clarified butter. A jar of ghee
was lying on the floor, and a portion of this horrible mess had been
spilt on the seat of the ottoman. I was dressed in white trousers and
jacket of the same material, and found, to my intense disgust, that the
ghee had left a large patch of colour which no amount of rubbing would
eradicate. We were far from our quarters, it was broad daylight, and,
to my mortification, I was compelled to walk thus branded through the
streets of the city, the laughing-stock of those who saw the plight I
was in.

Delhi was celebrated for miniature paintings done on talc, hundreds of
which were found at this time. Some were of rare workmanship, portraits
of beautiful women and drawings of celebrated buildings, all executed
in a style of art peculiar to the craftsmen of that place. We were
fortunate, during our search, in coming across the house of one of
these artists and disinterring from its concealment a box full of these
paintings. They afterwards sold at a good price, and I possessed myself
of some twenty of the most beautiful, comprising portraits of Zeenat
Mahal, the favourite wife of the King, other ladies of the zenana, and
pictures of the Taj and Jama Masjid, besides other mosques throughout
India. These oval-shaped miniatures mounted in gold formed most
acceptable souvenirs of the city of Delhi, and one in particular,
containing the portrait of a lovely Eastern face with head-dress and
tiara of diamonds, and strings of pearls round the neck, I was offered
L20 for after it had been set in gold by a jeweller at Plymouth. In
London, in 1858, there was a great demand for gold ornaments and
jewellery from Delhi, so much so that a noted goldsmith offered me
the highest price for articles of that description; nor would he at
first--till convinced--accept my assurance that I had parted with all my
Delhi loot before leaving India.

We were occupied for nearly three weeks in our quest for plunder,
engaged in the exciting work almost every day, and seldom failing to
find some articles of value. Our last adventure in that line deserves
a detailed description, for though the nature of the loot obtained was
such that it was useless to appropriate for our own use any of the goods
found, still, the value of the plunder increased to a large extent the
Delhi prize-money.

We had noticed in the room of the agents piles of kincob, or cloth of
gold, worth I fear to say how many rupees a yard. The manufacture of
t