146 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
parent, but was consulted by him upon every pressing 
emergency. Although 
She never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquors to her blood, 
she was of a fiery and daring spirit, and her father 
scarcely regretted being without a son, that paramount 
blessing of all Rajpoot marriages, in having a daughter 
so pre-eminently possessing the high moral energies of 
her race. 
This extraordinary woman had been sought in 
marriage by many a bold aspirant, though none of the 
chiefs in her immediate vicinity had succeeded in se- 
curing her affections. Her beauty and vigour of mind 
were the theme of every tongue. 
Her forehead some fair moon, her brows a bow. 
Love’s pointed darts her piercing eye-beams glow ; 
Her breath adds fragrance to the morning air ; 
At once the lover’s hope and his despair ; — 
Her teeth pomegranate seeds ; her smiles soft lightnings are. 
Her feet like leaves of lotus on the lake 
When with the passing breeze they gently shake ; 
Her movements graceful as the swan that laves 
His snowy plumage on the rippling waves .* 
It happened that the beautiful Rajpootni was one 
day hunting in company with her father when a 
tiger, darting from a thicket, sprang upon her horse 
and thus put her life in immediate jeopardy. Instead 
of exhibiting any of the ordinary fears of her sex, 
she hastily shook her raven locks from her temples, 
and with her head undauntedly raised, her lips com- 
* Brough ton J s translations from the Popular Poetry of the 
Hindoos. 
