PINNACE AGROUND-RANAGHAT.

105

He, indeed, immediately called to them, on reaching the vessel, to go on with what they had begun, at the same time sending some men with long bamboos to the stern, to stave the vessel off the shore. This was very necessary, since ashore she went in a few minutes, and the wind freshening, and there being little or no tide to help us here, I concluded that we were to continue fixed till the rising of the river from the rains set us free. To my surprise, however, the matter was settled in a few minutes; all the crew but the Serang, who remained to steer, jumped into the water about as high as their waists. Half the party by main strength and weight of pressure, thrust off the boat from the bank, while, as soon as she floated, the rest began to tow a-head. They thus carried her merrily along the lee shore for about 200 yards, when the headland being passed, we had again sea room, and they all swam on board like so many water-rats. This, of course, shows the extreme lightness of our vessel, and how little water boats of her class require. In the meantime I was hearing the report of Abdullah and the Serang, who, as it appeared now, had discovered no "Chokey" or toll-house, nor any thing of the kind. They found, however, two large native boats which had just come down the river, whose crew assured them there was plenty of water for a vessel of greater burthen than ours, while their account was in other respects so favourable as to distance and time saved, that I made up my mind at once to go this way. Accordingly, as Mr. Corrie's budgerow was in sight, I got into the jollyboat, 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 not 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 north-east 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 VOL. I.-14

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 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 Mynas, 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 handfuls, 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 ruins in the jungle became more unequivocal; and two very fine intelligent-looking boys whom we met, told me, in answer to my inquiries, 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 but their waist-cloths, like the other peasants; they had, however, the Brahminical string over their shoulders; and Stowe, who, as well as 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 sketchbook 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 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 showed within the statue of Rama, seated on a lotus, with a gilt but tarnished umbrella over his head; and his wife, the earthborn 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 therefore of course complied, though a little surprised at a delicacy of which I had found no symptom in those Brahmins whom I had previously met with. This was not the only unforeseen circumstance which occurred. As the two temples of Siva really contained nothing to see, I thought one rupee was enough, in all conscience, between them, and told the priests that they were to divide it. No sooner, however, had it touched the threshold, than the two old men began scrambling for it in a most indecorous manner, abusing each other, spitting, stamping, clapping their hands, and doing every thing but striking; the one insisting that it belonged to him, whose threshold it had touched; the other urging the known intentions of the donor. I tried to pacify them, but found it of no use, and left them in the midst of the fray. Meantime the priest of Rama, who had received his fee before, and was well satisfied, came up, with several of the villagers, to ask if I would see the Raja's palace. On my assenting, they led us to a really noble gothic gateway, overgrown with beautiful broad-leaved ivy, but in good preservation, and decidedly handsomer, though in pretty much the same style, with the "Holy Gate" of the Kremlin in Moscow. Within this, which had apparently been the entrance into the city, extended a broken but still stately avenue of tall trees, and on either side a wilderness of ruined buildings, overgrown with trees and brushwood, which reminded Stowe of the baths of Caracalla, and me of the upper part of the city of Caffa. I asked who had destroyed the place, and was told Seraiah Dowla, an answer which (as it was evidently a Hindoo ruin) fortunately suggested to me the name of the Raja Kissen Chund. On asking whether this had been his residence, one of the peasants answered in the affirmative, adding that the Raja's grand-children yet lived hard by. By this I supposed he meant somewhere in the neighbourhood, since nothing here promised shelter to any beings but wild beasts, and as I went along I could not help looking carefully before me, and thinking of Thalaba in the ruins of Babylon;

Our guide meantime turned short to the right and led us into what were evidently the ruins of a very extensive palace. Some parts of it reminded me of Conway Castle, and others of Bolton Abbey. It had towers like the former, though of less stately height, and had also long and striking cloisters of Gothic arches, but all overgrown with ivy and jungle, roofless and desolate. Here, however in a court, whose gateway had still its old folding doors on their hinges, the two boys whom we had seen on the beach came forward to meet us, were announced to us as the great grand-sons of Raja Kissen Chund, and invited us very courteously in Persian, to enter their father's dwelling. I looked round in exceeding surprise. There was no more appearance of inhabitation than in Conway. Two or three cows were grazing among the ruins, and one was looking out from the top of a dilapidated turret, whither she had scrambled to browze on the ivy. The breech of a broken cannon, and a fragment of a mutilated inscription, lay on the grass, which was evidently only kept down by the grazing of cattle; and the jackalls, whose yells began to be heard around us as the evening closed in, seemed the natural lords of the place. Of course, I expressed no astonishment, but said how much respect I felt for their family, of whose ancient splendour I was well informed, and that I should be most happy to pay my compliments to the Raja, their father. They immediately led us up a short, steep, straight flight of steps, in the thickness of the wall of one of the towers, precisely such as that of which we find the remains in one of the gateways of Rhuddlan Castle, assuring me that it was a very "good road;" and at the door of a little vaulted and unfurnished room like that which is shown in Carnarvon Castle, as the queen's bed-chamber, we were received by the Raja Omichund, a fat shortish man, of about 45, of rather fair complexion, but with no other clothes than his waistcloth and Brahminical string, and only distinguished from his vassals by having his forehead marked all over with alternate stripes of chalk, vermilion, and gold leaf. The boys had evidently run home to inform him of our approach, and he had made some preparation to receive us in Durbar. His own Musnud was ready, a kind of mattrass laid on the ground, on which, with a very harmless ostentation, he had laid a few trinkets, a gold watch, betel-nut box, &c. &c. Two old arm chairs were placed opposite for Stowe and me. The young Rajas sat down at their father's right hand, and his naked domestics ranged themselves