CHAPTER XXIII.

JEYPORE.

JEYPORE, January 25, 1890.

Our party arrived here on the 23d instant, and permission was obtained from the Rajah, who has the reputation of being the most enlightened ruler in India, to visit his palaces and grounds; and very magnificent we found them. The palace was very large, and fitted up in a costly manner. We were admitted everywhere, except to a big building occupied by his three hundred wives. We then went to see fifty elephants in different places, each tied by the legs; and then we visited the tiger cages, a dozen of them, each containing a savage fellow. We then went to the stables and saw four hundred blooded horses from all parts of the world. The custodian in charge of the stable said that if I wanted to hunt tigers the Rajah would be pleased to loan me a horse, and I would be sure to find a tiger from two to six miles from the city wall. The Rajah was good enough to loan us four of his biggest elephants, and in the afternoon we sent them outside the city wall with a photographer. We followed in a carriage and had photographs taken, and afterwards mounted the elephants, four on each, and rode two miles farther to a country palace of the Rajah, and to the ruins of an ancient city, where were formerly great castles, reminding one of Germany and the Rhine. We spent an hour looking over the castle, which is very costly and splendid. On the road and around the palace we were amused by the antics of numerous monkeys and the beauty of flocks of peacocks running wild all over, the screaming of parrots, etc. We then mounted our elephants to return. The one I was on looked as large as Jumbo. Meanwhile my friend, Mr. Jackson of Manchester, who is a great walker and dislikes the motion of the elephant, had ten minutes before started to walk to the carriages, a distance of two miles. He had nearly reached them, when he met a lady and gentleman, who proved to be an English doctor and his wife. They bowed and said "Good-day," but had not passed on ten paces before they came running back. The doctor took hold of Jackson and said, "Look on top of the wall!" (a stone wall laid in cement five feet high). "And so you went within two yards of yonder tiger!" Jackson looked and saw the big head and paws of a large tiger resting on top of the wall, and then he ran away toward the carriages. Meanwhile, Mr. Kolish, who was on the elephant ahead, had seen the tiger in the field, and shouted to me to look at him, but he went away very quickly, and I saw nothing but a movement in the brush. All this took place before we knew Mr. Jackson had seen the beast. There were six natives with each elephant, and they were much excited and said the tiger must be very hungry, as one seldom came so near the city, and he would most likely get a kid or a man before morning.

I have been more interested in this city, where I have seen only native faces, than in any other in India, and would be glad to spend some weeks here.

The main avenues are one hundred feet wide, lighted by gas, and having water supplied by pumping works. They are lined with beautiful public and private buildings, and crowded with traffic, numerous caravans of camels coming and going loaded with stone, cotton bales, and all kinds of goods.

This morning we went to the Museum, a large and splendid edifice erected by the present Rajah. As an architectural triumph I know of nothing superior anywhere. It is of white and colored marble from base to dome; and the contents no adjectives can describe. Lovely! charming! splendid! Costly goods from Oriental countries, owned and arranged by the Rajah Mahara Swai Madhosingh.

Over the arched entrance to the exhibition rooms sentences were painted, taken from native books; for instance:

"How much soever one may study science, If you do not act right, you are ignorant."

"By contentment make me rich, For without that there is no wealth."

"Rectitude is the means of pleasing God: I never saw any one lost on a straight road."

We are comfortably lodged in a hotel called a bungalow, which is owned by the Rajah and conducted by a native. I was amused at one of the printed notices in the dining-room, which was: "If visitors are not satisfied with the food or cooking, they can deduct from the bill what they consider fair"; an excellent notice, which I recommend for adoption by hotels elsewhere. In another hotel I saw the following: "Guests are requested not to strike the servants"; and "Guests wishing ice are requested to give a day's notice, and name how much they require."

I walked up the street to look at a hunting tiger with hoods over his eyes, and tied to a tree, and while leaning up against a bungalow gate, a fine-looking young Indian, mounted on a splendid Arabian horse, interviewed me, much as an American newspaper man would have done: Where did I come from? What was my profession? and What was I in Jeypore for?

I told him something of our country, the number of people, the miles of railroads and telegraph wires, the size of New York and Chicago--in all of which he was much interested. I then interviewed him and asked him who he was, and he replied that he was Colonel Fyaz, commander of a regiment of native troops. He could talk the English, Hindoo, Persian, and Oude languages, was delighted to see an American, and asked me where I learned to speak English. He seemed surprised to learn that it was the language of the United States of America.

After a long conversation he asked for my card and invited me to call at his quarters, saying that he would be glad to show me about the city.