Page 158 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

158 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

the dog in a palankeen, to which it was chained, while the
other two were told off to keep the flies from the animal
with a whisk. In this lordly fashion the canine representa­
tives of Old England upheld the dignity of a noble line;
and even the great Jehangir did not consider it beneath him
to feed them with his own hands, using for the purpose a
paii' of silver tongs which had been specially made for that
purpose.
It was during his sojourn at Mandu that Roe first had
the opportunity of witnessing the curious ceremony of
weighing the Emperor against gold and other precious
materials, which was a characteristic part of the celebra­
tion of the Mogul’s birthday. On the previous occasion
an invitation to attend had missed him, owing to the
stupidity of the messenger, but in this instance Jehangir .
took especial pains to see that the English ambassador was
;
present. Roe found the spectacle as picturesque as imagi­
nation could paint it. He saw the Emperor, glittering from
head to foot with diamonds and other precious stones
used to embellish his person, step into the golden scales,
to be weighed six times, first against gold, next against
silver and so on. When the last weighing was finished
Jehangir ascended his throne and distributed silver almonds,
nuts and spices, after the manner previously described*
Once more the great men “ scrambled prostrate upon their
bellies ” for the imperial largesse ; once more Roe’s dig­
nity forbade him to follow their example. The Emperor,
seeing that the ambassador did not join in the scrimmage,
took a basin and poured the contents into Roe’s cloak.
Some of the nobles, observing what was happening, held
out their hands to intercept the bounteous stream and
they would have diverted a good part of it had not Roe