OCR Text |
Show Illustrious Indian Princes. But it is only those thoroughly acquainted ac-quainted with Indian annals who will appreciate, in glancing through the catalogue of these arrivals, or meeting face to face the illustrious strangers, what a blending of the old and new times they denote. Take, for instance, the Sovereign Prince of Jaipur, who, with other companions scarcely less distinguished, concentrates in his own splendid person the story and the associations as-sociations of the Rajput dynasties. The oldest house in Europe, the proudest proud-est pedigree, are things of yesterday-mere yesterday-mere mushrooms of human development develop-ment compared with the family trees of these princes, who scorn to be contented con-tented with an ancestor more recent than the sun himself. And it is not exaggeration to say that all the books of western knight-errantry, fcll the chronicles of Froissart and Brantome, all the vicissitudes of European war and diplomacy, make dull and dry reading side by side with the scrolls which tell of Rajputana and her heroes. |