By RUDYARD KIPLING ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES   D.   FARRAND [Image unavailable.]   Copyright , 1899 BY R. F. FENNO & COMPANY Letters of Marque....

Of the beginning of Things—Of the Taj and the Globe-Trotter—The Young Man from Manchester and certain Moral Reflections. E XCEPT for those who, under compulsion of a sick certificate, are flying Bombaywards, it is good for every man to see some little of the great Indian Empire and the strange folk who move about it. It is good to escape for a time from the House of Rimmon—be it office or cutchery—and to go abroad under no more exacting master than personal inclination, and with no more definite

Shows the Charm of Rajputana and of Jeypore, the City of the Globe-Trotter—Of its Founder and its Embellishment—Explains the use and destiny of the Stud-Bred, and fails to explain many more important matters. I F any part of a land strewn with dead men’s bones have a special claim to distinction, Rajputana, as the cockpit of India, stands first. East of Suez men do not build towers on the tops of hills for the sake of the view, nor do they stripe the mountain sides with bastioned stone walls to

Does not in any sort describe the Dead City of Amber, but gives detailed information of a Cotton Press. A ND what shall be said of Amber, Queen of the Pass—the city that Jey Singh bade his people slough as snakes cast their skins? The Globe-Trotter will assure you that it must be “done” before anything else, and the Globe-Trotter is, for once, perfectly correct. Amber lies between six and seven miles from Jeypore among the “tumbled fragments of the hills,” and is reachable by so prosaic a convey

The Temple of Mahadeo and the Manners of such as see India—The Man by the Water-Troughs and his Knowledge—The Voice of the City and what it said—Personalities and the Hospital—The House Beautiful of Jeypore and its Builders. F ROM the Cotton Press the Englishman wandered through the wide streets till he came into a Hindu Temple—rich in marble, stone and inlay, and a deep and tranquil silence, close to the Public Library of the State. The brazen bull was hung with flowers, and men were burning th

Of the Sordidness of the Supreme Government on the Revenue Side; and of the Palace of Jeypore—A great King’s Pleasure-House, and the Work of the Servants of State. I NTERNALLY, there is, in all honesty, no limit to the luxury of the Jeypore Museum. It revels in “South Kensington” cases—of the approved pattern—that turn the beholder home-sick, and South Kensington labels, whereon the description, measurements and price of each object, are fairly printed. These make savage one who knows how labell

Showing how Her Majesty’s Mails went to Udaipur and fell out by the Way. A RRIVED at Ajmir, the Englishman fell among tents pitched under the shadow of a huge banian tree, and in them was a Punjabi. Now there is no brotherhood like the brotherhood of the Pauper Province; for it is even greater than the genial and unquestioning hospitality which, in spite of the loafer and the Globe-Trotter, seems to exist throughout India. Ajmir being British territory, though the inhabitants are allowed to carr

Touching the Children of the Sun and their City, and the Hat-marked Caste and their Merits, and a Good Man’s Works in the Wilderness. I T was worth a night’s discomfort and a revolver-bed to sleep upon—this city of the Suryavansi, hidden among the hills that encompass the great Pichola lake. Truly, the King who governs to-day is wise in his determination to have no railroad to his capital. His predecessor was more or less enlightened, and had he lived a few years longer, would have brought the i

Divers Passages of Speech and Action whence the Nature, Arts and Disposition of the King and his Subjects may be observed. I N this land men tell “sad stories of the death of Kings,” not easily found elsewhere; and also speak of sati , which is generally supposed to be an “effete curiosity” as the Bengali said, in a manner which makes it seem very near and vivid. Be pleased to listen to some of the tales, but with all the names cut out, because a King has just as much right to have his family af

Of the Pig-drive which was a Panther-killing, and of the Departure to Chitor. A BOVE the Durbar Gardens lie low hills, in which the Maharana keeps, very strictly guarded, his pig and his deer, and anything else that may find shelter in the low scrub or under the scattered boulders. These preserves are scientifically parcelled out with high red-stone walls; and, here and there, are dotted tiny shooting-boxes, in the first sense of the term—masonry sentry-boxes, in which five or six men may sit at

A little of the History of Chitor, and the Malpractices of a She-elephant. T HERE is a certain want of taste, an almost actual indecency, in seeing the sun rise on the earth. Until the heat-haze begins and the distances thicken, Nature is so very naked that the Actæon who has surprised her dressing, blushes. Sunrise on the plains of Mewar is an especially brutal affair. The moon was burnt out and the air was bitterly cold, when the Englishman headed due east in his tonga, and the patient sowar b

Proves conclusively the Existence of the Dark Tower visited by Childe Rolande, and of “Bogey” who frightens Children. T HE Gamberi river—clear as a trout stream—runs through the waste round Chitor, and is spanned by an old bridge, very solid and massive, said to have been built before the sack of Ala-ud-din. The bridge is in the middle of the stream—the floods have raced round either end of it—and is reached by a steeply sloping stone causeway. From the bridge to the new town of Chitor, which li

Contains the History of the Bhumia of Jharwasa, and the Record of a Visit to the House of Strange Stories. Demonstrates the Felicity of Loaferdom, which is the veritable Companionship of the Indian Empire, and proposes a Scheme for the better Officering of two Departments. C OME away from the monstrous gloom of Chitor and escape northwards. The place is unclean and terrifying. Let us catch To-day by both hands and return to the Station-master—who is also booking-parcels and telegraph-clerk, and

A King’s House and Country. Further Consideration of the Hat-marked Caste. T HE hospitality that spreads tables in the wilderness, and shifts the stranger from the back of the hired camel into the two-horse victoria, must be experienced to be appreciated. To those unacquainted with the peculiarities of the native-trained horse, this advice may be worth something. Sit as far back as ever you can, and, if Oriental courtesy have put an English bit and bridoon in a mouth by education intended for a

Among the Houyhnhnmns. J ODHPUR differs from the other States of Rajputana in that its Royalty are peculiarly accessible to an inquiring public. There are wanderers, the desire of whose life it is “to see Nabobs,” which is the Globe-trotter’s title for any one in unusually clean clothes, or an Oudh Taluqdar in gala dress. Men asked in Jodhpur whether the Englishman would like to see His Highness. The Englishman had a great desire to do so, if His Highness would be in no way inconvenienced. Then

Treats of the Startling Effect of a reduction in Wages and the Pleasures of Loaferdom. Paints the State of the Boondi Road and the Treachery of Ganesh of Situr. “A TWENTY-FIVE per cent. reduction all roun’ an’ no certain leave when you wants it. Of course the best men goes somewhere else. That’s only natural, and ’eres this sanguinary down mail a stickin’ in the eye of the Khundwa down! I tell you, Sir, India’s a bad place—a very bad place. ’Tisn’t what it was when I came out one and thirty year

The Comedy of Errors and the Exploitation of Boondi. The Castaway of the Dispensary and the Children of the Schools. A Consideration of the Shields of Rajasthan and other trifles. I T is high time that a new treaty were made with Maha Rao Raja Ram Singh, Bahadur, Raja of Boondi. He keeps the third article of the old one too faithfully, which says that he “shall not enter into negotiations with anyone without the consent of the British Government.” He does not negotiate at all. Arrived at Boondi

Shows that there may be Poetry in a Bank, and attempts to show the Wonders of the Palace of Boondi. “T HIS is a devil’s place you have come to, Sahib. No grass for the horses, and the people don’t understand anything, and their dirty pice are no good in Nasirabad. Look here!” And Ram Baksh wrathfully exhibited a handful of lumps of copper. The nuisance of taking a native out of his own beat is that he forthwith regards you not only as the author of his being, but of all his misfortunes as well.

Of the Uncivilised Night and the Departure to Things Civilised. Showing how a Friend may keep an Appointment too well. “L ET us go hence, my songs, she will not hear. Let us go hence together without fear!” But Ram Baksh the irrepressible sang it in altogether a baser key. He came by night to the pavilion on the lake, while the sepoys were cooking their fish, and reiterated his whine about the devildom of the country into which the Englishman had dragged him. Padre Martum Sahib would never have

Comes back to the Railway, after Reflections on the Management of the Empire; and so Home again, with apology to all who have read thus far. I N the morning the tonga rattled past Deoli Cemetery into the open, where the Deoli Irregulars were drilling. They marked the beginning of civilisation and white shirts; for which reason they seemed altogether detestable. Yet another day’s jolting, enlivened by the philosophy of Ram Baksh, and then came Nasirabad. The last pair of ponies suggested serious