318 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



that his chair had been placed below one of those he 

 characterises as upstarts. At first he resolved to return 

 home ; but this official, whose duty it was to arrange the 

 ceremony, represented to him the difficulty of reconciling 

 conflicting interests, and pointed out that his absence from 

 the Durbar would be an insult to his Empress. He 

 acquiesced and remained, but stipulated that he should lie 

 allowed to stand. It should never be said that a king of 

 Oodeypore sat below Rajas of lower lineage. And, although 

 he was an old man, my informant told me he remained 

 standing throughout a ceremony of many hours' duration. 



One cannot help admiring the loyalty and stubbornness 

 of the old Rajpoot prince ; but I confess that some of the 

 stories I have heard of Hindoo Rajas' struggles for pre- 

 cedence savour more of the trickery of a schoolboy. One 

 Raja had to be severely admonished for a juggle of this 

 description tried on his Political Agent. This officer repre- 

 sents the Viceroy, and sits on an equality with the Raja, to 

 whose Court he is accredited. And this particular Raja, in 

 order to boast that he sat higher than the " Agent Sahib," 

 prepared him a special chair, with legs cut an inch lower 

 than his own. 



February 23rd. — Alan drove off with the Maharaja to 

 shoot some jungles twelve miles away. I was taken to see 

 the jail, where a peculiar and rather pretty cotton carpet is 

 made. We then went round the quarters of the female 



