On the lawn behind the grand stand, under the shade of groups of palm trees, tables and chairs were placed, and tea was served between the events.  Ladies whose husbands are members of the Jockey Club can engage tables in advance, as most of them do, and issue their invitations in advance also, so that Viceroy’s day is usually a continuous tea party and a reunion of old friends, for everybody within traveling distance comes to the capital that day.  Every woman wore a new gown made expressly for the occasion.  Most of them were of white or of dainty colors, but they did not compare in beauty or elegance with the brocades and embroidered silks worn by bare-legged natives.  Half the Hindu gentlemen present had priceless camel’s hair and Cashmere shawls thrown over their shoulders—­most of them heirlooms, for, according to the popular impression, modern shawls do not compare in quality with the old ones.  Under the shawls they wear long coats, reaching to their heels like ulsters, of lovely figured silk or brocade of brilliant colors.  Some of them are finished with exquisite embroidery.  No Hindu women were present, only Parsees.  They never appear in public, and allow their husbands to wear all of the fine fabrics and jewels.  With shawls wrapped around them like Roman togas, the Hindus are the most dignified and stately human spectacles you can imagine, but when they put on European garments or a mixture of native and foreign dress they are positively ridiculous, and do violence to every rule of art and law of taste.  Usually when an oriental—­for it is equally true of China, Japan and Turkey—­adopts European dress he selects the same colors he would wear in his own, and he looks like a freak, as you can imagine, in a pair of green trousers, a crimson waistcoat, a purple tie, a blue negligee shirt and a plaid jacket.

If you want to see a display of fine raiment and precious stones you must attend an official function in India, a reception by Lord or Lady Curzon, for in the number, size and value of their jewels the Indian princes surpass the sovereigns of Europe.  One of the rajahs has the finest collection of rubies in the world, purchased from time to time by his ancestors for several generations, most of them in Burma, where the most valuable rubies have been found.  Another has a collection of pearls, accumulated in the same way.  They represent an investment of millions of dollars, and include the largest and finest examples in the world.  When he wears them all, as he sometimes does, on great occasions, his front from his neck to his waist is covered with pearls netted like a chain armor.  His turban is a cataract of pearls on all sides, and upon his left shoulder is a knot as large as your two hands, from which depends a braided rope of four strands, reaching to his knee, and every pearl is as large as a grape.  You can appreciate the size and value of his collection when I tell you that all of the pearls owned by the ex-Empress Eugenie are worn in his turban, and do not represent ten per cent of the collection.