FLOWER FESTIVALS 175 



The narcissus fields and tulip fields vanished 

 — next follows the festival of the roses. The 

 Shalimar Bagh is most frequented on this 

 occasion. Crowds come from the city, bringing 

 their women-folk, their babies, and their birds. 

 Gay family parties gather on the grass chabutras, 

 listening to the plash of the water and the sweet 

 little piping of the birds, or smoking their hookahs 

 and talking endlessly in the shade. Beautiful 

 groups they make : the women with their rose 

 and orange robes and graceful long white veils, 

 and the enchanting Kashmir babies, their fair 

 faces, dark eyes, and curls peeping out from 

 under little bright green caps, from which their 

 large round tinsel earrings dangle. One can 

 hardly tell whether the babies or the flowers they 

 are brought to look at are the prettier. Pink 

 roses grow beside the water, red flowers fill the 

 parterre which with its paved stone walks sur- 

 rounds the zenana baradari. But the loveliest 

 roses in the garden are the Marechal Niels, which 

 climb the grey-green walls of the Hall of Public 

 Audience and hang their soft yellow globes head 

 downward in clusters from the carved cedar 

 cornice. 



It is pleasant to find what a pride and 



