HINDOO AND ENGLISH PEASANT LADS : A CONTRAST. 25 



gold by planting on either side of the road little coloured 

 cotton flags about the size of a pocket-handkerchief. These 

 decorations, we learn, are part of the stock-in-trade of the 

 State, and will be moved bodily to the next place of recep- 

 tion, whilst the Maharaja rests for the night, As an extra 

 mark of respect, the mountain road for many miles had been 

 carefully swept ; except of course in the places where it was 

 washed away. 



The Nawab of Uri and his attendants were galloping 

 about on little fat long-tailed ponies, and on either side of 

 the road numerous ekkas, drawn up and crowded with 

 spectators, awaited the show. Two little boys, sons of the 

 Nawab, dressed in bright-coloured velvet tunics beautifully 

 embroidered with gold, were seated near us, and a little 

 incident strikingly exemplified the easy self-possession and 

 seeming independence of bearing which are so curiously 

 blended with abject servility in the Hindoo. Seated on the 

 ground, close to the Nawab's sons, and carrying on with 

 them on apparently equal terms an animated and laughing 

 conversation, were two half-naked little peasant boys, the 

 children of some coolie or labourer. One could not help 

 thinking how ill at ease an English country lad would have 

 been under similar conditions ; of his short churlish answers 

 and painful shyness, mingled with rugged independence 

 scarcely distinguishable from boorishness. Yet in India 

 etiquette is perhaps more strictly observed, and the grada- 



