THE DELHI DURBAR.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11511, 18 February 1903, Page 9

THE DELHI DURBAR.

MEDL-EVALISM IN REVIEW. AN EXTRAORDINARY PAGEANT. Tlie London "Daily Mail's"- special correspondent at Delhi sent the following interesting account of the Viceroy's review on January 7th, to which brief reference was made in our cable messages at the time. It was a strange spectacle. DELHI, January 7. The review this morning of the retinues of the ruling chiefs proved the most picturesque incident of the whole durbar. Upwards of 6000 men, of whom nearly 2000 wwe mounted, took part in the march past the Viceroy in tlie amphitheatre. The whole procession lasted two and a half hours, end included all the wonderful implements c. the ceremonials of Hindustan. Elephants there were to the number of nearly 180—considerably in excess of what was anticipated—silver carriages, aud barouches of latest Long Acre model, the Anthalis and No gas, both militant, fanatic societies, giants and dwarfs, men in chain-armour mounted on elephants, cr-mols, and horses, the famous gold and nilver guns belonging to the Gaekwar -f Biiroda,. nautehing horses, salaaming elephante, standards of cloth of gold and satir -of every possible colour, mounted bodyguards of African negroes, caparisoned horses of magnificence of trappings almost, incredible, Imperial troops, private levies, escorts', and bodyguards armed with every weupon from clubs and bows and arrows and greuaihrs through blunderbusses and Sneers to the moslt, modern rifles. Howdahs from the huge gold and silver erections of Patiala to the small blue and silver horse howdah for tlie child heir to the Maharajah of Kota-h, shielda from the niediaival horse furniture of the Rao of Cutch to the rhinoceros hide bucklers of Alwar. Fighting men, some on stilts, some standing on horseback, as they passed, brandishing swords, men bearing maces und spears, decked with peacock! feathers, bottles of Ganges water, and hawks. The Shan State men even bore a full tea service of gold. Camel-guns, umbrellas, palkis, and tondjon or Sedan chairs slung on a single pole, huge horns like the old serpents which used to be played in the village churches of England, yak-tails, boar-spears, sacred books, mirrors, and every instrument of music from cymbals und upwards were borne before the Vioeregal party in a long procession. Now and then men fought mimio battles as they went, horses and elephants salaamed with greater or less success, and finally came the Ladakh devil dance, briefly performed by Kashmiris from Leh, dressed in strange bunchy garments, with, appalling masks. It was remarked by one who knows India well that ten years spent there specially to examine the chiefs' treasure rooms would not have given the same distinct conception of the vagaries of ceremonial still in full vogue throughout the native States. In many cases great expense has been undergone in furbishing up collections, and the general smartness to-day is most creditable, the only hitch being the persistent jibbing in the arena of the near leader of the Maharajah of Patiala's gold and silver carriage, which caused a general stoppage of the procession for ten minutes. Otherwise the ceremony, which was entirely organised by Major Dunlop Smith, ran with the utmost smoothneßS from beginning to end.