had magnificent weather during nearly all the rest of our trip -a matter of great importance in travelling by dhoolee, which affords but a slight protection against rain.

The scene presented as our long procession set out on the road, was very lively; and the shouts of the bearers added much to the effect. At starting, and at every village which we passed, they would sing out in chorus: "Sahib Bahadur, kee jaee!" "Kalee, kee jaee!"* words which mean nearly, "Help us, oh Kalee! A warrior lord is pleased to travel!" The people of the villages all replied by calling down blessings on our heads. Crowds of beggars ran alongside our dhoolees while we were in the villages, supplicating alms in the name of all sorts of gods, and calling us Shah Bahádur, warrior king, and Búndugee, or releaser of slaves.

We soon determined to walk and did so for eight miles, as far as Futtehpoor Seekree.

On the way we were passed by several very fierce looking suwars (native cavalry), wearing a dirty native uniform, and armed with spears and shields. One of these fellows stopped his horse, made a salám, and asked us, "Sahibon, upne tushreef kidhur lejate ?" "Whither are my lords carrying their honour's effulgence ?" On learning that we were going to Bhurtpoor, he informed us that he belonged to an escort of cavalry, which had come from that place to Agra, with eight lakhs of rupees ($400,000) as a loan from his master, the Rajah of Bhurtpoor, to the "Sircar Koompanee," or Sovereign Company, as the Honorable Company is called in that part of India.

The Indian government was then in considerable financial trouble, as Lord Dalhousie's great stroke of calling in the five per cent. loan, and re-issuing it at four and a half per cent., had proved a failure, as might have been expected in a country where twelve and fourteen per cent. is the usual interest paid for large sums. The difficulties of the government were, on this account, so great, that when I left Agra, it was currently

*This is the same in form as the old war-cry of the Sepoys: "Gunga jee, kee jaee!" "Oh, Lady Ganges, give thy aid !"

believed that Lord Canning had resigned the post of GovernorGeneral.

About two o'clock we arrived at Futtehpoor Seekree, which is twenty-four miles from Agra. It consists of a mass of fortifications, palaces, gateways, and other splendid buildings, situated on the summit and sides of a range of sandstone hills, three miles long, which rises abruptly a hundred and fifty feet above the alluvial plain.

The story of the foundation of this city is as follows. The Emperor Akbur lost all his children in their infancy. Filled with despair at this misfortune, and dreading the extinction of his line, he undertook a pilgrimage to the shrine of a celebrated Moosulman saint in Ajmeer. The distance was three hundred and fifty miles. The court and all the royal family marched on foot with the Emperor. Kannats, or cloth walls, were raised on each side of the road; and a brick tower was erected at the end of each day's journey, which was only four miles. At Ajmeer the saint appeared to Akbur, and bade him seek the prayers of a holy hermit, Suleem Cheestee, who lived at Seekree. The Emperor did so, and to his great joy, a child was soon afterwards born to him, who showed every sign of a strong and long-lived constitution. This son was named Suleem in honour of the holy man, and received the additional title of Jehangeer, "Conqueror of the World," by which he became known on ascending the throne.

To testify his gratitude Akbur built this magnificent city on the hill where the saint resided. He said he wished to live always near one whose prayers were so availing with heaven. The new town was called Futtehpoor Seekree, or "Seekree, the City of Victory."

We passed through an arched gateway and ascended the hill by a paved street, on each side of which were rows of redstone houses, once the residence of Akbur's lords. At length we found ourselves on a plateau, which had been formed into a great square. On one side was the massive palace of Akbur's prime minister-on the other, that of the Emperor himself. Both were of redstone, in the simple Saracenic architecture of the period. Time seemed to have left them uninjured-every

angle was sharp, the most delicate sculpture was perfect, and one could almost imagine the king and his court had gone forth to hunt, and would return by evening to their homes.

We left our dhoolees in the courtyard, and having given orders for dinner, at once set out to explore the place. The first object was the tomb of San* Suleem.

It stands within a marble-paved quadrangle, four hundred feet square, upon the very summit of the hill. A redstone wall forty feet high, with arched battlements surrounds the court, on the west side of which is a great mosque, with domes of white marble. The principal entrance is on the south side. It is a magnificent gateway of redstone, inlaid with marble. Its height is one hundred and twenty feet, and its breadth nearly the same. From it a noble flight of redstone steps descends pyramidally to the ground. On the right side of the entrance are the following words in Arabic, inlaid in the stone wall:-" Jesus, on whom be peace, has said: this world is merely a bridge; you are to pass over it, not build your dwellings upon it."

The quadrangle is surrounded by a pillared cloister leaning against the wall. On the east side, opposite the musjeed, is a smaller entrance leading to the palace square. In the centre is a large tank and fountain.

The tomb is just north of the fountain. It is a small square building, approached by steps on each side, surmounted by a dome and surrounded by a closed verandah-the whole of the purest white marble, polished. The interior is elaborately decorated with carving, gilding, painting, mosaic, and inlaid work of mother-of-pearl. The ornamentation has been managed with so much skill, that notwithstanding its richness and profusion, it does not interfere with the exquisite taste of the architecture, or the simple purity of the white marble.

The body of the saint lies within this building, surrounded by a screen of that delicate marble openwork, which looks as Bayard Taylor says, "as if it had been woven in a loom."

* Mahommedan saints have the word "San" prefixed to their names in India.

The quadrangle in which this tomb is contained, was considered by Bishop Heber so magnificent that "no quadrangle either in Oxford or Cambridge, is fit to be compared with it, in size or majestic proportions, or for beauty of architec

ture."

The whole is said to have cost thirty-seven lakhs, ($1,850,000),* which, it is said, was all defrayed from the property left by the saint, so that, although a hermit, he seems to have been a considerable capitalist.

As we were leaving the quadrangle, we were met by the old guide, who forthwith took us in hand to show us the other sights. The old fellow was quite a character. Although then over sixty-nine years old, and very infirm, he persisted in acting as guide, which he had done for all strangers ever since the place was first visited by Europeans. Among his written recommendations was one from Bishop Heber, and numerous others from men whose names have become famous in India. He suffered dreadfully from asthma, and it would have been ludicrous, had it not been a serious matter, to see him dragging his fat body up the steep staircases, at every few steps stopping to get his wind, blowing and grunting out sentences of the Korán in a deep and dissatisfied voice.

He is one of a number of the saint's descendants who live at Futtehpoor, and who are supported by the rent of lands left by the Emperor Akbur. The proceeds of the legacy are punctually paid by the government, who also keep the tomb of the saint in perfect repair.

We went with the old guide through the various courts, rooms, and passages of the vast palace. Two pavilions were pointed out to us as the separate residences of the Emperor's chief wives-Mariam, who is supposed to have been a Portuguese Christian; and another, who was the daughter of the Room-ee-Padshah, or Emperor of Rome, as the natives of India call the Sultan of Turkey. The apartments of the latter and, indeed, all the others in the palace, have stone walls

* In naming the cost of these buildings, the amount should be multiplied by four to obtain the corresponding sum, at the present day, in England.

arched above, and covered with deep and elaborate carvings of foliage and animals.

What is called the "throne-room," is one of the strangest things in the palace. It is a circular apartment with a domeshaped roof. From the centre of the floor rises a stone shaft sixteen feet high, which supports a small platform from which six stone radii diverge to the walls of the building. The tradition is, that Akbur used to hold his council sitting upon the capital of this column, while his ministers sat around him, one on each of the radii. A very original idea, and not altogether an improbable whim in a man so eccentric as Akbur.

In the court-yard before this throne-room, there was a low stone canopy, on a chubootra. Here, it is said, Akbur used to practice magic rites-but it is probable that the charge arose only from his rejection of the Mahommedan faith, and the general liberality of his religious views.

One court contained a large stone building known as the "Panch Mahul," or "Five Palaces." It consists of five stories rising pyramidally one above the other. Each story is surrounded by a row of columns, and the whole reminded me much of the style of Akbur's tomb. Its special use is not known.

Another court-yard in the portion of the palace appropriated to the Zenana, was paved with stone of various colours so as to form a gigantic "tric-trac" board. Here the Emperor used to play at pacheesee, a native game resembling “trictrac," or "backgammon"-the girls of the Zenana acting as "pieces," and going from one square to another as the "moves" were made. Off this court there was a small stone apartment divided into various recesses and alcoves. Here it is said the ladies of the Zenana used to play "blind man's buff,” and the building would be certainly admirably adapted for the purpose, although rather too small. But our guide described to us the real nature of the game, the principal features of which are altogether too disgusting even to be told, in this day and country.

This great palace contains numerous other courts, vesti