The morning call., 1893-01-23
QUEEN OF THE PASS
Sketch of the Indian City
of Amber.
A PICTURE WITH PEN AND INK
Peculiar Features of a Place That
Should Be Seen by Every One
Who Circles the Globe.
Rndyard Kipling.

Rudyard Kipling.
And what shall be said of Amber, Queen
of the Pass-the city that Jey Singh babe
his peorle slough as snakes cast their
skins? The globe-trotter will assure you
that it must be done. before anything
else, and the globe-trotter is for once per-
feetly correct. Amber lies between six and
seven miles from Jeypore, among the "tum-
bled fragments Of the hills" and is reach
able by so prosaic a conveyance as ticca-
ghari, ana so uncomfortable one as AN
elephant. He is provided by the Maharaia,
and the people who make India their Prey
are apt to accept his services as matter OF
course.
Rise very early In the morning, before the
stars have gone out, and drive through the
sleeping ciIytill the pavement gives place
10 cactus and sand, and educational and en-
lightened institutions to mile upon mile of
seml-decayed Hindu temples-brown and
weather beaten-running down TO the shores
Of the great Man Sugar Lake, wherein are
more ruined temples, palaces and fragments
Of causeways. The Water-birdS have their
homes in the half-s@ Emerged arcades and
the mugger DuZZles the shafts of the pillars.
| 1t is a fitting prelude to the desOation Of
Amber. Beyond the Man Sugar the road
Of to-day climbs uphill, and by its side runs
| bHb Huec Stuuc CduocNaJ Va JcsbSiQdJ
blocks sunk in concrete. Down this
| path the swords of Amber went out to kill.
| A triple wall rings the city, and, at the
| third gale, the road drops fEto the valley OF
| Amber. In the half light Of dawn great
CITY sunk between hills and built round
| three sides If lake is dimy visible, and
! one waits to catch the hum that should rise
| from it as The day breaks. The air in tn5
| valley is bitterly chill. With the growing
light Amber stands revealed. and the
| traveller sees that 1t is city that will never
| wake. A few meenas live IN huts at the
| end of the valley, but the temples, the
| shrines, the palaces and the tiers on tiers
| OF houses are deSolate. Trees grow in and
| split open the walls, the windows are filed
| with brushwoOd, and the cactus ch0keS the
| street. The Engllshman made his way
| up the side of the bill to tile great
| palace that overlooks everything except
! the red fort of Jeighur, guardian Of Amber.
| As the elephant swung up the steep roads,
paved with stone and built out ON the sides
| of the hill, the Engishman looked into
empty houses, where the little gray squirrel
sat and scratched its ears. The peacock
walked upon the housetops and the blue
pigeon rested within. He passed under
irons studded gates whereof the hinges were
eaten out with rust. and By walls plumed
and crowned with grass, and under more
gateways, till al last he reached the palace
and came suddenly into great quadrangle
where two blinded, arrogant stations. COW
cred with red and gold trappings, screamed
and neighed at each ether from opposite
ends oil the vast space.
From the top of tue palace you may read
il you please the book of Ezekiel written il
stone upon the hillside. Ginning up the
Englishman had seen the city from below
or ON level. He now looked into its very
heaTt-the heart that had ceased to beat
There was no sound of men or cattle or
grinds:ones in those Ditiful stTeets-no thng
but the cooling of the pigeons. At first II
seemed that the palace was not ruined at
all-ihat presently the women would come
up on the housetops and the bells would
ring in the temples. But as he attempted
to follow with his eye the turns of the
streets the Engishman saw that they died
out in the wood tangle and the blocks OF
fallen stone and that some OF the houses
were rent with great cracks and pierced
from roof TO road with holes that let IN the
morning sun. The drip-stoDes of the caves
were gap-ioothed and the tracery of the
rooms had fallen out, so that Zenana rooms
lay sbamelessly open TO the day. On the
outskirts of the city the strong walled
houses dwindled and sank down to mere
stone hears and faint indications of plinth
and wall, hard to trace against the back
ground Of stony SOIL The shadow of the
palace lay over tw0-thirds OF the city, and
the trees deepened the shadow. He who
has bent over the dead after the hour of
which Byron sings, knows that the features
of the man become blunted, as It werc-the
face begins To fade. The same hideOus look
lies on the face OF the Queen of of the Pass,
and wien once this is realized the eye won
ders that it cauld have ever believed 10 the
life Of her. She is the city whose graves
are set in the sides of the pit, and her CON-
pany is round about her graves sister of
Pathros, Zoan and No.
Moved by thoroughly insular instinct the
Eaglishman took up piece of plaster and
heaved it from the palace wall into the dark
streets below. 1t bounded from a houSetop
to a Window edge. and thence into little
square, and the sound OF its fall was hollow
and echoing. as the sound of stone In a
we'll. Then the silence closed ND upon The
sound TIL in the far away courtyard below
the roped stations began screaming afresh.
There may be desoation in the great Indian
Desert to the westward, and there is desoa-
ton upon the open seas. but the desolation
of Amber is beyond the loneliness either OF
"A