 Reference Base  India in 1875-76: The visit of the Prince of Wales. A chr... |
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Wheeler, G., 1876. India in 1875-76: The visit of the Prince of Wales. A chronicle of his royal journeyings in India, Ceylon, Spain, and Portugal.. London, Calcutta, Bombay, Chapman and Hall, pp. i-xii, 1-396
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
Captivity |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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[112] In the afternoon, a series of entertainments, recalling to our minds the chronicles of Mount Olympus, and replete with most of the worst features of that half-civilised time when gods and goddesses still hovered over the Western world, were enacted before the Prince of Wales. The Guikwar keeps a menagerie of animals, all trained and fed for the sole purpose of fighting. He also maintains a body of men who wrestle violently with each other. On this particular after- noon, before an immense concourse of sightseers, including the Prince, the Guikwar, and several English ladies, both men and animals fought long and fiercely. The arena where the combats were carried out is styled the Pance ke Durwaza, or water gate. It is situated at the rear of the old curiosity shop "known as the City Palace of the Guikwar. The high walls of the enclosure have seats on the top for the sightseers, whose dresses form a crimson and purple fringe above the mural whiteness. In one corner there is a pagoda for the more important spectators, and it was in one of the broad verandahs of this that the Prince of Wales sat. The high banks facing the palace and beyond the far sde of the enclo- sure were thronged with natives. Still further away was a lake all glittering with the vivid colours of the dresses and bright green trees.
[113]The most amusing conflict of the day was between two rhinosceri. The beasts, who were made still more hideous than they naturally are, by being blotched over with red paint, were loth to fight at all. The greater coward of the two elicited roars of laughter by sneaking and dodging all round the ring, apparently with a desire to preserve some dignity in the midst of his panic.
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