OODEYPORE P RUCKS. 309 



sides of the adjacent hills. No doubt in the days of match- 

 locks this formed a formidable obstacle. 



Shortly after driving under an arched and fortified 

 gate the hills recede, and you enter a wild and fertile valley. 

 Some miles farther, and near the opposite mountains, is the 

 city of Oodeypore. Colonel Miles, the Political Agent, has 

 kindly asked us to stay with him, and we drove straight to 

 the Eesidency, a nice house covered with lovely Marechal 

 Niel roses. 



February 2\st. — The Maharaja sent this morning to in- 

 quire after us, and asked Alan to meet him at the palace. 

 The Oodeypore princes are of the oldest family in India, and 

 claim descent from the Sun. During the generations they 

 have been dwellers on our earth they can boast of many 

 distinguished and less mythical ancestors, and arc un- 

 doubtedly descended by marriage from the ancient kings of 

 Persia and the later Roman emperors. The State has been 

 ruled by the present dynasty since the eighth century. But 

 of course the line was not unbroken, and owes its continuity 

 to the ancient Hindoo custom of adoption — failing male 

 issue. The adopted son is always of the same tribe, and 

 generally of the same family as the ruling Maharaja ; but, 

 like the Kotah Raja I have before mentioned, may often 

 have passed his youth in obscurity, or been little higher 

 than a peasant in the social scale. 



The present Maharaja of Oodeypore is himself the 



