£3.700 SHOWER OF COINS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1926, Page 1

£3.700 SHOWER OF COINS.

MAH SCRAMBLE AT A FUNERAL. SRINAGAR, Oct. 19. Extraordinary scenes attended the funeral here last month of the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Pratab Singh. In the procession, which was heralded bv the firing of guns and the beating of muffled drums, were tlie late Maharajah’s 60 Itcautiful horses richly caparisoned in crimson velvet. A group of boys dedicated to the priesthood and dressed in yellow chanted mournfully as tim body, on its wonderfully decked bier, was carried to the sandalwood pvre on which it was burned. During the procession great excitement was caused by the distribution o rupees, amounting to about ft (UU. among the crowd. The coins were scattered right and left along t s<wholc route bv State officials. HAIR TORN OFF. Men, women and children madly scrambled for the “ l>ack S lieesl, Women had their hair turn off. clothes were ripped, and in tlic general .stiugcle for the coins many of the weakei spectators were trampled underfoot. Some' of the people were almost mad with excitement as the precious sliow''Vu'oncTpot where •European motorcars and pony-traps were parked a handful of rupees fell on the ioof of one of the cars in which were seveia F X P mov'smambled furiously up the side of the car on to the. roof, and was onlv with great difficulty that they were teaten off by the men of the fell in a pony-trap containing two women. 8o violent was tlie rush to JTth.-r.p- m £ 10 ”£j have been overurned if a moumc guard had not dispersed the croud at the point of'the eyvord. The ashes of the Maharajah * afterwards placed in the holy river, Ganges.