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You are in the prosperous capital of one of the Rajput states, between Jeypore and Delhi. This carriage you see waiting in the street is a thoroughly typical equipage, such as is used by people of elegance. The women you see in it at this moment are servants.

You can see heavy embroidered curtains at the sides of the carriage, ready to be drawn together when my lady comes out from the house where she is paying a visit. She must be a person of considerable distinction to travel in such elegant state - notice the heavy embroidery and fringe that decorate that curious, dome-shaped canopy, the carriage-platform, and even the awning over the head of that dignified coachman. 

Bullocks are really beautiful creatures when well fed and well groomed as these are. Their fawn colored hide is fine in color and they have soft, bright eyes. The cows of the same species are never used as draught animals, but only for breeding. Hindu tradition, centuries, and centuries old, regards them as sacred creatures to be touched only by the greatest respect and gentle-ness - the bullocks do not always get kind treatment.

Have you noticed the curious fashion in which the beasts are harnessed? They draw their load by means of those ropes around their necks, connected with the horizontal yoke which lies across their shoulders and which attached to the carriage pole, and they trot like horses at the rate of four or miles an hour. The driver guides them by reins which are a continuation of the cords through their nostrils.

(For a most picturesque account of the use of such a carriage by an Indian woman of wealth, see Kipling's story of "Kim." For interesting mention of Ulwar itself, see Arnold's "India Revisited" and Lady Dufferin's "Our Viceregal Life in India.")

From Notes of Travel, No. 11, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.

India "reet" or bullock carriage at Ulwar, India.

"Reet" indien ou chariot a boeufs a Ulwar, Inde.

Indischer „Reet“ oder Ochsenwagen, in Ulwar, Indien

"Reet" indio o carruge de bueyes en Ulwar, India

Indick "reet" elier oxvogn i Ulwar, Indien.

Индійскій „ритъ“ или воловья телѣга въ Ульварѣ, Индія.