facements of freestone. Inside, the walls are plastered like polished marble. Time has dimmed their lustre by laying on a crust of dirt upon them. Our voice, resounding in echoes beneath the dome, scared away a number of pigeons that were perched on the cornices, and to whom the place seems to be abandoned. The sarcophagus is placed just in the middle of the ground-floor. Though a little too much ornamented, the general design of the building is simple. The date of the tomb is A. D. 1531. But excepting a slab or two that is out of place, the whole edifice is yet in a very good condition.

From the top of the Roza, the town, spread out beneath the feet, can be seen in detail. Towards the north the tomb of Shere Shah appeared to rear itself in the air from out of an artificial lake. In form and design it is much the same as that of his father; but it is loftier in height, larger in dimensions, and more superb in appearance. Rising in an open uninterrupted plain, the effect also is more telling.

'From 'midst a limpid pool, superbly high, The massy dome obtrudes into the sky, Upon the banks more humble tombs abound, Of faithful servants, who their chief surround. The monarch still seems grandeur to dispense, And e'en in death, maintains pre-eminence.' The tank, which once measured a mile in circumference, has decayed into a cesspool; the stone-enfacements have all slipped down into the reservoir; the causeway to the tomb is dilapidated; only a cemetery or two remains of the humble tombs of the faithful servants, -the rest are all prostrate upon the ground, and disap

Shere Shah's Tomb,-his Highway.

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pearing every autumn to fill up the tank. Cremation left no choice to the Hindoos for such splendid obituary monuments and 'storied urns.' Shere Shah himself caused the erection of this tomb-distrusting, perhaps, his immediate survivors, posterity, tradition, history, and everything, to do him adequate justice. It is remarkable that he did not prefer to build a palace, but his tomb. He was killed by the explosion of a mine at the fort of Callinger. Only his little finger was found— and that alone lies interred beneath the stately mausoleum, which is the ornament of the valley of the Soane. In another generation or two, this tomb may leave not a trace behind.' The utilitarian economy which appreciates only reproductive works, is sadly mistaken to consign to decay the costly works of a preceding age. To abolish all ornamental works would be to question the beauty of the stars and flowers-the general loveliness of nature in the creation.

No more useful work, nor a more splendid monument of his glory, could have been left behind by Shere Shah, than the highway which stretched a four months' journey from Sonargong in Bengal to the western Rotas on the Jhelum, and compared with which the Grand Trunk Road of our age falls into the shade. Had that road existed, as his rupee coinage is still current, it would have saved the fifty lacs expended on the present thoroughfare. In many places that road had remained for fifty-two years much in the same state as when originally founded. To this day the remains of one of his stone and brick-built serais may be seen at

Jehanabad, some fourteen miles from Sasseram. But Shere Shah in his turn must yield the palm to Asoca, who made highways, regularly milestoned and shaded with peepul and mango trees, throughout his kingdom, dug wells at the distance of every cross, erected dhurmsalas for the use of man and beast, hospitals for the sick, and rest-houses for the wayworn at night.

The country improves as you approach Benares. The road to that city is under a beautiful avenue. Shere Shah's tomb is visible from many miles off a very good proof of the flat, level character of the country. We met a European lady travelling alone with her child. She dared not have done this three years ago, when she was sure to have been beset, like Milton's Lady in the Comus, by lots of budmashes.

To the Hindoos, the Caramnassa is the very antipodes of the Ganges. Not more does a Not more does a dip in the river flowing from Shiva's head insure salvation, than is perdition threatened to be the consequence of the same act in the other river. In days gone by the ferryman had need of especial care against raising a splash by the oar, and jeopardizing the eternal welfare of the passengers. Poor people, who could not afford for ferrying, were forded on the shoulders of men-the touch of a drop of the cursed waters was imperilling enough. No such step has to be taken now. The munificence of a wealthy Hindoo-Raja Putni Mull of Benares*—has

*The same re-built a temple at Muttra, which cost 70,000 Rupees, made a stone tank there at a cost of three lacs, a well at Jwala-mukhi, which cost 90,000 Rs.; he spent 90,000 Rs. on a ghaut at Hurdwar; 60,000 Rs. on a Serai at Brindabun: on these and other public works he spent eight lacs of rupees, for which Lord W. Bentinck made him a Raja. He has recorded, in four languages, on this bridge, the fact

raised a substantial bridge of stone over the river, to which in former years extended the frontiers that have in our day been pushed up to Peshawur. The Caramnassa is 300 feet wide, and rises 30 feet in the rains. The sand in its bed is 20 feet deep.

The real tradition is lost which has laid the Caramnassa under a ban, and in its place has been invented the following legend. The aspiring Rajah Trisanku had exalted himself among the gods, by his prayers and penances. But he was kicked out headlong from Swerga by Shiva, and arrested half-way in his fall, where he remains suspended-tugged this way by gravitation, and to the other drawn by the merit of his penances. He lies with his head downward, and his saliva falling into the Caramnassa is the cause of its desecration. The legend, if good for nothing else, is an apt illustration of the position of Young Bengal. The religious prayers and penances of the one might be taken for the education and enlightenment of the other. Longing after Swerga might be interpreted into a longing for the privileges of the conqueror-and expulsion is another word for exclusion. The wrath of Shiva is akin to the exterminating principle of the Blood-and-Scalp-School members. And hanging in the air is illustrative of that midway position, in which an educated Hindoo is placed between his orthodox countrymen on the one hand, and the race of his conquerors on the other.

of his erecting it; the foundation had been previously laid by the prime minister of Poona, who spent three lacs on it. The bridge was designed by James Prinsep.'-Calcutta Review, No. XLI.

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CHAPTER VI.

October 25th.-Ir was past four in the morning. The driver awoke us, and announced the tidings of our arrival before Benares. In a few minutes we were upon the river-side, straining our eyes to catch a glimpse of the Holy City that rests upon the trident of Mahadeo. But a soft murky gloom still hung upon the prospect, and we could descry only the shadowy outlines of the city upon the opposite bank. The Ganges, flowing past below it, glided at her own sweet will.' From her surface rose misty exhalations, as if in incense to the wrathful Deity of the Hindoo Pantheon. The mighty city lay hushed in repose, excepting the sounds of the nagara from some temple, that came mellowed across the waters, and fell in a pleasing cadence upon the ear. As daylight gradually poured itself, thousands of spires, temples, shrines, minarets, domes, palaces, and ghauts, were laid bare to the sight-disclosing a most panoramic view. The city of Shiva, the great stronghold of Hindooism, the holiest shrine for pilgrimage in India, and the nucleus of the wealth, grandeur, and fashion of Hindoostan, now clearly stood out in view,-'rising with her tiara of proud towers, into airy