silver bangles and
anklets; their turbans and swords sparkled with jewels, and the air in
their neighbourhood was laden with the scents of Araby.

Behind us sat the Parsees and their women-folk, soberly clad in European
dress; they are intelligent looking people with pleasant cheery manners,
I would like to see more of them. Their fire-worship interests me, for
it was till lately our own religion, and I even to-day know of an old
lady in an out-of-the-way corner of our West Highlands who, till quite
recently, went through various genuflexions every morning--old forms of
fire-worship--as the sun rose; and in the Outer Isles we have still
many remains of our fore-fathers' worship woven into the untruthful
jingling rhymes of the monks.[5]

[5] See "Carmina Gadelica, the Treasure House, Hymns and Incantations of
Highlands and Islands," collected by Alexander Carmichael, 1900, and
there also the pre-Christian game and fishing laws of Alba.

Through the pillars of the Shamiana we could see lines of white helmets
of troops, and beyond them the crowds of natives in bright dresses,
banked against the houses and in groups in the trees, a kaleidoscope of
colour. Past this came a whirl of Indian cavalry with glittering sabres,
and the Prince and Princess came on to the dais--more brightly dressed
than they were in Oxford Street three weeks ago, the Prince in a white
naval uniform with a little gold and a white helmet, an uncommonly
becoming dress though so simple; the Princess in the palest pink with a
suggestion of darker pink showing through, and a deep rose between hat
and hair. A tubby native in frock coat and brown face and little pink
turban held a mushroom golden umbrella near the Prince and Princess, not
over them, it really was not needed for there were clouds, and the light
was just pleasant. The Prince then "laid" the stone--that is, some
natives slackened the tackle, and it came down all square--and he and
the Princess talked to the Personages in attendance and various City
Dignitaries. First, I should have said, the Prince read a speech which
seemed to me to cover the ground admirably. I forget what he said now,
but you could hear every word. He had notes, but I think he spoke by
heart. I made a careful picture of it all; red decorations, green grass,
Prince and Princess, and the golden umbrella, but it is gone, lost--gone
where pins go, I suppose.

You should have heard the people cheering, and seen the running to