QUADRUPEDS. 41 



have superseded the uses of this great living engine. It is 

 still, however, extensively used in the East for a variety of 

 purposes, and Bernier in his Travels has given a spirited de- 

 scription of a grand procession of Aurengzebe's retinue. 

 The conveyance of the " lovely and distinguished females" 

 seems chiefly to have attracted the observance of the lively 

 Frenchman. " I cannot avoid," he observes, " dwelling on 

 this pompous procession of the seraglio. It strongly ar- 

 rested my attention during the late march, and I feel de- 

 light in recalling it to my memory. Stretch imagination to 

 its utmost limits, and you can conceive no exhibition more 

 grand and imposing than when Rochinara Begum (Aureng- 

 zebe's sister), mounted on a stupendous Pegu elephant, and 

 seated in a mik-dember blazing with gold and azure, is fol- 

 lowed by five or six other elephants with mik-dembers 

 nearly as resplendent as her own, and filled with ladies at- 

 tached to her household. Close to the princess are the 

 chief eunuchs, richly adorned and finely mounted, each 

 with a cane in his hand ; and, surrounding her elephant, a 

 troop of female servants from Tartary and Cashmere, fan- 

 tastically attired, and riding handsome pad-horses. Besides 

 these attendants are several eunuchs on horseback, accom- 

 panied by a multitude of pagys or lackeys on foot, with large 

 canes, who advance a great way before the princess both to 

 the right and to the left, for the purpose of clearing the 

 road and driving before them every intruder. Immediately 

 behind Rochinara Begum's retinue appears a principal lady 

 of the court, mounted and attended much in the same man- 

 ner as the princess. This lady is followed by a third ; she 

 by a fourth ; and so on, until fifteen or sixteen females of 

 quality pass, with a grandeur of appearance, equipage, and 

 retinue more or less proportionate to their rank, pay, and 

 office. There is something very impressive of state and 

 royalty in the march of these sixty or more elephants, in 

 their solemn and, as it were, measured steps ; in the splen- 

 dour of their mik-dembers, and the brilliant and innumera- 

 ble followers in attendance : and, if I had not regarded this 

 display of magnificence with a sort of philosophical indif- 

 ference, I should have been apt to be carried away by the 

 similar flights of imagination as inspire most of the Indian 

 poets, when they represent the elephants as conveying as 

 many goddesses concealed from vulgar gaze.' 



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