Jan. 24, 1914. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
105 
The Enchanted Lake—An Idyl of Ind 
A Story of Lake Chilka, A Beautiful Inland Sea 
“The Lady Moon is my lover, 
My friends are the oceans four, 
The heavens have roofed me over 
And the dawn is my golden door; 
I would liefer follow the condor 
Or the sea-gull, soaring from ken, 
Than bury my godhead yonder 
In the dust of the whirl of men.” 
Sweet memories are as balm to the soul and 
stand forth like landmarks in life’s handicap. It 
is as good to live again in remembrance the 
pleasures that have been as to revel in those that 
are. So I want to tell of some happy days, “far 
from the madding crowd” and the work-a-day 
world, under the blue arch of a tropical sky, by 
the shores and upon the waters of an enchanted 
lake. 
Some hundreds of miles south of Calcutta 
and close to the east coast of India lies the Lake 
of Chilka, a beautiful inland sea. On the one 
shore is a mere spit of wave-heaped sand some 
hundred yards wide, separating the lake from the 
Bay of Bengal, through which is a narrow chan¬ 
nel guarded by a bar over which, at low tide, the 
breakers tumble viciously. On the other hand is 
a varying panorama of virgin forest and rolling 
upland, of green rice-field and rocky promono- 
tory, and back of all the blue-grey mountain 
ranges. 
Beautiful lagoons are strung along the 
shores, with every here and there a silvery beach 
shining out from among the shadows. The rip¬ 
pling surface of the water, dancing with a mil¬ 
lion lights in the rays of the sun, is dotted with 
numbers of islands, some smilingly soft-hued in 
a cloak of verdant green, some frowningly for- 
nidding from a jumbled height of bare boulders, 
some again mysterious with the shadows of pri¬ 
meval forest. A hundred and fifty square miles 
of this-—and the rack and the roar of town and 
city far, far away. 
In the course of my wanderings in that fair 
Land of Ind it was my good-fortune to possess 
the friendship of His Highness Sri Hari Hara 
Mardaraja Deo, the Rajah of Kallikote and At- 
agada, a prince who was a prince of good-fellows 
and good-sportsmen. His territory lies around 
the shores of the Lake of Chilka and includes 
many miles of the surrounding country, and here 
it was that the good Rajah’s hospitality enabled 
me to enjoy one of the pleasantest experiences 
of my life. 
Far from the nearest white man and free 
from all restraint, camped in some beautiful 
glade on mainland or island, often beside some 
silvery stream tumbling joyously over its rocky 
way, sometimes sailing fleetly over the blue 
waters of the lake in boat or canoe, sometimes 
searching out the secrets of the forest with rifle 
and gun; so the happy days passed. 
I had gone to the Rajah after a season of 
strenuous work in need of a well-earned holiday 
and in search of some sport. His palace of 
Rambha lies at the southern extremity of the 
lake in all its glory of marble columns and its 
ranges of zenana buildings, stables and retainers’ 
quarters, and here was I entertained right royally 
for a while. 
In the heat of mid-day His Highness and I 
would lie at our ease in his shaded apartment, 
fanned by attendants and sipping cooling drinks, 
By Inman-Emery 
while we gossiped of my doings and experiences 
in other parts of the land and of many other 
princes who were mutual friends. In the morn¬ 
ings and afternoons we would ride or drive, 
followed by half-a-dozen scarlet-tuniced sowars, 
with lances and streaming pennons, as a body¬ 
guard. These usually proved strenuous excur¬ 
sions, for His Highness’ private stable included 
so many horses that they must needs be in a con¬ 
stant condition of extreme freshness. 
Sometimes we would motor for miles along 
the only road—but a good one at that—shaded 
throughout its length by huge overhanging ban¬ 
yan trees among the branches of which the 
monkeys swung and chattered and spat their ex¬ 
postulations at us, now and then plucking and 
hurling at us a cocoanut from some neighboring 
palm. 
Sometimes, in the cool of the evening, we 
would make a trip up the lake on the Rajah's 
beautiful launch, the Lady of Chilka, with at¬ 
tendants galore and iced hampers filled with 
dainty cakes and native confections, and a good 
brand of champagne wherewith to wash them 
down. For His Highness, a Hindu chief, with 
only myself as a companion and away from the 
curious eyes of his people, his guards and his 
palaces, ever unbent and threw orthodoxy to the 
winds. 
Sometimes we would mount the Rajah's fa¬ 
vorite elephant, with its gorgeous howda of rare 
woods ornamented with solid silver, and wander 
off along some lonely path into the seclusion of 
the jungle as we smoked our fragrant cigars. 
One day it was the Rajah’s birthday, on 
which occasion it was his custom to distribute 
largesse to his people. There were other guests 
besides myself, and in the evening a great ban¬ 
quet was provided at which the duty of doing 
the honors devolved upon me, since a Hindu of 
high caste may not sit at meat with those be¬ 
yond the pale. The final ceremony was late at 
night, when the Rajah and his retainers went in 
procession to the principal temple to make offer¬ 
ings and do pcoja, to the accompaniment of much 
weird music and the discharge of fireworks. We 
guests were invited to join in and, mounted on 
elephants, viewed the scene from our alloted 
places in the procession. The ceremony at the 
temple over, I proposed an elephant race back to 
the palace, which suggestion was received with 
acclamation. We were all more or less un¬ 
happy, however, by the time the palace was 
reached, for an elephant’s racing gait, far from 
being comfortable, is calculated rather to dis¬ 
locate one’s vertebrae and send one’s head spin¬ 
ning from off one’s shoulders! 
Happy days! After a while His Highness 
was called away to some portion of his estate in 
the back-of-beyond, so he charged me to take the 
launch and the sailing-boat and the house-boat 
and the tents, to betake myself whithersoever I 
pleased and enjoy myself and to find all the 
sport that heart could desire. He loaded the 
house-boat with stores and provisions, told off a 
cook and an innumerable retinue of servants to 
wait upon me, insisted upon my sending for any¬ 
thing else I might require, and dismissed me with 
his blessing. 
Thus, one fine day the fleet set sail and stood 
away slowly up the lake. I felt something like 
Columbus must have felt, as the palace of Ramb¬ 
ha gradually receded from sight and I set my 
face northward on my voyage of discovery. 
The Rajah has two palaces, one at Kallikote, 
the capital, back in a hilly fastness, and the 
other, as I have said, at Rambha, on the shores 
of the lake. Now, the story of Rambha and of 
its original builder is of sufficient interest to 
warrant my relating it here. 
Back in the early days when India was still 
ruled under charter by “John Company,” the dis¬ 
trict of which I write was under the autocratic 
sway of one Commissioner Snodgrass. What 
time he busied himself with government affairs 
he was both chief-judge and chief revenue collec¬ 
tor, and certain it is that he busied himself to 
some purpose in the latter capacity, albeit not the 
Company’s but his own coffers grew heavy the 
while. Being a long way from the central gov¬ 
ernment—too far away to be bothered by a gov¬ 
ernment harassed in various directions by turbu¬ 
lent chiefs—Mr. Commissioner Snodgrass rap¬ 
idly waxed rich, and as he waxed rich so he 
seems to have acquired large ideas and a princely 
way of living. 
So he built himself a palace by the Chilka 
Lake which is the original portion of Rambha 
Palace, including the Zenana or harem which, 
from all accounts, was well stocked with indigen¬ 
ous beauty, and the well-appointed Turkish bath. 
Here he abode in his splendor, and after the 
manner of any eastern potentate. 
There is an island up the lake called Gupu- 
kudha, on which Mr. Snodgrass built a bunga¬ 
low and office in which he transacted such busi¬ 
ness as brought him into contact with the people 
of the land. 
Now, history has it that Mr. Snodgrass 
throve and waxed exceeding rich. But Nemesis, 
in the shape of a new head of government, was 
at hand. This gentleman probably found him¬ 
self unable to discern why he should not share in 
Mr. Snodgrass’ “unearned increment” and there¬ 
fore called upon that worthy to send in state¬ 
ments and returns. Mr. Snodgrass was obsti¬ 
nately deaf to all such demands. After much 
trouble a commission of investigation, despatched 
by the government, surprised Mr. Snodgrass at 
his island office on Gupukudha. Investigations 
followed, and the commissioners collected much 
documentary evidence of an incriminating nature, 
which was deposited in the official despatch-box. 
Then Mr. Snodgrass invited his unwelcome 
guests to Rambha, but when the boat in which 
they essayed their journey was over the deepest 
part of the lake, Mr. Snodgrass pulled out the 
plug! It meant a long swim for all hands, and 
the unfortunate commissioners dragged them¬ 
selves up the nearest bank more dead than alive. 
Meanwhile, the heavy despatch-box and its load 
of awkward evidence lay snugly at the bottom of 
the lake, and was never recovered. 
The commissioners returned to headquarters 
with their tails—metaphorically—between their 
legs, and Mr. Snodgrass, deciding that perhaps 
the temperature of India was after all warmer 
than he had anticipated, disappeared—for a time 
—taking his loot with him. 
We next hear of him turning up in London 
where in filthy rags and miserable of mien, he 
took up his station close to the India Office and 
swept a crossing where all the high officials, men 
