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About the lime of his daughter's wedding, Futty Sihng paid 

 a visit to the officers of the Bengal detachment, then encamped 

 near Brodera. He wished to consult them upon an inlended 

 alteration in his artillery, and to be present at the experiment. 

 The chieftain left the durbar on a state elephant, and the custom- 

 ary cavalcade : arriving at the bottom of the eminence where the 

 field-pieces were mounted, it was found the elephant could not 

 ascend, and there being no palanquin at hand, the prince of the 

 Guicawars was compelled to alight, and walk a few yards to the 

 summit, to the astonishment of the attendants, who thought it 

 derogatory to his dignity. On advancing, the chopdars, or heralds, 

 proclaimed the titles of this princely cow-keeper in the usual 

 hyperbolical style. One of the most insignificant looking men I 

 ever saw then became the destroyer of nations, the leveller of 

 mountains, the exhauster of the ocean. After commanding every 

 inferior mortal to make way for this exalted prince, the heralds 

 called aloud to the animal creation, Retire, ye serpents; fly, ye 

 locusts; approach not, guanas, lizards, and reptiles, while }'our lord 

 and master condescends to set his foot on the earth. 



Arrogant as this language may appear, it is less so than that 

 of oriental pageantry in general. In a translation from the Sanscrit, 

 Mr. Wilkins mentions an eastern monarch " whose innumerable 

 army, Avhen it moved, so filled the heavens with the dust of their feet, 

 that the birds of the air could rest upon it. His elephants moved 

 like walking mountains; and the earth, oppressed by their weight 

 mouldered into dust/' The sacred writings afford many instances of 

 such hyperbole: none more so than Hushai's speech to Absalom. 

 " Thou knowest that king David, thy father, and his men, that 



