Seated in a shadowy nook I await the coming of
the custodian of the treasury, having sent for him
by one of the many attendants who continually flit
hither and thither throughout all this vastness.
Finally he comes — a fat, comfortable-looking Brah-
min, arrayed in diaphanous white, with a white
turban, his brown skin shining with its polishing of
cocoanut oil. With almost courtly manners and in
most excellent English he welcomes me and offers
me a chair on the other side of a long table.
" You would see the jewels of the temple ? They
are under the charge of several keepers. I am but
one of them. I cannot show you all. I will show
you many. The treasures of Rameswaram have
been estimated at fifteen lacs of rupees " {£6000
to the lac).
6 Quaint Corners of Ancient Empires

His attendants have in the meantime brought
forth several ancient caskets, and the table is soon
covered with bracelets, armlets, anklets, pendants,
and crowns, all encrusted with stones of every known
description, and evidently of great value, but like
all Oriental work, the jewels are not well cut and do
not show to advantage. They are used to decorate
the gods, and also their attendants, when a proces-
sion is taking place. Rameswaram possesses an in-
come of some $30,000 a year, and this Brahmin says
that it is used up every year in paying for the pro-
cessions, in feeding the poor, and paying the wages
of the many hundreds of men in constant attendance
upon the temple.
