Four waterfalls appear at the same moment, sending
a clear sheet of crystal water over a broad stone slab, and gradually
receding from sight in the wooded distance. A broad canal runs right
through the gardens, bridged at intervals by summer-houses and crossed
by carved and quaintly-fashioned stepping stones. At the extremity
there is a magnificent baradurree of black marble, which looks as if
it had been many centuries in existence, and had originally figured in
some very different situation. The pillars were entire to a length of
seven feet, and were highly polished from the people leaning against
them. Around this, in reservoirs of water, were about two hundred
fountains, all spouting away together, and on one side a sheet of
the most perfectly still water I ever saw. It appeared exactly like
a large looking-glass, and it was impossible to discern where the
artificial bank which inclosed it either began or terminated.
In these gardens it was that Selim, or Jehangeer the son of Akbar,
used to spend so many of his days with the far-famed Noor Jehan in the
beginning of the seventeenth century, and here was the scene of their
reconciliation, as related by Feramorz to Lalla Rookh ere he revealed
himself to her as her future lord, the king of Bucharia. From these
founts and streams it was that the fair Persian sought to entice her
lord, with "Fly to the desert, fly with me!"
"When breathing, as she did, a tone
To earthly lutes and lips unknown;
With every chord fresh from the touch
Of Music's spirit, - 'twas too much!"
"The light of the universe" overcomes even the "conqueror of the
world." Thinking it, after all, wiser to kiss and be friends than be
sulky, he surrenders at discretion: -
"And, happier now for all their sighs,
As on his arm her head reposes,
She whispers him with laughing eyes,
'Remember, love, the Feast of Roses!' "
Leaving the favourite haunts of the "magnificent son of Akbar," we
crossed the lake again to see the Maharajah inspect a party of about
2,000 soldiers, who were departing for the war at Girgit. Nothing
in the way of supplies being procurable near the scene of action,
the greater part of the review was taken up by the marching past of a
horde of Cashmeree and mountain porters, heavily laden with the sinews
of war. According to report, the pay of the army here is about five
shillings per mensem, with a ration of two pounds of rice per diem.
In the evening, the number of boats congregated on the lake
was marvellous. All were perfectly crammed with Cashmerian
pleasure-seekers; but the turbaned faithful, in spite of the pressure,
in no way lost their dignity, but with pipes and coffee enjoyed
themselves in apparently entire unconsciousness of there being a soul
on the lake beside themselves.
