Another large building was inhabited by the women, among whom the mother of the prince is the mistress; but they themselves, as well as the interior of their palace, remain concealed from the gaze of the guests. Elegant carriages with drivers, servants and grooms in oriental livery, caparisoned horses, saddles and bridles shining with gold and silver trimmings, were day and night at the disposition of the guests, and at his arrival every guest received a small blank book with fifty leaves on which to write his name and the kind of refreshment he wished, and hundreds of servants dressed in white were always ready to fetch it to him in the palace garden, at the race courses, or in the summer houses. [Illustration: NAUTCH DANCER.] The festivities and merriments were arranged so that every guest had perfect liberty and sufficient time to follow his own taste. The following may serve as an illustration: On Wednesday, December 7th, at half-past seven o'clock, a high school was inspected, and the governor of Bengal distributed prizes among the scholars; at ten breakfast in the large dining hall; at twelve the instalment of the young prince; at two luncheon; at three the opening of the races; at half-past seven illumination and pyrotechnics; at eight grand dinner; at ten a ball in the palace for the Europeans; and nautch dancing and music by native women in a pavilion in the garden. One day a canal was opened and dedicated. It was twenty miles long, and built for the purpose of supplying several cities and country districts with an abundance of water. All the streets and roads in and around Burdwan were in a splendid condition, wide and macadamized with crushed brick. From the railroad station to the palace and two miles beyond to two villas, as well as along the principal streets in the city, and along all paths and roads in the palace garden, bamboo poles forty feet long were erected on both sides, and about forty feet apart. These poles were all wrapped in red and white glazed paper, and had flags at the top. The poles were connected by lines along which colored glass lamps were suspended six inches apart, and these were all lighted at six o'clock. I was told that there were over forty thousand such lamps, and that it took five hundred men to fill, light, and attend to them. From nine to twelve o'clock every night an electric light was beaming from one of the palace towers, and Wednesday evening there was a magnificent, display of pyrotechnics around an artificial lake about a mile from the palace. The latter cost about twenty-five thousand dollars. Its effect on men, animals, and the tropical plants was such that a man from the North found it difficult to realize that he was still on this earth of ours, and not far away in the fairy world of fiction. [Illustration: COLLEGE BUILDING.]