others of minor note, and finally visited the Doorma Lena, which contains the largest single room of any one of the caves. This is one hundred and thirty feet in width, and of nearly the same depth. Besides the large apartment, there were numerous smaller rooms arranged in suites. One of these had a colonnade opening upon the precipitous side of a deep and wild ravine, at the upper end of which was a pretty water-fall. Besides the usual sculptured ornaments, the Doorma Lena contained many images of Seewa and his wife Párbutee, the latter of whom was represented in the congenial occupation of impaling a baby. Whatever may be the size of the chambers in these apartments, the roofs are always very low, and the columns which support them broad and heavy. The latter are usually divided into about equal heights of capital, shaft, and base, the decorations of each being remarkably similar to the acanthus-leaf designs of Grecian architecture, and quite different from anything that I had seen elsewhere in India. In fact, these might be supposed to be the first rude attempts of art seeking for the perfect grace of the Corinthian capital, did we not know that the choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens was completed twelve hundred years before these caves were excavated. These caves are supposed to have been originally dug by the Boodhists, and subsequently altered by the Brahmuns to suit their worship. In some of them the alterations have been much more important than in others, but in almost all there are greater or less traces of a Boodhist origin. The figures of the gods, and the carvings which represent the obscene rites of Seewa's worship, are evidently late additions. The interiors were once decorated with paintings in very bright and durable colours, as the similar caves at Ajunteh are to the present day, but those in the caves of Ellora were all defaced and removed by that great iconoclast, Aurungzeeb. After breakfast, we all went into the Khailas again, and occupied ourselves until two o'clock in sketching some of the ornaments and capitals of the columns. While thus engaged, we were accosted by two yogees, *who had come from *Yogee, a Hindoo fukheer, or religious mendicant. Hurdwar, the origin of the Ganges Canal. One of these fukheers had made his hair of a dirty tow colour by keeping ashes and lime on it. He asked whether one of our party, whose locks were somewhat of the same hue, had made them so by the same means. In another of the caves we saw one of these same gentry, who was sitting gathered up in a heap, and had occupied the same position for a year without speaking, having taken a vow to do so for the remainder of his life, as his servant told us. While going through the temples in the morning, we saw a great many peasants, who had come from Weroola, where a fair was going on. They were going through the sights under the guidance of a Brahmun, who narrated the various legends connected with the gods represented, and demanded a contribution of money after each story. The peasants were mostly Maharatta girls, and very fine-looking. They were generally tall, stout, and well-made. They were clad in a saree, or veil, and a dhotee, tightly girt up around the loins, as is the custom near Bombay. These clothes were made of blue cotton, and their arrangement was well adapted to show the graceful forms of the wearers. The complexions of these girls were light, and their foreheads were marked with a cherry red spot of paint. All the natives in this part of the country had very light complexions, some scarcely darker than a Spaniard, and none so dark as the Bengalees, who are sometimes as black as any African. Even in Northern India I seldom saw the skin so light as the usual colour in the Bombay Presidency. What is a strange thing, the Portuguese,* as they are called, or the half-caste descendants of Portuguese, as they are really, who form a large class in Bombay, are often much darker than natives of unmixed blood, and are even occasionally as black as a Bengalee. * The population of India, of Portuguese descent, is reckoned at one miilion, while the number of the English in India, until the recent revolt, did not exceed fifty thousand, including the soldiers. Road to Dowlutabad-"The City of Riches"-A Stronghold-The "Master of the Plain" ABOUT two o'clock we left the caves, in order to arrive at Dowlutabad, six miles off, in time to see its castle by daylight. We again ascended the Ghât, and passed through Roza. The road was very bad, in fact merely a path leading through a wild, hilly, and deserted country, so we did not reach our destination until five o'clock, and consequently were obliged to see the celebrated fortress rather hurriedly. Dowlutabad, the "City of Riches," is a walled town built on a level plain which is surrounded by hills. The town is a considerable one, and entirely in the Moosulman style of architecture, having been rebuilt by Aurungzeeb. It contains several gardens of trees, and a tall, but now rather ruinous, minár erected by the Moosulmans to commemorate the taking of the place. In the centre of the city rises a very steep and rocky hill, about 700 feet high, upon the summit of which is the castle, considered by natives the strongest fortress in the world. It was built by the Emperor Mohummud Toghluk, who had a fancy for making this place his capital, and twice compelled all the inhabitants of Delhi to remove hither. Both migrations were attended with great suffering, but in the last a large proportion of the people died of starvation, as a famine prevailed at the time. The ascent to the fortress is alternately by a steep road and flights of stone steps. At intervals there are lines of strong defences surrounding the hill. The rocky summit of the hill, for a height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, is scarped perpendicularly, and is further defended by a deep ditch filled with water. From this point the only approach to the castle is by a subterranean passage, with steps hollowed out of the rock. The top of the hill is entirely occupied by the castle, which has very strong walls, and contains various tiers of fortified ramparts. We were led through the apartments of the zěnana, and one or two small garden-courts. The whole pile is quite extensive. On top of the highest tower we found a great cannon, twenty feet long, called "Maidan ka Malik" or "Master of the Plain." Close beside it, the standard of the Nizam, a triangular flag of tattered blue cotton, floated from a flag-staff. This fortress is said by the natives to have been besieged twelve years, by Aurungzeeb, to obtain the hand of a princess, the "Chand Beebee" -a not very probable story, as the Chand Beebee died fifty years before his reign began. The fortress of Dowlutabad must have been quite impregnable before bombs were used in warfare; and even they would not do the garrison much injury so extensive are the subterranean passages and apartments. Still, like most of the other fortresses of India, it is valueless to the English, as it commands nothing, and is only adapted for the stronghold of a robber-prince. It is, therefore, left in the hands of the Nizam, and garrisoned by a few of his sepoys, who are as miserable excuses for soldiers as I ever saw. Dowlutabad is famous for its grapes, which are very large, and resemble those produced in our hot-houses. Before leaving, we laid in a good supply of them to eat in our palkees. About eleven in the evening we arrived at the dâk-bungalow of Aurungabad, seven miles from Dowlutabad. We found that it would be impossible to get dinner, and were obliged to go to bed fasting, although we had had nothing but a cup of coffee and a biscuit during the day. However, we had been getting gradually used to irregularity of meals, and bore it like men. It was on the evening of February 24th that we arrived at Aurungabad. The next day was very warm, so we remained indoors eating the excellent grapes, oranges, and figs of this region, and witnessing the performances of some jugglers, which were by far the most wonderful feats of the kind I have ever seen, particularly as they were performed upon the gravel road, and without the least preparations. One of the tricks consisted in wrapping a boy in a net so tightly that he could neither move his feet nor his arms, which were folded across his chest. The net was then tied by a firm knot behind. The boy thus bound was placed in a basket only just large enough to hold him, and the basket, which lay on the ground, was covered with a cloth. After some ceremonies, the magician assured us that the boy had gone to the bazár, to prove which he called him, and was answered by a childish voice far in the distance. Whether this was effected by ventriloquism or a confederate, I do not know. He then ap proached the basket, and, to further prove that it was empty, thrust a spear through it in all directions. This part of the performance was quite incomprehensible, as the basket was so small that the boy could hardly be crammed in, in the first place; and it, as well as the spear, were submitted for our inspection, to show that there were no false bottoms, or other similar devices employed by European stage-jugglers. A few more ceremonies recalled the boy, who jumped out of the basket, unembarrassed by the net, which was rolled up and held in his hand. Toward evening we walked into the city, which is two miles from the cantonments where the bungalow is situated. Outside the walls is a tomb of one of Aurungzeeb's daughters, which is said to be a model of the Taj at Agra. It is, indeed, a good deal like it, but not nearly so large, and, moreover, built of pukka instead of marble. From the top of one of the minárs we had a view of the whole city, which is a place of much greater extent than I had supposed. It was built by Aurungzeeb, as its name implies, and is, like Roza and Dowlutabad, purely in the Moosulman style. On returning to the dâk-bungalow we informed our kuhárs, |