the road was so badly marked, that we several times lost our way. We, however, found some cultivation around the one or two villages which we passed, and saw a field of poppies, which showed that we were approaching Malwa, the great opium country of Western India. The poppies were in flower, and looked very beautiful, especially to me, who had not seen any other flowers in India, except those used in the worship of idols.

We did not arrive at Ummeerghur till after eight o'clock, and got dinner at midnight. The next day we had to rest, as our bearers were quite used up by the twenty hours' march of the day before. We therefore spent the 1st of February at Ummeerghur, and treated our men to some goats, which cost us eight anas, (24 cents,) apiece, and were, I suppose, bought by the men for one-half or two-thirds of that money.

During the day, we walked out to the borders of a lake, just outside the town. Its banks were shaded by parallel lines of beautiful trees, in the shade of which we took our seat, and watched the women washing clothes, and the Brahmuns worshipping a shapeless stone, which they painted red, and decorated with silver ornaments. They could not venture to do the latter further north, as some sacrilegious Moosulman would be sure to walk off with the idol's jewelry.

Towards evening, we walked into the town. It is of moderate size, walled, and built at the foot of a hill, on the summit of which is a ruined stone castle. The only objects of interest in the town were three very regular and handsome Hindoo temples, built in a row.

CHAPTER XXIX.

COUNTRY OF THE MAHARATTAS.

Arrival at Chittôr-The Town-Remarkable Situation of the Fortress-Seven Miles of Ruins-Tank-The Moon Lady-The Great Temple-Hindoo Religious Architecture-The Great Tower-Antiquity of Hindoo Ruins-Religious Pic-nic-Enter the Maharatta Territories—“ Zubburdustee"-"The Good Old Rule"-Poppy-fieldsNeemuch-Noble Banyan Tree-Irrigation-Mundissoor-A Pleasant Resting-place -Jowra-Nawáb's English Palace-Khachród-New Style of Architecture-Wrestling-The Soobah's Politeness-Oojén-The City-Temple of Kunaia-The God's Carriage-Indian "Punch"-The Maharattas-A Native Government-Professional Robbing-Spread of the Maharatta Power-Nature of their Government-Their Subjugation by the English-Gwalior States-The Police-Indirect Utility of Native Misrule.

WE left Ummeerghur on the evening of February 1st, and next morning I awoke on a jungul, separated from the other palkees, my bearers having taken a short cut which compelled us to go a mile down the river for a ford, so that I arrived at the dak-bungalow of Chittôr at eight o'clock, half an hour after the others. The march was twenty-two miles.

After breakfast, we went out to see the place, which had much excited our curiosity, as well from Bishop Heber's glowing description, as from the view of the minárs and other prominent buildings which were visible from the dâk-bungalow.

We had a very hot walk of a mile, over a bare and sandy plain, and then, crossing by a fine stone bridge over a river which is a tributary of the Jumna, we entered the town through a gateway in the stone wall which surrounds it.

It is a place of about five thousand inhabitants, and was once the capital of an independent raj. We stopped in the bazár to eat some cocoa-nuts, and while we were so engaged, two chowkeedars, or native policemen, armed with sword and

shield, came up with the kamdar's salám,* and said that they had directions to accompany us to see all the objects of interest, and that the kamdar regretted having no elephants to offer us.

The fortress is situated on the level summit of a hill, rising behind the town, and extending for some distance on each side of it. The line of fortifications extends for ten or twelve miles around the edge of the hill, the sides of which are naturally precipitous, or have been artificially scarped, so that it presents on all sides a perpendicular wall of rock, from eighty to a hundred and fifty feet in height. Lower down, the hill-side slopes more gradually to the plain on which the town is built.

The only approach is by a road, beginning in the town, and winding along the side of the hill. It is broad enough for a wagon, well paved, with a stone wall on the outside, and five fine gateways, now in ruins, but anciently capable of defence.

The summit of the hill is nearly level, and comprises within the fortifications a space of six or seven square miles, full of palaces, temples, tanks, minárs, and the remains of many dwelling-houses. The latter were quite ruinous, but many of the other buildings were in good preservation, and some of the temples still in use.

We first went down into a deep tank, cut in the solid rock. The tank is supplied by a fine spring, which gushes out of a marble temple richly carved. On the other side is a large pavilion of brown stone, with steps descending into the water. The place was delightfully cool and shady, the trees which grew on the bank above, leaned over the pool, and kept away the scorching beams of the sun; and their boughs hung down almost to the water's surface. We found it so pleasant a resting-place, after our hot and tiresome walk, that we could not persuade ourselves to quit it, and sat for a good hour on the steps of the pavilion, with our feet in the cool water of the tank. Our guide occupied the time by telling us of a great and powerful princess, the Chand Beebee, or Moon

*The kamdar's salám, i. e., the compliments of the mayor.

Lady, who once held her court here. The Emperor Akbur, he said, asked her in marriage, and when she refused, he besieged the fortress for seven years. At the end of that time, the place yielded to the assault, and Pudda Mahoot, (for that was the real name of the princess, and Chand Beebee was only a title,) collected all her women and treasure in a little house built upon a lake above, and there, rather than fall into her captor's hands, set fire to her place of refuge, and was burned up, with all her treasures, women, and children—a voluntary Joár, or human sacrifice to Bhowánee. This was the substance of what he said, freed from the decorations and inconsistencies, which were many, as he told it. How much truth there is in the story, I do not know. Something like it happened, as Bishop Heber says, at Oudipoor, and I heard nearly the same legend at several other places. The name of the Chand Beebee certainly appears in history as one of the most powerful and obstinate opponents who resisted the conquest of the Děkkun by the Emperor Akbur. She sustained a long siege from his forces, in the fort of Ahmudnuggur, and was finally slain by a revolt of her own soldiery, during a second siege of the same place, conducted by Akbur in person.

When we were sufficiently rested, we visited a deserted temple, immediately above the tank. It was very remarkable, not only for the elaborate carvings of dancing women, and other figures upon the outside, but for the curious idol in the interior. This was a colossal bas-relief of a head, eight feet high, quite unlike anything else which I saw in India, and looking as if it had come from Egypt.

We had next a walk of half a mile in the sun, through the ruins of palaces and other buildings, which would no doubt have repaid examination, if we had had the time. We also passed several large tanks, hollowed out of the rock, and having stone pavilions on their banks, or sometimes upon artificial islands in the water.

At length we arrived at the largest temple, which is built entirely of white marble, very elaborately and deeply carved. Its form is the same as that of all Hindoo temples-the essen

tial part of which, the shrine, is everywhere a little dark apartment, over which rises the pyramidal spire which is a universal characteristic. This is the type of all mundrăs in India, the only variations being in the details and decorations. The approach to the shrine is by open porticoes, the roofs of which are supported by columns, and each of which rises a few steps higher than the last. The whole is situated within

a court.

The colonnades, or porticoes, and the court, are both nonessential features, and not often seen. In a few instances the roofs of the porticoes are supported by double or even triple rows of columns, and in one or two cases the courts which enclose the temple are very large, in one instance as much as four miles square; but however extensive such accessory features may be, the shrine is always very small, massively built, and lighted only by a low door.

This temple had two open porticoes, and was built in the midst of a court, perhaps a hundred and fifty feet square. The material of every part was pure white marble, elaborately sculptured. The goddess worshipped was Bhowánee, represented by a hideous black figure, with her hands full of weapons and instruments of torture, her mouth smeared with blood, and her neck circled by a chaplet of skulls. There were three or four Brahmuns in the temple, who clamoured for bucksees, and when we refused it became very insolent. After we left the temple they brought water and washed the whole place, to free it from the defilement which it had contracted from our presence. The trouble which we had caused them did not cause us the slightest compunction; on the contrary, we were pleased by finding that we had been the means of interrupting their habitual laziness. One of our native guides considered it a most excellent joke; but the other looked upon it in a serious light, and seemed to be afraid of the revenge of the Brahmuns, though whether their anger would affect his spiritual or temporal prosperity we could not quite understand.

A little beyond this temple was the largest tank, upon the banks of which was a considerable palace of brown stone, and