202 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



with cheetahs is rather poor sport. The leopard, hooded, is 

 taken in a bullock-cart as near as possible to the herd of 

 antelopes ; then unhooded and loosed. He either catches 

 the buck in two or three tremendous bounds, or, if he fails, 

 lies down and sulks. His keeper then runs up and pacifies 

 him with that universal food of men and beasts — the Indian 

 fowl. It began to pour with rain to-night again, and con- 

 tinued steadily all the next day. 



Saturday.- — We left Lahore by the 8 a.m. train, arrived 

 at Amritza about noon, and drove at once to the Golden 

 Temple. This city might almost be called the Sikh Rome, 

 although those Hindoo Puritans are a decade of centuries 

 after the Popes. At all events, it is their Holy City, and 

 the Golden Temple the Holy of Holies. Even European 

 visitors are required to take off their shoes before entering, 

 and this rule is very properly sanctioned by the Indian 

 Government, which everywhere impartially respects its 

 subjects' religious prejudices. 



The Temple, built in a tank, in the middle of a large 

 open square, is not a striking specimen of Hindoo archi- 

 tecture, and I fancy owes much of its celebrity to the 

 glamour of its name. I regret to record that the gold is 

 pinchbeck, or rather the yellow plates with which roof and 

 walls are covered are copper gilt. 



This little carping criticism disposed of, I cannot find 

 words to describe the oriental beauty of the scene. We can 



