"We went into several of the shops where shawls and other products of Indian looms are for sale; and we also visited the famous jewellery establishments of Delhi where silver is wrought into a great many fantastic forms. If anybody wonders what becomes of all the silver that is taken out of the ground, he has only to come to India. This country, with China and one or two others of the East, has long been known for absorbing a vast amount of silver every year; it is made into jewellery and sold to all classes of people, but principally to those who cannot afford anything more costly. When you remember that there are 200,000,000 people in India, and nearly all of them wear as many silver ornaments as they can afford, you will not be surprised at the consumption of silver. "We bought some shawls after considerable bargaining, and also some specimens of Delhi jewellery that are very pretty to look at, and possibly to wear. One form of jewellery is made by setting the claws of the tiger into brooches, ear-drops, bracelets, and the like, and the ingenuity of the natives is well displayed in the fanciful forms they give to this kind of work. Then we bought some miniatures painted on ivory, chiefly of the Mogul emperors and empresses, with a few faces of modern days. The native painters produce these portraits in all the fineness of a steel engraving, and in brilliant colors; there can hardly be a prettier piece of painting in the world than a Delhi miniature. There was such an abundance of these paintings offered, that it took us some time to make a selection; the dealers came to the hotel every day after breakfast and dinner, and it seemed as though every one of them had at least a hundred pictures for sale. [Illustration: THE DEWAN-I-KHAS, DELHI.]