Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1920-09-30

~ IIOULD you ever feel inclined to
g. verify tales Of "The Thousand
and One Persian Days." which
usually begin with something
like "Once upon a time there was ra-
jah who sat upon a golden throne, and
slept upon a pearl carpet, and built a
golden-rOOfed pavilion for a beautiful
queen" you may journey comfortably
to India, then on TO Delhi and Agra,
and see the empty palaces of the Mo
gu kings which are very little
changed save that they now rever-
berate mOurnfully to the football of
western ShOd feet, and their marble
walls have been mellowed to the tint
of old ivory by $50 years of Indian
sun. So writes Eleanor Maddox in
Asia.
You may walk among the colon
nades of the great Hall of Audience
inlaid with flowers of lapis lazuli,
Jade, topaz and carnelian that seem to
grow upon the walls, and burst into
bloom on the very spot where rested
Shah Jahan's Peacock Throne" a
glorified four poster bedstead of solid
gold with a pearl-fringed canopy upon
which the emperor sat daily to dis
pense justice, his turban ablaze with
diamonds and his lowered tunic al
most hidden by ropes of pearls. Be
hind him sapphires, rubies and emer-
aids glowed from the Outspread tails
hood
hung a parrot wrought from a single
emerald, holding in its beak the Kohl
nor diamond.
You may enter the great silent ha-
rem without hindrance and pause be-
fore the lace-lile marble screen which
overlooks the cool scented garden,
heavy with the perfume of orange and
mango blossoms. A staircase leads
from the garden to Queen Arjamund's
golden-roOfed pavilion and rose water
bath-all a solid mass of exquisite in
lay-and in the thickness of the mar
BILE walls are cunningly contrived
apertures just large enough to admit a
woman's hand where the queen kept
her jewels at night.
It is a long time since Shah Jahan's
empress was laid under the swelling
dome of the TAI Mahal across the Riv-
er Jumna, yet her personality fingers
in her bOudoir of fretwork arches,
where she bedecked herself with jew
els more dazzling and splendid than
any woman has ever worn before or
since.
Pearl Carpet Really Exists.
But that such a thing as a pearl car
pet could exist outside fiction would
be a tax on credulity, did it not actually
hang on the wall of the Nuzerbagh
palace at Baroda. This relic of past
era of bizarre extravaganza is de-
scribed as SIG feet Three large dia-
mond flower patterns form the center;
80 smaller diamond patterns, and 1860
rubies, $50 emeralds in flower designs
form the border; the remaining pOr-
ton of the carpet is composed of seed
pearls, although in places along the
outer edge they have been removed
and replaced by glass beads. A more
absurd and useless object, apart from
its monetary value, would be hard to
find even in India. But, if we bark
back to the time before the rich gem
mines. the extensive pearl fisheries on
the west coast and on the island of
Ceylon had been exhausted, when they
were yielding their treasure by the
bucketful. it takes little effort of the
Imagination to picture an eastern po-
tentate. laden with jewels until he
could scarcely sustain their weight, re-
clining on the Peacock throne before
the pearl carpet.
Such treasure, being in itself indie
structible. has descended through the
dynasties of the Hindu kings, and
later of the Mogul emperors, when
laden caravans from Persia were con
stantIy adding to their wealth. SO
that the jewels owned today by the ra-
ias and ruling princes Of India, esti-
mated not by numbers hut by meas