i6o SPORT AND TRAVEL 



yellow flowers woven into their hair and hanging 

 about their tunics, and all silently and respectfully 

 awaiting our appearance. Perry and I gazed at the 

 array in dumb astonishment, and the Baltis quietly 

 gazed back. Even then I do not think we realized 

 what were to be the far-reaching results of our 

 guileless words of the previous evening ; but we were 

 not left long in doubt, for Kadera and Salia, coming 

 up and salaaming, informed us that these few un- 

 worthy people had come to do honor to the Bara 

 Maharajah Sahib. Indeed, if the size of that gath- 

 ering was a criterion, he was to be fitly received. 



But this was not all. If the over-night transfor- 

 mation of our quiet and unpopulated camp-ground 

 was the work of some genius of the Arabian Nights, 

 he had still further wonders in reserve ; for at that 

 moment a splendid jet-black stallion appeared at 

 the end of the clearing, upon which was seated a 

 magnificent personage clad in long flowing robes of 

 white linen, with red slippers and flower- wreathed 

 cap. Was this perhaps Aladdin, or the good genius 

 himself, who had appeared in guise appropriate to 

 the surrounding scene and was about to ring up the 

 curtain on some marvellous entertainment? The 

 shikaris soon enlightened us. Helping him dismount 

 and leading him to the tent, where he salaamed be- 

 fore us, they introduced him as the Rajah of Shigar, 



