o even now play the principal part in the
Crown-Marking of a Rana of Udaipur. Here, again, Tod explains the matter
at length. Banswara claims alliance with Udaipur, and carries a sun,
with a label of difference of some kind. Jeypore has the five-coloured
flag of Amber with a sun, because the House claim descent from Rama, and
her crest is a kuchnar tree, which is the bearing of Dasaratha, father
of Rama. The white horse, which faces the tiger as supporter, may or may
not be memorial of the great _aswamedha yuga_, or horse sacrifice, that
Jey Singh, who built Jeypore, did--_not_ carry out.

Jodhpur has the five-coloured flag, with a falcon, in which shape Durga,
the patron Goddess of the State, has been sometimes good enough to
appear. She has perched in the form of a wagtail on the howdah of the
Chief of Jeysulmir, whose shield is blazoned with "forts in a desert
land," and a naked left arm holding a broken spear, because, the legend
goes, Jeysulmir was once galled by a horse with a magic spear. They tell
the story to-day, but it is a long one. The supporters of the
shield--this is canting heraldry with a vengeance!--are antelopes of the
desert spangled with gold coin, because the State was long the refuge of
the wealthy bankers of India.

Bikanir, a younger House of Jodhpur, carries three white hawks on the
five-coloured flag. The patron Goddess of Bikanir once turned the thorny
jungle round the city to fruit trees, and the crest therefore is a green
tree--strange emblem for a desert principality. The motto, however, is a
good one. When the greater part of the Rajput States were vassals of
Akbar, and he sent them abroad to do his will, certain Princes objected
to crossing the Indus, and asked Bikanir to head the mutiny because his
State was the least accessible. He consented, on condition that they
would all for one day greet him thus: "_Jey Jangal dar Badshah!_"
History shows what became of the objectors, and Bikanir's motto: "Hail
to the King of the Waste!" proves that the tale _must_ be true. But from
Boondi to Bikanir is a long digression, bred by idleness on the bund of
the Burra. It would have been sinful not to let down a line into those
crowded waters, and the Guards, who were Mahometans, said that if the
Sahib did not eat fish, they did. And the Sahib fished luxuriously,
catching two and three pounders, of a perch-like build, whenever he
chose to cast. He was wearied of schools and dispensaries, and the
futil