tHlRTY-FIVfe YEARS IN THE EAST. I77 



illuminated , and Sheer Sing honoured me with his com- 

 mands that we should accompany him, sending us a richly 

 caparisoned elephant for our accommodation. Sheer Sing 

 inquired of my friend, Ilerr Schofft, if he could take for 

 him a drawing of that brilliant scene. He answered in the 

 affirmative, but proposed to the maharajah that it would 

 be better if the scene was sketched under the effect of 

 daylight instead of the imperfect one of the illumination. 

 He was accordingly ordered to adopt that suggestion. On 

 the following morning we went to the house of the Baii 

 Goormuck Sing, who had promised, on the previous evening, 

 to send a servant to point out to us the most elevated terrace 

 in the square ( which was in the mansion of Runjeet Sing ), 

 from which Herr Schofft could get a view of the temple 

 and the surrounding buildings ; on this place he prepared 

 his atelier. He occupied the whole of the day in sketching 

 the scene, and on the following day he also went there, but 

 alone, to continue his work. About noon, having that 

 morning received some newspapers from my native place, 

 Kronstadt, I went to him, and he desired me to read to 

 him the news whilst he was painting. About an hour be- 

 fore sunset, his work was nearly finished, and as the court 

 had already departed for Lahore, whither we wished also 

 to proceed immediately, he requested me to go to our 

 quarters and to procure some boxes in which he could en- 

 close his paintings. Our quarters were outside the city, in 

 a garden formerly belonging to the prince No-Nehal Sing. 

 When I reached home I immediately forwarded to him a 

 horse and servants, as he had told me he should finish his 

 painting within an hour after I had left him. 



Herr Schofft was a great smoker, and attracted attention 

 in Umritsir from his scarcely ever being seen abroad with- 

 out having a cigar in his mouth. Now smoking is con- 

 sidered by the Nahungs and the Sikhs as sinful, or rather 

 criminal ; more especially in or near such a holy place 

 as their chief sanctuary ; Herr Schofft was aware of this, 

 and therefore studiously avoided smoking whilst engaged 

 in taking this sketch, It happened however, that, as is 



