feathers, and carrying steel-headed lances; followed by infantry wearing large silk scarves with drawers reaching to the thigh, and armed with lances to which small bells were attached. Next came the nobility, gorgeously arrayed, covered with chain-armour, and splendidly mounted. Then came the Nawáb's own horses, richly decorated, and led by grooms. To these succeeded a troop of running footmen, and then the principal officers of the household, with chains of gold hanging down their breasts. Lastly, at the end of the procession came Haidar himself, mounted on a white elephant[1] which was captured in the Bednúr country. The rear consisted of a large number of elephants, five of which carried special royal insignia[2], and after them two more regiments of Abyssinian cavalry, and a crowd of foot-soldiers of the same nation, who closed the procession. On each side of the line of march moved a body of infantry clothed in white silk with long black lances, plated with silver, and adorned with small red streamers at the tips. The whole made up a gallant array, which could only be surpassed by that of the Great Mughal himself.
Haidar certainly failed in accomplishing the object
- ↑ The so-called white elephants, which were so highly esteemed by the sovereigns of Burma and Siam, were not really white, but of a dirty red-brick colour, as was probably that of Haidar.
- ↑ The first carried a mosque of gold; the second the 'Máhi marátib,' or the fish-emblem, usually granted by the Mughals; the third a flambeau of white wax in a gold casing; the fourth two golden pots, called chambú; and the fifth a round chair, inlaid with ivory, and covered with gold.
