VILLAGE OF RANAGHAT.

117

I got into the jolly-boat and went aboard to tell him my change of plan. We parted with mutual kind wishes, and in the hope of meeting again at Boglipoor the 20th of July.

Besides the saving of time which my journey to Dacca by this course will occasion, I am sorry to go through a part of the country which I am told not many Europeans traverse, and where there are no stations or other usual places of intercourse between them and the natives. We set sail about half-past one, and continued our course along the new channel till evening. We found it about as wide as the Dee a little below Chester, flowing with a gentle and equable stream from the northeast by north, through fields cultivated to a considerable extent with indigo. Several porpoises were playing round the vessel, and a good many fishermen came up to offer their wares for sale. We continued our course through a country more bare of trees and more abundant in pasture than those parts of Bengal which I had yet seen, till half-past five in the evening, when the men, heartily tired, begged leave to halt for the night at a place named Ranaghât. This is a large village, with two very noble villas, like those of the rich Baboos in Calcutta, the property of a wealthy Hindoo family of the name of Kishnapantee. A little before we reached these, we had passed a ruined palace of an old Raja of Bengal (the boatmen knew no more of him) and its name Urdun Kali. We took a short walk after dinner, but found it too hot to go far. The scenery is still like that near the Thames, and

118

DEPARTURE FROM RANAGHAT.

the likeness is increased by the circumstance that there are no coco-trees. The high crumbling bank of the river is full of small holes containing the nests of the muenas, and I saw a field of what I took for millet, which I did not know was a product of India. Our boatmen, who had been in and out of the water like any amphibious creatures, sometimes rowing, sometimes pushing, sometimes dragging our bark along the narrow and winding channel, displaying great spirit, cheerfulness, and activity, were seated on the bank dressing for supper the fish which they had bought from the boats I mentioned; while apart, at cautious distance, and within their magic circle of chalk, our Hindoo servants were preparing a more frugal repast of rice, currie, and pine apples, which cost exactly a pice a piece. Of the small fish a pice will buy two large handsfull, as much as a man can well keep in his grasp. The fires of these different messes were very picturesque, and the more so, as a little further down, the crews of the cooking and baggage boats had each their little bivouac. I was glad these poor people got their supper over before the usual north-wester and its fall of rain came to drive them under cover. The wind, however, was a mere nothing, and even if it had been a storm, it could not have touched us in our present situation.

June 18.-Our course from Ranaghât was up a wider and a deeper stream, and chiefly to the N.W. a circumstance irreconcileable with Rennel's map, unless the discrepancy can be accounted for by an extraordinary alteration of the river's channel. The

banks here are higher and more precipitous, the country woody, and sometimes really very interesting, while coco-trees, of which we supposed we had taken leave, re-appeared, and continued to tower, from time to time, over the bamboos, banyans, and fruit-trees.

About half-past five we brought to for the night, at a place which our crew called Sibnibashi, but so differently situated, (being further to the south, and on a different side of the river) from the Sibnibas of Rennel, that I at first thought they must be mistaken. We landed, with the intention of walking to some pagodas, whose high angular domes were seen above the trees of a thick wood, at some small distance; which wood however, as we approached it, we found to be full of ruins, apparently of an interesting description. Near our landing-place a row of large Kedgeree pots, with their mouths carefully covered with leather, as if just landed from a boat, attracted our attention. Abdullah said that they probably contained Ganges water from Benares or Hurdwar, which the Hindoos of high rank used for washing their idols; and that, in this case, they might be destined for the same employment in the pagoda before us. As we advanced along the shore, the appearance of the ruins in the jungle became more unequivocal; and two very fine intelligent-looking boys whom we met, told me, in answer to my enquiries, that the place was really Sibnibashi,-that it was very large and very old, and that there were good paths through the ruins. These boys were naked, all

120

PAGODAS AT SIBNIBASHI.

but their waist-cloths, like the other peasants; they had, however, the Brahminical string over their shoulders; and Stowe, who, as well myself, was much struck by their manner, pleasing countenances, and comparatively fair complexions, observed, that the Brahmins seemed really to maintain a certain degree of superiority of intellect over the unprivileged classes. After a few questions, they whispered to each other, and ran towards the jungle, leaving us to pursue our track, which was narrow and winding, through masses of brick-work and earthen mounds, with many tamarind and peepul-trees, intermixed with thickets of cactus, bamboo, and a thorny plant a little like the acacia, on the whole reminding me of some parts of the Roman wall at Silchester. We found four pagodas, not large, but of good architecture, and very picturesque, so that I much regretted the having left my sketch-book on board, and the more so because it was now too late to get it before dusk. The sight of one of the peons, who had followed me, though without orders, with his silver mace, procured us much respect from the Brahmins and villagers, and the former were urgent to show us their temples. The first which we visited was evidently the most modern, being, as the officiating Brahmin told us, only fifty-seven years old. In England we should have thought it at least 200 : but in this climate a building soon assumes, without constant care, all the venerable tokens of antiquity. It was very clean, however, and of good architecture; a square tower, surmounted by a

66

PAGODAS AT SIBNIBASHI.

66

121

pyramidal roof, with a high cloister of pointed arches surrounding it externally to within ten feet of the springing of the vault. The cloister was also vaulted, so that, as the Brahmin made me observe, with visible pride, the whole roof was pucka," or brick, and “ belathee," or foreign. A very handsome gothic arch, with an arabesque border, opened on the south side, and shewed within the statue of Rama, seated on a lotus, with a gilt but tarnished umbrella over his head; and his wife, the earth-born Seeta, beside him. A sort of dessert of rice, ghee, fruit, sugar-candy, &c. was ranged before them on what had the appearance of silver dishes; and the remaining furniture of the temple consisted of a large gong hanging on the wall, and some Kedgeree pots similar to those which we had noticed. From hence we went to two of the other temples, which were both octagonal, with domes not unlike those of glass-houses. They were both dedicated to Siva, (who Abdullah, according to his Mussulman notions, said was the same with Adam,) and contained nothing but the symbol of the Deity, of black marble. On paying my fee to the Brahmins who kept these shrines, I was surprised to find that they would not receive it immediately from my hand, but that they requested me first to lay it down on the threshold. I thought it right to explain that I meant it for them, and in return for their civility, not as an offering to their god; but they answered, that they could not receive any thing except from their own caste, unless it were thus laid before them.

I