Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 9.1.4

9.1.4

One of the Peiche-kanis has no sooner reached the place intended for the new encampment than the Grand Quarter-Master selects some fine situation for the King's tents, paying, however, as much attention as possible to the exact symmetry of the whole camp. He then marks out a square, each side of which measures more than three hundred ordinary paces. A hundred pioneers presently clear and level this space, raising square platforms of earth on which they pitch the tents. The whole of this extensive square is then encompassed with kanates, or screens, seven or eight feet in height, secured by cords attached to pegs, and by poles fixed two by two in the ground, at every ten paces, one pole within and the other without, and each leaning upon the other. The kanates are made of strong cloth, lined with printed Indian calico, representing large vases of flowers. The royal entrance, which is spacious and magnificent, is in the centre of one of the sides of the square, and the flowered calico of which it is composed, as well as that which lines the whole exterior face of this side of the square, is of much finer texture and richer than the rest.