The Raja had no notice of our approach till intimation of it reached him at Ludhaura, the day before we came in.  He was there resting, and dismissing the people after the ceremonies of the marriage between the Salagram and the Tulasi.  Ludhaura is twenty-seven miles north-west of Tehri, on the opposite side from that on which I was approaching.  He sent off two men on camels with a ‘kharita’ (letter),[3] requesting that I would let him know my movements, and arrange a meeting in a manner that might prevent his appearing wanting in respect and hospitality; that is, in plain terms, which he was too polite to use, that I would consent to remain one stage from his capital, till he could return and meet me half-way, with all due pomp and ceremony.  These men reached me at Bamhauri,[4] a distance of thirty-nine miles, in the evening, and I sent back a kharita, which reached him by relays of camels before midnight.  He set out for his capital to receive me, and, as I would not wait to be met half-way in due form, he reached his palace, and we reached our tents at the same time, under a salute from his two brass field-pieces.

We halted at Tehri on the 9th, and about eleven o’clock the Raja came to pay his visit of congratulation, with a magnificent cortege of elephants, camels, and horses, all mounted and splendidly caparisoned, and the noise of his band was deafening.  I had had both my tents pitched, and one of them handsomely fitted up, as it always is, for occasions of ceremony like the present.  He came to within twenty paces of the door on his elephant, and from its back, as it sat down, he entered his splendid litter, without alighting on the ground.[5] In this vehicle he was brought to my tent door, where I received him, and, after the usual embraces, conducted him up through two rows of chairs, placed for his followers of distinction and my own, who are always anxious to assist in ceremonies like these.

At the head of this lane we sat upon chairs placed across, and facing down the middle of the two rows; and we conversed upon all the subjects usually introduced on such occasions, but more especially upon the august ceremonies of the marriage of the Salagram with the Tulasi, in which his highness had been so piously engaged at Ludhaura.[6] After he had sat with me an hour and a half he took his leave, and I conducted him to the door, whence he was carried to his elephant in his litter, from which he mounted without touching the ground.

This litter is called a ‘nalki’.  It is one of the three great insignia which the Mogul Emperors of Delhi conferred upon independent princes of the first class, and could never be used by any person upon whom, or upon whose ancestors, they had not been so conferred.  These were the nalki, the order of the Fish, and the fan of the peacock’s feathers.  These insignia could be used only by the prince who inherited the sovereignty of the one on whom they had been originally conferred.  The