It Was Prominently Placed And Easily Decipherable,
Being In Unusually Large Letters, And In That Character Which Might
Be Called The "UNEIFORM," Of Which So Many Valuable Specimens Exist
In All Parts Of The Known Globe.
It ran thus :
-
IN MEMORY OF VALENTINE'S DAY.
The sentence appeared unfinished, and one or two words were probably
required to complete the sense, but from similar existing records
there could be no difficulty in filling in the missing syllables.
It was curious, however, to reflect what the feeling could have been
that stayed the writer's hand, and prevented him from finishing his
graceful tribute to the mighty dead.
Mumtaz, from whose name the word "Taj" is derived (the letter "z"
being incapable of being pronounced by many natives except as a
"j"),was the daughter of the famous Noor Jehan's brother Asoph
Khan. Shah Jehan followed his queen in A.D. 1665, and was laid in the
building which he had himself originally designed in her honour alone.
With Noor Jehan and Jehangeer the case was reversed. The conqueror
of the world ended his career in A.D. 1627, and the partner of all
his Cashmerian wanderings, and many adventures, who wore no colour
but white after his death, finally rejoined him in a tomb which she
had raised to his memory at Lahore.
Having paid due homage to the beauty of the far-famed mausoleum, we
went to the Fort, and, after visiting the Ram Bagh, the Ikmam Dowlah,
and the various palaces built by Akbar Shah, once more took the road,
and were soon again galloping through the dust, morning bringing us
to the bungalow of Bewah. From this we again made for Ghoorsahagunge
and Cawnpore, and by rail to Allahabad, there completing a circuit
of travel extending to between two and three thousand miles:
"In heat and cold
We'd roved o'er many a hill and many a dale,
Through many a wood and many an open ground,
In sunshine and in shade, in wet and fair,
Thoughtful or blithe of heart as might befall
Our best companions, now the driving winds,
And now the trotting brooks and whispering trees,
And now the music of our own quick steps
With many a short-lived thought that passed between
And disappeared."
And now but one day more remains of our six months' leave. The 31st of
October sees us again fairly in the hands of the authorities. Brothers
in arms, who during our absence have been having "all work and no
play," receive us with warm and disinterested welcome. The Q.M.G. is
hauled away in triumph by a swarm of fellow black-legs to glad the
squaw-like partner of his sooty bosom. The last remnants of the
expedition are fairly broken up, and already the days when we went
gipsying have passed away "a long time ago."
Parts of the country not having been at the time correctly mapped,
these distances are in some instances approximations only.
The Religions of Cashmere and Thibet.
During all our wanderings, whether in India, Cashmere, or Thibet,
the most striking feature throughout, was the outward display of
religion and the prominent part which religious forms of worship
take in the every-day life of the people. Monuments and temples
everywhere bear testimony to the universal belief in a Supreme Being;
and Hindoo, Mussulman, and Buddhist alike, by numberless prayers and
frequent offerings, confess their desire to propitiate His power and
to cultivate His favour.
Every little village has its "Musjid" or "Shiwala," and everywhere,
and at all hours, votaries of the different sects may be seen, in
the fashion they have learnt from childhood, openly REMEMBERING,
at least, their Creator.
The naked Hindoo, with loosened scalp lock and otherwise closely-shaven
head, stands in running water, and with his face upturned to the sun
apostrophises the Divine Essence, whose qualities and attributes he has
alone been taught to recognise, through the numberless incarnations
of his degenerate creed. Five times a day the Mussulman kneels in
open adoration of his Maker, and, doffing his slippers, repeats, with
forehead to the ground, the formula laid down for him by the only
Prophet he has learnt to believe in. The Buddhist, too, mutters his
"Um mani panee" at every turn, and keeps his praying wheel in endless
motion, with entire confidence in its mystic virtues, and fullest
faith in the efficacy of those forms which he has thus been taught
to follow from his cradle.
Each worships after the fashion of his fathers before him, and each,
by the dim illumination of his own particular light, fancies himself
upon the true path, and is able plainly to perceive his neighbour
groping in the outer darkness.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 60 of 81
Words from 60341 to 61362
of 82277
