Enchanted India. By Prince Bojidar Kara g eor g evitch. (Harper and Brothers. 6s.)—We
have here what appears to be an excellent translation, by "Clara Bell," of an interesting volume on India by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch. It was originally written in French, but the English translation has been published in advance of the French edition, and in every way merits the attention of British students of India. For the Prince com- mands a style of considerable photographic power. He can hit off a city and a horror with equal (apparent) ease in a few lines. Here, for instance, is a sketch of Jeypoor :—" Broad streets crossing each other at right angles; houses, palaces, arch- ways flanked by towers and colonnades, all alike covered with pink-washed plaster decorated with white. And all the buildings have the hasty, temporary appearance of a town up for an exhibition to last only a few months." Take, again, this almost Zolaesque representation of the miseries of a famine at Cawn- pore :—" Here—in the poorhouse—from twelve to fifteen hundred wretched skeletons had found shelter, spectres with shoulder- blades almost cutting through the skin, arms shrunk to the bone, with the elbow-joint like a knot in the middle, and at the end bands which looked enormous and flat and limp, as if every knuckle were dislocated. Their gnarled knees projected from the fearful leanness of their legs, and the tightened skin between the starting ribs showed the hollow pit of the stomach." The Prince does not hesitate to point out what he regards as the weaknesses of British government in India, and as he has a pretty turn for sarcasm he does this very effectually, as when he says of the conduct of the baboon in famine time, "these gentlemen of the Civil Service would put in an appearance 'now and then'—the eternal `now and then' that answers every question in India."
Previous page
