142 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



useless as breadwinners for the hungry little ones, pre- 

 ferred to die quickly rather than by starvation, and 

 sank with their boats, so literally it was on the " bones 

 of men " that the fair islet and its pretty shrines were 

 raised. 



Now the heartless fair one is as dead as the 

 poor lake dwellers, and the pavilions and trees that once 

 graced the island are alike decayed and falling into their 

 final annihilation. Their last inhabitant, an ancient 

 fakir, who dwelt in the hollow trunk of one of the 

 decaying chenaars, has also passed away. Landing, I 

 misdoubted me whether the cruel queen had much 

 satisfaction in the gratification of her whim; such 

 fancies seldom are worth their cost; and if the mos- 

 quitoes in her day had anything like the strength of 

 jaw and tenacity of purpose of their present-day 

 descendants, afternoons in her " pleasant paradise " 

 could not have been entirely without some purgatorial 

 tincture. 



From this islet there is a clear stretch of lake, 

 and then one enters the canal leading up 

 straight to the Shalimar Bagh, " the garden of 

 love," largest of all the emperor's gardens, but 

 though the pavilions are handsomer, built of fine 

 black marble and ornamented with much painting, 

 it is not comparable for beauty to the Nishat Bagh. 

 Vast plantations of small pink Persian roses, grown for 

 attar of roses, and the overgrown beds of carnations 

 and lilies filled the air with sweet perfumes, and parties 

 of natives roaming about, clad in the bright colours 

 affected by city folk, or sitting in groups together, sang 

 in gayer tones than I had ever heard from natives, and 

 as we returned they challenged us from their boats with 



