This is only one of several sets to be found in the collection, which altogether would make as brave a show as you can find at Tiffany’s.  There are strings of pearls as large as marbles, and a rope of pearls nearly four feet long braided of four strands.  Every pearl is said to be perfect and the size of a pea.  The rope is about an inch in diameter.  Besides these are necklaces, bracelets, brooches, rings and every conceivable ornament set with jewels of every variety, which have been handed down from generation to generation in this princely family for several hundred years.  One of the most interesting of the necklaces is made of uncut rubies said to have been found in India.  It has been worn for more than a thousand years.  These jewels are kept in a treasure-room in the heart of the Nazar Bgah Palace, guarded night and day by a battalion of soldiers.  At night when the palace is closed half a dozen huge cheetahs, savage beasts of the leopard family, are released in the corridors, and, as you may imagine, they are efficient watchmen.  They would make a burglar very unhappy.  During the daytime they are allowed to wander about the palace grounds, but are carefully muzzled.

Malhar Rao built a superb palace at a cost of $1,500,000 which is considered the most perfect and beautiful example of the Hindu-Saracenic order of architecture in existence, and its interior finish and decoration are wonderful for their artistic beauty, detail and variety.  In front of the main entrance are two guns of solid gold, weighing two hundred and eighty pounds each, and the carriages, ammunition wagons and other accoutrements are made of solid silver.  The present Maharajah is said to have decided to melt them down and have them coined into good money, with which he desires to endow a technical school.

Behind the palace is a great walled arena in which previous rulers of Baroda have had fights between elephants, tigers, lions and other wild beasts for the amusement of their court and the population generally.  And they remind you of those we read about in the Colosseum in the time of Nero and other Roman emperors.  Baroda has one of the finest zoological gardens in the world, but most of the animals are native to India.  It is surrounded by a botanical garden, in which the late gaikwar, who was passionately fond of plants and flowers, took a great deal of interest and spent a great deal of money.

He built a temple at Dakar, a few miles from Baroda, which cost an enormous sum of money, in honor of an ancient image of the Hindu god, Krishna.  It has been the resort of pilgrims for hundreds of years, and is considered one of the most sacred idols of India.  In addition to the temple he constructed hospices for the shelter and entertainment of pilgrims, who come nowadays in larger numbers than ever, sometimes as many as a hundred thousand in a year, and are all fed and cared for, furnished comfortable clothing and medical attendance, bathed, healed and comforted at