of mango, betel, and cocoa-nut. A sbort rude avenue
led to the entrance, under the trees of which a large
bazaar was being h e ld ; stocked with clothes, simple
utensils, ornaments, sweetmeats, fish from the Teesta,
and betel-nuts.
We entered through a guard-house, where were some
of the Rajah’s Sepoys in European costume, and a few
of the Company’s troops, lent to the Rajah as a security
against some of the turbulent pretenders to his title.
Within was a large court-yard flanked by a range of
buildings, some of good stone-work, some of wattle,
in all stages of disrepair. A great crowd of people
occupied one end of the court, and at the other we were
received by the Dewan, and seated on chairs under a
canopy supported by slender silvered columns. Some
slovenly Natch-girls were dancing before us, kicking
up clouds of dust, and singing or rather bawling
through their noses, the usual indelicate hymns in
honour of the Hooli festival; there were also fiddlers,
cutting uncouth capers in rhythm with the dancers.
Anything more deplorable than the music, dancing,
and accompaniments, cannot well be imagined; yet
the people seemed vastly pleased, and extolled the
performers.
The arrival of the Rajah and his brothers was
announced by a crash of tom-toms and trumpets, while
over their heads were carried gilt canopies. With them
came a troop of relations, of all ages; and amongst
them a poor little black girl, dressed in honour of us
in an old-fashioned English chintz frock and muslin
cap, in which she cut the drollest figure imaginable;
she was carried about for our admiration, like a huge
Dutch doll, crying lustily all the time.
The festivities of the evening commenced by handing
round trays full of pith-balls, the size of a nutmeg,
filled with a mixture of flour, sand, and red lac-powder;
with these each pelted his neighbour, the thin covering
bursting as it struck any object, and powdering it
copiously with red dust. A more childish and disagreeable
sport cannot well be conceived; and when
the balls were expended, the dust itself was resorted to,
not only fresh, but that which had already been used
was gathered up, with whatever dirt it might have
become mixed. One rude fellow, with his hand full,
sought to entrap his victims into talking, when he
would stuff the nasty mixture into their mouths.
At the end attar of roses was brought, into which
little pieces of cotton, fixed on slips of bamboo, were
dipped, and given to each person. The heat, dust,
stench of the unwashed multitude, noise, and increasing
familiarity of the lower orders, warned us to retire,
and we effected our retreat with precipitancy.
The Rajah and his brother were very fine boys,
lively, frank, unaffected, and well disposed: they have
evidently a good guide in the old Dewan; but it is
melancholy to think how surely, should they grow up
in possession of their present rank, they will lapse into
slothful habits, and take their place amongst the
imbeciles who now represent the once powerful Rajahs
of Bengal.
We rode back to our tents by a bright moonlight,
very dusty and tired, and heartily glad to breathe