Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-25
PICTURESQUE FOLKS
Met With in Days at Jaipur
and Agra.
MARVELS OF THE TAI
SEEN AT SUNRISE AND AGAIN AT
MIDNIGHT.
With Crowds of Pilgrims and Alone
Visiting Jewel Shops
at Agra.
MARVELS OF THE TAI

Written for The Evening Star.
We had taken night in place of day jour
neys, had cut short our stay in delightful
Jaipur and had, in fact. strained every
nerve to reach the Tai by the time Of the
full moon. which seemed, to our minds,
almost religious duty. So it was with
feeling Of satisfaction that we drove at
the early hour of o'clock in a rickety
ticcaghar from the station to Laurie's
Hotel, and realized that on that same even
ing we would really be able to perform that
agreeable duty. Agra is essentially
English town, but we were driven that
morning through the native bazaar and
found it, though small immensely inter-
esting at that time of the day.
The shopkeepers were apparently just
arriving, except the few who were still
lying on their rope beds in the street. look
ing like large and dirty bundles, so closely
were they wrapped in their chuddas. Some
were taking their morning baths on the
street corners or even cleaning their teeth
with great vigor in front of their shops.
The market place was beginning to fill
with heavy-laden, small donkeys, whose
leads of beautifully green sugar cane or
melons gave color to the dusty spot.
AT one place a woman closely yelled and
wearing dark red garments sat by her
wares, which consisted of two piles of
small red peppers just the shade to go with
squatted Hindoo LADY in white, with piles
of green peppers on darker green cloth on
the ground.
AS soon as a tiny donkey was relieved of
his load he promptly rolled in the dust and
then doubled his little legs under him and
lay blinking in the clouds of dust he had
raised, the little wretch. In an angle made
by two houses a native school was just be-
ginning, the schoolmaSter sitting in the
dim room, crosS-legged, on a rope bed.
covered to his eyes in his chudda, the small
brown students squatted outside in the
sunshine, with big board painted red, on
which some of them were Scribbing.
Not far from the school we found three
tiny boys. nearly naked, sitting in the mid
die of the road in the dust, one of them
evidently telling story, to which the
other two listened with popping eyes and
absorbed interest, and as we were wonder
ing what the story could be about there
passed us a native with only loin cloth to
cover his brownness and on top of his tur-
baned head a huge fiat basket Of marigolds.
The brown, the yellow and the white de-
lighted our eyes. At last we arrived at
Laurie's Hotel and found that we were SO
far favored as to be given rooms in the
cottage of the proprietor. a picturesque,
though two-storied plastered house, simply
covered with Towering vines, sheets of the
terra Gotta bougain villa and cape jasmine
and many others the name Of which we did
not know.
Breakfasting in the Open.
There was lawn in the front to delight
our eyes, plenty of trees. palm, peepul and
teak trees, and the whole outer edge of the
veranda was banked up with potted plants
which formed flowery screen from the
outside world. The bearers promptly de-
posted their bedding on the veranda under
the stairway and at 0 o'clock, the gong
from the hotel being sounded, brought to
us our breakfast, which we had out in the
veranda much to our pleasure. We had
not been there very long before large,
al 1dcr0- nYryY md o0oI
| us with mild interest and then. after a few
| words in her own language hoped up and
took chair at the table beside us, We
were told that 1t was a rock pigeon, but
as no one in India ever knows the name Of
anything, tree, bird or beast, we had our
doubts. 1t was funny creature and ex-
tremely sOciable. Whenever we came back
from our sightseeing expeditions we found
ways came forward and welcomed us
warmly. If we went to our sitting room
to rest for bit 1T amiably Joined us, sit
| ting on one of the chairs in the most lady
| like manner. and. in fact. it became our
| closest friend and attendant.
Evening at last arrived and brought with
! 1t the moon, which shone down large and
satisfactory out of cloudless sky, and we,
| accompanied by two very good friends
! whom we had discovered to be in the hotel
| started forth for the Tai. OF all the de-
scriptions of the Tai which we have read.
| and their name is legion, that Of Stevens
| the war correspondent, in book called
In india" is the most satisfactory, and it
| would take the pen of person like Stew
| ems to describe it, even to attempt 1t. We
| saw the beautiful, graceful tomb by moon
| light. sunset and even, be it said to our
credit. by sunrise: we saw 1t on the day
| of native festival, surrounded by the bril-
ltantly turbaned and chudded natives; we
saw 1t in the company of some young Eng
| llshmen who stood open mouthed and MUIR
| INJURED, "Oh. golly," and finally and best
Of all, we saw 1t by ourselves just we two
o1n Nd fhar, <f~,c1 1ko,.x
| one stage setting that 1t needs is complete
| silence. We walked through the very high
| arch of the red sand stone entrance gate
on that most satisfactory day in fear lest
| the usual crowd Of sight seers should meet
| our eyes. but that time we had it alone
| the beautifully pure, stately Tai lying i'm
| its lovely gardens as II 1t had always been
| there and would be there forever with an
| indispensable air of repose and complete
| silence. The sun went down and tinged to
faintest pink. in it's afterglow, the pure
white marble, then the pink slowly crept
upward until only the tips of the guardian
| minarettes held their color. On one side
the broad, silver line of the Jumna river
| on the other. were the gardens. We lin
sered on, regardless of the evening chill,
| SO much to be dreaded, and sat there alb
| sorbing it's beauty with our souls, until
| finally we heard a native clicking along
the marble pavement. and the spell was
| broken. We drove at once back to the
! hotel and each took small glass Of
whisky and hot water and few grains of
quinine Prosaic ending to most salts
| factory afternoon.
| At Agra's jewelers..
| We spent the greater part of the second
day at Agra in going to the jewelers. shop
| for which the town is famous. Every
morning as one comes out from breakfast
one finds on the broad verandas a row
of natives squatted on the floor with their
wares spread out in front of them and
much time is wasted in inspecting the arti-
cles. They are usually silver work, neck
laces and cheap jewelry of all sorts and
photographs. AS they never bring their best
| things to the hotels we took their names
| and drove down to the native bazaar
| a city in itself, with narrow, dirty streets
and tiny open shops with their owners
| squatted on one side of them and smoking
or chewing betel nut Our jewelers. shop
| had funny entrance. The step was about
| three feet high, and only when we had
| got out of our ghari and were looking at 1t
| with dsmay did an attendant standing by
| produce from some obscure place box
on which we assembled slowly. clinging fran
| tically to a velvet rope on one side. When
/ at last we did reach the top, a very po-
| lite native gentleman awaited us. hauled
us up the last step and we found our