£3700 SHOWER OF COINS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 10189, 29 December 1925, Page 3

£3700 SHOWER OF COINS

MAD SCRAMBLE AT FUNERAL

CROWD SWARMS OVER MOTOR CAR.

Extraordinary scenes attended tlxs funeral of tho Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Pratab Singh. In the procession, Avjhich Avas heralacd by tho firing of guns and the beating of muffled drums, Avere the Maharajah’s 60 beautiful horses, richly caparisoned •in crimson velvet. A group of hoys dedicated to the priesthood and dressed in yellow chanted mournfully as the body, on its Avonderfully decked bier, Avas carriecl to the sandal Avood pyre on which it Avas burned.

During the procession great excitement was caused by the distribution of rupees amounting to about £3700 among the crowd. The coins Avere scattered right and left along the whole route by State officials.

Man, Avomen and children, madly scrambled for the “backsheesh. ' Women had their hair torn off, clothes Avere ripped and in the general struggle for the coins many of the weaker spectators Avere trampled underfoot. Some of the people were almost mad. At one spot, Avhere European motor cars and pony traps Avere parked, a hand full of rupees fell on the roof of one of the ears in which Avere several European women.

The mob scrambled furiously up the side of the car on to the roof, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that they were beaten off by the men of the motoring party. In another instance a shoAver of coins fell in a pony-trap containing tAvo women. So violent was the rush to get the rupees that the trap Avould have been overturned if a mounted guard had not dispersed the croAvd at the point of the SAVord. The ashes of the Maharajah were aftenvards placed in the holy river, tho Ganges.