BANDOBAST AND KHABAR REMDJISCENCES OF INDIA COLONEL CUTHBERT LARKING ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BV THE AUTHOR IN presenting these pages to the public, I do not wish it to be imagined for one moment that I pretend to give any fresh information about the people, customs and sport of India, well known as they are, and so often described by abler pens than mine. My book is simply the record of a very pleasant time passed in the country, and if it induces others in the slightest degree to follow in my footsteps" they will, I am sure, not .regret the time and money spent in the journey. For my own part, 1 cannot better express ray feelings towards India than by saying, that I am impatiently looking forward to the day when I may revisit it. and the many friends I feel I have left there. During one part of my travels I was regarded as in an official capacity, and although I saw many things of great interest and thoroughly enjoyed that part of my tour, yet as at the time I' was not travelling independently, I have thought it best for that reason to entirely omit it from my book, lest my views and opinions might be thought to reflect those7 however indirectly, of the personages with whom I had the honour of being associated. I am Invited to Stay with the Duke and Duchess of Counaught in India, I Leave London, My Travelling Companion, Colonel Arthur Paget, Storm, Gibraltar, Royal Yacht Oslorne, Malta, Curious Coincidence, Port Said, Its Amenities, Opening of Suez Canal, Aden, A Contest of Opinion, Arrive at Bombay....... First Impressions of the East, A Motley Crowd, Parsees, Hin- doos, Agents, etc., Byculla Club, Its Specialities, Govern- ment House, Enormous Population, Elephanta, Funeral Procession, Funeral Ceremonies of Parsees, The Number of Parsees, Their Morality and Religion, Towers of Silence Described, Advantages and Disadvantages of the System Malabar Point-, Leave Bombay for Poona, Indian Railways, Ghauts, Club at Poona, Bazaar and Kinkob Work, Leave for Hyderabad, Journey, Birds on Telegraph Wires, Scenery near Hyderabad, Residency at Chudderghaut, City of Hyderabad, Dine with the Nawab Vikar Ul Umra, Arrange Big-game Shooting, Attar of Roses, Meer Alum Tank, Tombs of Golconda, Diamonds not Found There- African Cavalry, Lunch with the Nizam, Nawab Said Hussein, Nautch Dance, Black-buck Hunting -with Cheetah, Lunch with Vikar Ul Umra, Return to Poona, Bombay, Delhi, Dak Bungalow, Anecdote .... Agra, Jubilee Day, Grand Parade of Troops, The Gaol, Carpet-making, Gymkana Meeting, Bhurtpore, Jubilee Procession, Maharajah's Durbar and Dinner, Fireworks, Loyalty of Native Princes, Benares, Indian Hotels, Mad- dessar Kothi, Rajah Sivaprasampd, His Aversion to Bengal Baboos, Sights of Benares, The Sacred Monkeys, Sir, Davis defends Maddessar Kothi against Vizier Ali, Mr. Davis's Gallant Defence of Maddessar Kothi, River Sights- Leave for Poona and Hyderabad..... Mr.