DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3462#0115
76 THE DURBAR
retainers was unique. No one in that arena had
ever seen, or ever Avould see again, anything to
approach it. For days we had been satiated with
marvellous spectacles and colour-schemes that left
us breathless; but this was something different,
something more wonderful than all. One felt that
one was living in another world, the picturesque
old world of a hundred years ago. Even Anglo-
Indians more or less accustomed to such scenes
could not but admit that here were types and
costumes that they had never seen or dreamt
of. It was not merely a Barnum's show to
amuse the jaded Westerner: there was nothing
grotesque or ludicrous in this array of native
retainers. It was a historic pageant. Here were
real men dressed in real costumes that they had
lived in and knew how to wear. They carried
with them their own atmosphere round the arena.
Sometimes the different States followed so closely
on one another's heels that their atmospheres over-
lapped ; but they never intermingled—each one was
isolated, separate, distinct. Nor was their arrange-
ment the result of accident. Infinite care and
pains had been taken in the massing together of the
different States, and every detail of colouring or
accoutrements was correct For example, Cutch
retainers was unique. No one in that arena had
ever seen, or ever Avould see again, anything to
approach it. For days we had been satiated with
marvellous spectacles and colour-schemes that left
us breathless; but this was something different,
something more wonderful than all. One felt that
one was living in another world, the picturesque
old world of a hundred years ago. Even Anglo-
Indians more or less accustomed to such scenes
could not but admit that here were types and
costumes that they had never seen or dreamt
of. It was not merely a Barnum's show to
amuse the jaded Westerner: there was nothing
grotesque or ludicrous in this array of native
retainers. It was a historic pageant. Here were
real men dressed in real costumes that they had
lived in and knew how to wear. They carried
with them their own atmosphere round the arena.
Sometimes the different States followed so closely
on one another's heels that their atmospheres over-
lapped ; but they never intermingled—each one was
isolated, separate, distinct. Nor was their arrange-
ment the result of accident. Infinite care and
pains had been taken in the massing together of the
different States, and every detail of colouring or
accoutrements was correct For example, Cutch