A SIKH ON THE DURBAR

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1626, 29 April 1903, Page 69 (Supplement)

A SIKH ON THE DURBAR

It is well to see ourselves as others see us ami the account given by a cor respondent at Delhi of the Calcutta Englishman," of the impression created, on the mind of an olcL iSikii by the Duibai in general and a polo match in paiticulai is worth recording. Premising his statement by the remark that tiie aie oi expressing thought, oi' cultivating language, is pursued in India with a carefulness that is impossible in Europe, and that conversation is regarded as a science, a knowledge of winch is absolutely requisite to gentlemen, the correspondent goes on to give the old S'ikli’s comments. a.s follow :

‘‘Yes/'' lie said, “the imagination fails to conceive the tiling, even when it is before our eyes*. Is it only polo that you see, or the whole CJraine of .Life, with Delhi as the board, and Kings and Princesses as the pieces ? X have lived long and seen ranch —marriages and fcastings, the killing of men. dentil, and with it shame or honour. Ere this I could on each new occasion jn’oduce the tale of a similar gone before. But” he pointed to the far end, where the spent riders contended for the ball, ami them glanced at the wonderful crowd of W e stern and Eastern aristocracy, which watched or watched not. according to individual humour. “But where is the occasion parallel to this? Polo. I love the game, and ride in it, even, with my years numbered as they are. But what is the game to-day compared with the spectators who watch it? It is not the multitude that astonishes, but the quality oi; it. Royalty watches behind the barriers. It is as if one took the battered polo ball and wrapped it in a cloth of silk/* “Tell me now/ 1 said, “what is it in particular that fixes your imagination? Is it that you conceive that every person on this embankment is of the blood royal ? Half are English people who make no such claim. They are merely well educated and well bred/'’

“All Englishmen have the nature of kings. Book at that stripling talking to my Maharaja. Who is he? To me it is enough that he has been entrusted to lead a troop in a regiment of British horse. There is that tall lady in a blue dress. She is fairer than the daughters of a hundred kings 1 / - ’ The Sikhs alcme among the races of India talk of women in that_natural and easy way which is common to Europeans. “The scene/-’ I said, “would be twenty times as enticing were the daughters of your kings' here/ - ’ The old man laughed. “There are daughters in my house. Were they here, do you think it would be enough for them to sip tea and wear satins? By the beard of Guru Govind, they would, demand to ride horses and play polo. Such, is the blood of the Sikhs. Know ye not the story of the* Rani of Raewiqd. wbo freed woman from the Zenan-kana and found her caught in the* greater bondage of the love of horse and sword ?” “The horse/-’ Avent on the Sikh, “is the instrument of victory. Without him man is a poor creature that walks and is without swiftness or strength. The horse and music. These are the two* things that fire us with manliness. There has never been air A a concourse of sound fn harmony. If the European had done nothing else he would still have deserved' our gratitude for bringing into India a correct sense of sound. Our native music is all but one nofe. It is like the beating of a drum, which stirs only a corner of the brain. But this, this is the music of the gods. There is one here who is charged with the duty *of writing the history of this Durbar', let him always put in it the thunder of the horses and always the note of music. Thus only can the epic of the Durbar 1 be written/