Along the way he finds improper Englishmen, murderous intrigues, crumbling palaces, holy men, descendants of Genghis Khan, eunuchs, doctors practicing medicine in classical Greek style, connections with the Gilgamesh epic, and partridge fights. Partridge fighting is an old diversion of which Delhi is still a famous center. Nowadays these "bird challenges" are held in a Muslim graveyard, where Mr. Dalrymple observed one.

He describes the proceedings with sharp details of the betting, the jostling, and the birds' shrieks and leaps and spur-slashings. The contest was exciting, until it was interrupted by the unforeseen arrival of a funeral. The defeated cock, kissed and cuddled by its owner, was expected to survive. There is, perhaps, a faint parallel between that partridge and Delhi.

The city has been destroyed and rebuilt throughout its history. Its present condition appears to approximate convalescence--a time of transition between the disruption caused by the Partition of India and a new type of society created by the resulting influx of Hindu refugees, among whom are the Puris and Mr. Balvinder Singh, of International Backside Taxis, without whom the author would have seen less and done it less amusingly.