Elephant dance (1937)

The next day we bumped into a Mohammedan Mohammedan religious festival at the tomb of Haidar Ali and Tipu »»w» Sultan, Mohammedan usurpers for a short time (about a hundred and fifty years ago) of the Mysore throne. And now their memory is kept very green indeed by the faithful who worship as a god this bloody man who was nothing but a common sepoy, commonest of the common, but with a flair for generalship, a lesser Napoleon. I must say that his tomb, all dazzling white with massive ebony-black polished stone pillars, was impressive, dignified and beautiful. His gardens were full of every sort of strange plant and tree, which he had raided from all over India, and they made this day a most enchanting setting for the gay-coloured people; family parties everywhere, the women for this one day, so I was told, not veiled, the young girls with round jewelled nose-rings, the babies (if they had not another rag on) with the most elaborate velvet gold-embroidered caps. The barbaric, elaborate finery of the Mohammedans is a contrast to the greater simplicity of the Hindu. It is the way I distinguish them. The family parties had all come in the usual way, by bullock cart. We parked the car near one that was resting by the roadside. It made a nice picture. Out came the cameras A Mohamand out popped the family; one, two, three, four, five, m e"a " ™^six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve children all J 63