When they had nearly reached the palace gate
  On their return, the king drew to the right
  With his attendants, while the prince with his
  Drew to the left, reviewing all the line
  That passed again down to the judges’ seat,
  Under the king’s pavilion near the lake. 
  The prince eagerly watched them as they passed,
  Noting their brawny limbs and polished arms,
  The pose and skill of every charioteer,
  The parts and varied breed of every horse,
  Aiding his comrades with his deeper skill. 
  But when the queens of beauty passed him by,
  He was all smiles and gallantry and grace,
  Until the last, Yasodhara, came near,
  Whose laugh was clearest of the merry crowd,
  Whose golden hair imprisoned sunlight seemed,
  Whose cheek, blending the lily with the rose,
  Spoke of more northern skies and Aryan blood,
  Whose rich, not gaudy, robes exquisite taste
  Had made to suit her so they seemed a part
  Of her sweet self; whose manner, simple, free,
  Not bold or shy, whose features—­no one saw
  Her features, for her soul covered her face
  As with a veil of ever-moving life. 
  When she came near, and her bright eyes met his,
  He seemed to start; his gallantry was gone,
  And like an awkward boy he sat and gazed;
  And her laugh too was hushed, and she passed on,
  Passed out of sight but never out of mind,
  The king and all his counselors saw this. 
  “Good king, our deer is struck,” Asita said,
  “If this love cure him not, nothing can cure.”

[1]Lieutenant-General Briggs, in his lectures on the aboriginal races of India, says the Hindoos themselves refer the excavation of caves and temples to the period of the aboriginal kings.

[2]The art of irrigation, once practiced on such a mighty scale, now seems practically a lost art but just now being revived on our western plains.

[3]"And, that which all faire workes doth most aggrace, The art, which all that wrought, appeared in no place.”

—­Faerie Queene, B. 2, Canto 12.

[4]See Miss Gordon Cumming’s descriptions of the fields of wild dahlias in Northern India.

[5]By far the finest display of the mettle and blood of high-bred horses I have ever seen has been in the pasture-field, and this description is drawn from life.

[6]Once, coming upon a little prairie in the midst of a great forest, I saw a herd of startled deer bound over the grass, a scene never to be forgotten.

[7]See Miss Gordon Cumming’s description of a hill covered with this luminous grass.

[8]There can be no doubt that the fire-worship of the East is the remains of a true but largely emblematic religion.

[9]The difference between the Buddhist idea of a deva and the Christian idea of an attendant angel is scarcely perceptible.

[10]The Brahmans claim that Buddha’s great doctrine of universal brotherhood was taken from their sacred books and was not an originality of Buddha, as his followers claim.