Storia do Mogor 97.2.4

97.2.4

At some distance from the foregoing came Roshan Ara Begam upon a very large elephant in a litter called pitambar, which is a dome-roofed throne, very brilliant, made all of enamelled gold, and highly adorned. Behind her followed one hundred and fifty women, her servants, riding handsome horses, and covered from head to foot with their mantles of various colours, each with a cane in her hand. Before Roshan Ara Begam's elephant marched four elephants with standards, and a number of bold and aggressive men on foot to drive away everybody, noble or pauper, with blows from sticks and with pushes. Thus I wonder when I find someone writing in Europe that he managed one day to get near enough to see a woman servant whisking away the flies from Roshan Ara Begam, which is an impossibility. For the princesses and nobles' wives are XIV. Shah 'Alam, Second Son of Aurangzeb. To face page 72. shut up in such a manner that they cannot be seen, although they can observe the passers-by.