162 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



the Rajah had brought with him, struck up a fright- 

 ful native march, and off we moved down the valley, 

 as imposing an army as ever went out to 'welcome 

 a foreign monarch. 



If the cavalcade had been effective at the outset, 

 it was infinitely more so by the time we reached the 

 top of the mountain above the Bara Maharajah 

 Sahib's camp and began filing slowly downwards 

 toward the plain. For from every village through 

 which we had passed, and we had wended our way 

 through a goodly number of them, the Rajah had 

 ordered the inhabitants into line behind us, so that 

 the escort had swelled to monstrous proportions, and 

 as each separate village had contributed its brass 

 band, the noise, when all of them broke at the same 

 moment into discordant keys, was positively over- 

 powering. 



Far down in the valley a small blue speck stood 

 beside what looked like a couple of white handker- 

 chiefs and levelled a pair of field-glasses in our di- 

 rection: it was the Bara Maharajah Sahib beside 

 his tents, examining in consternation and incom- 

 prehension the formidable array on the mountain- 

 side. Slowly we zigzagged down the mountain-trail, 

 like a monstrous serpent, with the bands braying 

 frightfully and the Baltis hurrying forward in their 

 eagerness to see the foreign potentate ; and all this 



