12 A Sportswoman in India 



us by the Maharajah and his orderly officer. His 

 Royal Highness was twenty-five years old, though 

 I should have put him down as at least ten years 

 older ; but those who have been born to absolute 

 power, who have never known a thwarted desire, 

 and who have been reared under the fiercest sun 

 in the world, age even more quickly than the ordinary 

 sons of the East, who are self-possessed men when 

 they should be bashful babies. Kapurthalah spoke 

 French as well as English, and was dressed like 

 a sahib, except that he wore a vast turban and a 

 diamond brooch. We sat down and talked for a 

 short time, until we suggested that we must not 

 detain our visitors any longer, without which intimation 

 an Oriental does not take his leave. Ten minutes later 

 three of our party drove over to the Palace, and 

 having returned the call, we had tiffin by ourselves in 

 our ornate octagonal dining-room. Later on an orderly 

 officer called and invited us to the Palace for tennis 

 a strange " At Home " of turbans and black faces. 

 The Ranee (Princess) Canari was our hostess ; formerly 

 a hill girl, she is the Maharajah's " newest " wife, 

 and in coming out of Purdah has of course lost all 

 caste and all respect in the eyes of the unenlightened 

 native. She had had a little] education, spoke French, 

 and wore Parisian gowns. The other wives were 

 strictly Purdah women ; the Maharanee herself 

 had been married to the Maharajah at eleven years 

 old, when he was thirteen. Mohammedans are, of 

 course, polygamists, and they look upon marriages 



