man, and held in place by a broad band over the forehead; he carries a stout staff, on which he rests his load occasionally; and his pace is very slow, as it must of necessity be sure. A fall would be a serious matter both to himself and his burden, and he takes good care that it does not occur. After reaching Simla the boys had an hour's experience with the ton-jon, and were quite satisfied not to have an extension of time.
"A little ton-jon goes a great way," said Frank, as he descended from his chair.
"Yes," responded Fred, "that may be; but a large one does not go a great way in the time we have had it, and the little one would easily beat it without much exertion."
Frank immediately turned the conversation to something else.
While ascending the hills a few miles out of Kalka, our friends overtook a gentleman they had met on the railway train, and who had given them much valuable information. He was walking behind his garry, which was heavily laden with the materials for a hunting-excursion in the Himalayas, and carried his rifle on his shoulder, in the hope of seeing something worth shooting. He was enjoying his pipe, and his two servants were evidently inclined to follow his example, as they were smoking their hubble-bubbles, and seemed to enjoy them. The hubble-bubble is a curious contrivance, and about as uncomfortable an apparatus for smoking as could well be imagined. It is made as follows:
Two eyes of a cocoa-nut shell are pierced, and through them the meat is carefully extracted. The stein of an upright pipe is inserted in one of the eyes, and carried almost to the bottom of the shell; the stem and bowl of the pipe are at least a foot long, so that when in use the fire is above the level of the smoker's head. The shell is half filled with water; fire is placed on the tobacco in the bowl, and the smoker applies his mouth directly to the hole in the shell or to a short stem protrudingfrom it. The bubbling noise of the smoke as it rises through the water gives the name to the pipe.
Their new acquaintance was Captain Whitney, an officer in the English service in India, and a hunter who had considerable renown among his fellow-officers. While on the railway train he had asked the Doctor to call on him in Simla, and he now renewed the invitation, which was promptly accepted; and the light garries moved briskly on, while the heavy one proceeded leisurely.
VIEW OF THE HIMALAYAS.
Up and up they went, and steeper and steeper grew the road. Simla was reached in due time, and proved to be a pleasant town in the mountains at an elevation of about 7000 feet above the level of the sea. It stands on a long ridge that affords a fine view of the Himalayas, thoughnot of the highest peaks. It was bought, with the section of country around it, in the year 1822, from the native state of Keonthal, and has since been occupied as a sanitarium by the Government. In 1866 Simla was made the seat of the Government of India during the summer months: from April to October the viceroy lives there, and the Government orders and official documents are dated at Simla instead of Calcutta. The movement of the Court brings a large number of Europeans to the little town in the mountains, and for half the year it is crowded to its utmost capacity, while during the other half it is almost deserted.
There are several of these summer resorts in the Himalayas, and the most of them are under Government patronage. Mussoorie, Landour, Nynee Thal, and Darjeeling are among the most noted, and there are others of smaller celebrity. For a long time Darjeeling was the most important, as it was the nearest to Calcutta; but the construction of the railway has brought the others into notice.
Darjeeling is about 300 miles from the capital, and can be easily reached at present, as a railway was opened in 1878 to within twenty miles of its doors. It is about the elevation of Simla, but has the advantage over the latter that the summits of some of the highest peaks of the Himalayas are plainly visible, and in clear weather they appear only a few miles away. The highest peak of all is Mount Everest, 29,000 feet above the sea-level, and claimed as the loftiest mountain in the world; it is not visible from the town itself, owing to an intervening ridge; but can be seen from several points in the neighborhood. The great mountains visible from Darjeeling are Kunchinginga, second to Mount Everest, and then Junnoo and Kubra, each more than 23,000 feet high. Altogether there are twelve peaks, each more than 20,000 feet high, to be seen at a single glance from the public square of Darjeeling, besides many other little fellows of 10,000 or 12,000 feet. There is no town on the globe with such a magnificent mountain view as this.
GATHERING TEA-LEAVES IN INDIA.
The foot-hills of the Himalayas are admirably adapted to the cultivation of tea, and a great many tea plantations have been established there. On the road from Calcutta to Darjeeling many plantations are passed, and the business of tea culture is increasing every year. The forests of the lower slopes of the mountains are fast disappearing, to make way for the less picturesque tea-plant, and the export of the product amounts to many ship-loads annually. The system of cultivation was introduced from China by the East India Company. The tea-leaves are gathered by women, and it is not unusual to see a woman at work in the field with her baby near her, in a basket, shaded by a friendly bush.
Our friends found a comfortable hotel at Simla, and proceeded at once to learn all they could of the Himalayas. Their new acquaintance, Captain Whitney, was at the same hotel, and proved a most admirable companion and entertainer, as he was able to enlighten the boys on many topics of interest. For a whole day they were kept in doors by a sudden and violent storm, and even on the second day the wind and snow had not subsided sufficiently to enable them to stir out to any advantage. The captain was an excellent talker, and the Doctor and the boys were equally good listeners; with this combination of qualifications the quartette was satisfactorily composed, and got along finely.