AN ODD PROCESSION. 135 



carrying the bears. They look enormous ; each is slung 

 on two poles borne on the shoulders of eight or ten men. 



Several men with flaming torches light up the scene. 



December 2nd. — A most determined downpour which 

 stopped all shooting, and lasted till evening. The other 

 day the Raja asked if I would like to see the old palace, 

 and this seemed a good opportunity to go. It stands on 

 the other side of the old town, and is most picturesquely 

 situated on the edge of the cliff. The Raja told me that 

 his grandfather's widows live there. These boys are so 

 English that it is difficult always to remember that they 

 have social customs we have not, amongst others a plurality 

 of wives ; and when I stupidly asked " How many ? " it- 

 was with a confused idea floating through my brain that 

 his grandfather might somehow have married twice. His 

 simple answer " Sixteen," so startled me that I could only 

 just stammer out how much pleasure it would give me to 

 make their acquaintance. 



This afternoon I started, attended by nearly all our 

 household, including the cook, who never allows himself 

 to be left out of anything, and now accompanies me in a 

 dazzling white turban and long blue dressing-gown reach- 

 ing to his heels. I am obliged to take the ayah, to act as 

 interpreter, and she appeared in a gorgeous costume of red, 

 yellow and blue. Alan's man turned out in the correct 

 evening dress of an English butler, which contrasts queerly 



