You may even be lucky enough to have a visit from one of the local peacocks.
Sculptured panels, with conventional motives, peacocks, eagles devouring hares, peacocks drinking from a cup on a tall pillar, are let into both exterior and interior walls, as are roundels of precious marbles, sawn from columns of porphyry, serpentine, verd antique, &c. The adoption of veneer for decoration prohibited any deep cutting, and almost all the sculpture is shallow.
There are no orders for natives, and such distinctions as are conferred by the different coloured buttons of the mandarins, the grades indicated by the number of peacocks' feathers, the gift of the yellow jacket and the like, are rather insignia of rank or personal marks of honour than orders, whether of knighthood or merit, in the European sense.
Within the enclosure stands a church, dating from the reign of Stephen Dushan (1336-1356), with beautiful rose windows and with imperial peacocks, dragons and eagles sculptured on the walls.
It is considered unlucky to keep peacocks ' feathers in the house.
