The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 802 pages of information about The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 802 pages of information about The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13.

Then said she:—­I have heard, O auspicious King, that Prince Husayn also saw a fete once a year within the city of Bishangarh and the Ryots all, both great and small, gathered together and circumambulated the Pagodas; chiefly circuiting one which in size and grandeur surpassed all others.  Great and learned Pandits versed in the Shastras[FN#323] made journeys of four or five months and greeted one another at that festival; thither too the folk from all parts of India pilgrimaged in such crowds that Prince Husayn was astounded at the sight; and, by reason of the multitudes that thronged around the temples, he could not see the mode in which the gods were worshipped.  On one side of the adjacent plain which stretched far and wide, stood a new-made scaffolding of ample size and great magnificence, nine storeys high, and the lower part supported by forty pillars; and here one day in every week the King assembled his Wazirs for the purpose of meting out justice to all strangers in the land.  The palace within was richly adorned and furnished with costly furniture:  without, upon the wall faces were limned homely landscapes and scenes of foreign parts and notably all manner beasts and birds and insects even gnats and flies, portrayed with such skill of brain and cunning of hand that they seemed real and alive and the country-folk and villagers seeing from afar paintings of lions and tigers and similar ravenous beasts, were filled with awe and dismay.  On the other three sides of the scaffolding were pavilions, also of wood, built for use of the commons, illuminated and decorated inside and outside like the first, and wroughten so cunningly that men could turn them round, with all the people in them, and moving them about transfer them to whatsoever quarter they willed.  On such wise they shifted these huge buildings by aid of machinery;[FN#324] and the folk inside could look upon a succession of sports and games.  Moreover, on each side of the square elephants were ranged in ranks, the number amounting to well nigh one thousand, their trunks and ears and hinder parts being painted with cinnabar and adorned with various lively figures; their housings were of gold brocade and their howdahs purfled with silver, carrying minstrels who performed on various instruments, whilst buffoons delighted the crowd with their jokes and mimes played their most diverting parts.  Of all the sports, however, which the Prince beheld, the elephant-show amused him most and Wiled him with the greatest admiration.  One huge beast, which could be wheeled about where the keepers ever listed, for that his feet rested upon a post which travelled on casters, held in his trunk a flageolet whereon he played so sweetly well that all the people were fain to cry Bravo!  There was another but a smaller animal which stood upon one end of a beam laid crosswise upon, and attached with hinges to, a wooden block eight cubits high, and on the further end was placed an iron weight as heavy as the elephant,

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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.