In ancient India, the cradle of the human race, as it is said, the Parasol in every time, and more than anywhere else, is unfolded in its splendour and the grace of its contexture, as an immutable symbol of royal majesty. It seems really that it was under the deep azure of the admirable Indian sky that the coquettish instrument, of which we are exposing here by literary zigzags the historic summary, was invented. It must have been born there first as a fragile buckler to oppose the ardour of the sun; afterwards, doubtless, it developed, little by little, into a large dome, carried in the arms of slaves, or on the back of an elephant, showing the sparkle of its colours, the originality of its form, the richness of its tissues, all overloaded with fine gold and silver filigree, making its spangles and jewels scintillate in the full leaping light, in the slow oscillation given to it by the march of its bearers, or the swayings of a heavy pachyderm, in the midst of magic powers, of dancers and enchantments without number among the most bizarre palaces of the world. In Hindostan the large Parasol is commonly called /Tch'hâtâ/, the small ordinary Parasol /Tch'hâtry/, and the bearer of the Parasol for dignitaries /tch'hâtâ-wâlâ/. The Parasol /of seven stages/ (/savetraxat/) is the first ensign of royalty: it is found graven on the royal seal. The mythology and literature of the Hindoos are, so to speak, confusedly peopled with Parasols. In his fifth incarnation, Vishnu descends to Hades with a Parasol in his hand. On the other hand, from the seventh century, Hiouen Thsang has remarked, according to the rites of the kingdom of Kapitha, Brâhma and Indra were represented holding in their hand, one a flyflap, the other a Parasol. In the /Râmayana/ (ch. xxvi. /scloka/ 12), Sitâ, speaking of Râma, whose beautiful eyes resemble the petals of the lotus, expresses herself thus--"Covered with the Parasol striped with a hundred rays, and such as the entire orb of the moon, why do I not see thy most charming face shining beneath it?" We read also in the /Mahâbârata/ (/sclokas/ 4941-4943)--"The litter on which was placed the inanimate body of the monarch Pândou was adorned with a flyflap, a fan, and a white /Sunshade/; at the sound of all the instruments of music, men by hundreds offered, in honour of the extinguished shoot of Kourou, a crowd of flyflaps, /white Sunshades/, and splendid robes." The Mahratta princes who reigned in Punah and Sattara held the title of /Tch'hâtâ pati/, "Lord of the Parasol;" and we are told that one of the most esteemed titles of the monarch of Ava was also that of "King of the White Elephant, and Lord of the Four-and-twenty Parasols."