it is said, are unable to eat it. The leaves are large and shining; and the flowers which grow in full bunches, of so rich a nature, that when gathered and dried in the sun, they resemble malaga raisins in flavour and appearance. These blossoms are ate in various ways, either as a preserved fruit, or to give an acidity to curries and other savoury dishes; but their great

of

est consumption is in the distillery of arrack, of which there are many kinds, from rice, jaggaree, tari, and sugar: this by way distinction is called mowah-arrack, and is so strong and cheap a spirit that the lower class of natives drink it to great excess : its consequences are as pernicious as the same deleterious liquor in Europe. In a plentiful season a good tree produces from two to three hundred pounds weight of flowers; the proportionate quantity of spirit I cannot ascertain. The flowers are

never entirely gathered. Those that remain

on the tree are succeeded by a fruit or shell containing a pulp of delicate whiteness, from which is extracted an oily substance like butter or ghee, which keeps a long time, and for family use answers all the purposes of those valuable articles. The kernel or seed contains an oil of in

ferior quality and more rancid flavour: it does not congeal and is chiefly used by the poor."-Ibid. vol. 2, p. 451.

[Eastern Hospitality.] "HOSPITALITY to strangers prevails throughout Guzerat; a person of any consideration passing through the province is presented at the entrance of a village, with fruit, milk, butter, firewood, and earthenpots for cookery; the women and children offer him wreaths of flowers. Small bowers are constructed on convenient spots, at a distance from a well or lake, where a person is maintained by the nearest villages, to take care of the water-jars, and supply all travellers gratis. There are particular

travellers to accept of one day's provisions; whether they be many or few, rich or poor, European or native, they must not refuse the offered bounty."-Ibid. vol. 2, p. 415.

[Indian Holybreds, or, Sacred Lands.] and vujiessa lands, are set apart in each "SOME particular fields, called pysita village for public purposes; varying perhaps as to the mode of application, in different districts; but in most the produce of these lands is appropriated to the maintenance of the Brahmins, the cazee, washerwoman, smith, barber, and the lame, blind, and helpless; as also to the support

of a few vertunnees, or armed men, who are kept for the defence of the village, and to conduct travellers in safety from one village to another. An English reader may perhaps be surprised to see the barber in the list of pensioners: there is seldom more than one in each village; he shaves the inhabitants gratis; and as he has no exercise in the day, it is his province at night to carry a mussaul, or torch, to light travellers on the road, or for any other purpose required; no time remaining for him to attend to husbandry or to provide for his family, it is but just he should be maintained at the public expense; this is also to be applied to the washerwoman and the smith, who work for the village, without any other emolument. In some places, particularly in Mysore, there is an appropriation of grain to the saktis or destructive spirits; and perhaps to many other deities who may be the objects of hope or fear in the worship of the villagers."—Ibid. vol. 2, p. 416.

[The Blood-stones of Cobra.] "In this town of Diu the so much famed stones of Cobra are made, they are composed of the ashes of burnt roots, mingled

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with a kind of earth they have, and once again burnt with that earth, which afterwards is made up into a paste, of which these stones are formed. They are used against the stinging of serpents and other venomous creatures, or when one is wounded with a poisonous weapon. A little blood is to be let out of the wound with the prick of a needle, and the stone applied thereto which must be left till it drop off of itself. Then it must be put into woman's milk; or if none can be had, into that of a cow, and there it leaves all the venom it hath imbibed; for if it be not so used, it will burst."-THevenot.

[Oriental Wells.]

"THE well is usually built on a spot in some degree elevated above the neighbouring fields with one, two, or more levers, inserted into forked posts, and moving on pivots, placed near its brink; the butt-end of each lever is loaded with mud sufficiently to overpower the weight of an earthen or iron pitcher, when filled with water. This pitcher being fastened to a rope, of which the part that touches the water is made of green ox hides, as being less subject to rot than hemp, and suspended thereby from the peak of the lever, the operator pulls down the peak until the vessel reach the water. When it is filled, he suffers the lever to act; and the loaded end, descending again, draws up the pitcher, which empties itself into a reservoir, or channel, whence the water is conducted by small rills into an immense number of partitions, made by a little raised mould. A person attends to open each partition, in its turn, and to stop the water when the bed has received a sufficient supply. Thus each bed or partition is adequately watered. Some wells are worked by a pair of oxen, which draw over a pulley, and raise, as they walk down an inclined plane, a leather bag containing from twenty to forty gallons at a time. This process is chiefly confined

from the month of November to that of February, when the corn, opium-fields, &c. are growing.

"From the insecure manner in which these wells are generally finished, as well as from the looseness of the soil in many places, they rarely last long. In such cases the peasant digs others, without doing anything to those which have fallen in. This is productive of considerable danger, not only to hunters, but to foot passengers; many of whom are precipitated into them. Several collectors of districts are very rigid in causing every old well to be distinguished by a pillar of mud, sufficiently high to be seen above the surface of the highest crops. These serve as beacons as do the levers to such wells as are in use. It is a pity such a precaution were not in universal practice."-Oriental Sports, vol. 1, p. 25.

[The fallen Fortunes of the Great City of Agra.]

"THE country through which we travelled for several days past has presented a melancholy picture, occasioned by a dreadful famine, which had sadly diminished the population, and left the survivors in a state of misery. At Gwalier the whole suburbs were strewed with skeletons; and from thence to Agra the villages were generally uninhabited, and the land became a wilderness from want of cultivation; but our arrival at Agra presented a scene lamentable beyond conception.

"The gloom of the morning veiled the suburbs in a great measure from our observation, and we entered the gates of Agra, or Akber-abad, with the early dawn; and proceeding through the quarter called Momtazabad, beheld on all sides the most melancholy objects of fallen grandeur, mosques, palaces, gardens, carravansaries, and mausoleums, mingled in one general ruin.

"Agra had been the frequent subject of our conversation, we had anticipated much novelty, and expected every comfort at

the close of our fatiguing journey-instead of the spacious squares and frequented streets of a great capital, it was with difficulty and danger we kept our horses on their feet amidst the magnificent, but terrible mass of ruin. Few persons can have an idea of the painful sensations excited by such a view of this once celebrated city, for few have the opportunity of contemplating an object so deplorable! In the midst of this chaotic heap of desolation, our attention was suddenly roused by a stupendous fabric bursting on our view, in complete repair and resplendant beautya splendid structure, with domes and minarets of the purest white, surmounting the dark umbrage of rich surrounding groves, produced in such a situation a most extraordinary effect."-FORBES, vol. 4, p. 36.

[Noble Generosity of a Chinese Merchant.]

66 "I THINK it very probable you may meet our friend Cat Tellicherry or Cochin, in one of the Portuguese ships from Macao, which generally arrive about this time. You have heard of his late misfortunes; but it is possible you may not know by what means his affairs are likely to be retrieved. You, who were formerly so well acquainted with this worthy man in India, know that he afterwards resided many years highly respected at Canton and Macao; where a sudden reverse of fortune lately reduced him from a state of affluence to the greatest necessity. A Chinese merchant, to whom he had formerly rendered service, gratefully offered him an immediate loan of ten thousand dollars, which the gentleman accepted, and gave his bond for the amount; this the Chinese immediately threw into the fire saying, 'When you, my friend, first came to China, I was a poor man; you took me by the hand, and assisting my honest endeavours, made me rich. Our destiny is now reversed: I see you poor, while I am blessed with affluence.' The by-standers had snatched the bond

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from the flames; the gentleman, sensibly affected by such generosity, pressed his Chinese friend to take the security, which he did, and then effectually destroyed it. The disciple of Confucius, beholding the renewed distress it occasioned, said he would accept of his watch, or any little valuable as a memorial of their friendship. The gentleman immediately presented his watch; and the Chinese, in return, gave him an old iron seal saying, 'Take this seal ; it is one I have long used, and possesses no intrinsic value: but as you are going to India to look after your outstanding concerns, should fortune further persecute you, draw upon me for any sum of money you may stand in need of, seal it with this signet, sign it with your own hand, and I will pay the money.'"-Ibid. vol. 4, p. 242.

[Black Teeth.]

BLACK teeth are in so much esteem among the Banyans that they call the whiteteethed Europeans bondra, or apes.-P. H. BRUCE.

[Custom of Plaistering Floors with CowDung.]

"As the Hindoos have not solid squares to use like us, they make their floors of earth so slightly that they cannot last long; when, therefore, they wish their floors to be well united, polished, and solid, they plaister them over with cow-dung, which they mix up with water, if it is not liquid, but use without when fresh; and applying it either with the hands, or with an instrument like a trowel, they render their floors whole, polished, bright, and solid, with a greenish colour, as the cattle are fed only on herbs. But it has this advantage, that the polishing is done at once, and it dries immediately, and so thoroughly that you can immediately make use of the room. As I told you, they expected us, and we found in the houses where we were to lodge, people ac

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tually thus employed when we arrived; and yet the floors of the chambers dried at once, and we remained in them. Certainly this is quelque chose de beau et de galant; when I return to Italy I shall try it the more willingly, as they say that such floors have marvellous virtue against the plague. All the inconvenience which I find is that this beauty and polish does not last long, but to be preserved, requires to be renewed every eight or ten days; this, however, signifies little, as it is so easily done, and costs nothing but a servant's labour. The Portugueze use this practice at Goa, and in their other Indian settlements."-PIETRO DELLA VALLE.

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[Cow-Dung Flooring in the East.] "THE custom so universal in India, of using cow-dung for covering for floors and walls, can scarcely be considered as a superstition; for it is used for floors by all sects, as well as Hindus, as the most cool and cleanly article. Once a week, perhaps, it is common to rub over earthen floors with fresh cow-dung, mixed up with as much water as will render it easy to spread: this is done, not only in tents and temporary houses of gentlemen, but sometimes over the best apartments of splendid habitations of Europeans, as well as natives. The smell, which is not at first unpleasant, quickly goes off; and no floor is so cool and comfortable, nor so obnoxious to fleas and vermin. This pleasant and salutary article is falling into disuse with the English, who in their habitations and habits, are departing more and more from the sober dictates of nature, and the obedient usages of the natives."-Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 141.

[Advantage in the East of Unglazed Win

the sun, reflected by marble or polished floors: domestic comfort is sacrificed to exterior decoration.

"No man of taste would now build a low sun-excluding veranda, nor mitigate the intensity of the heat by a cow-dung flooring. In Bombay, the delectable light that, twenty or thirty years ago, was so commonly admitted through thin semi-transparent panes, composed of oyster-shells, is no longer known among the English, except in the church; and these, perhaps, will when the present worthy clergyman shall vacate his cure, give way to the superior transparency of glass. The church will then be, like our new house, insufferably hot; and the adaptation of pankhas, monstrous fans, ten, twenty, thirty, or more feet long, suspended from the ceiling of sitting rooms, and moved to and fro by men outside, by means of ropes and pullies, will be necessary."-Ibid. p. 142.

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[Indian-Lamps.]

"FLAMBEAUX are not made in India, but instead, certain lamps (falots) of metal, shaped like those which are painted in the hands of the infernal furies; and of which the fire is supported by bituminous and other dry substances, placed in the bason of these torches. This flame is increased by a certain unctuous liquor, which the torch-bearer carries in a metal flagon with a very long neck, made purposely that when he pours it slowly on, to increase the flame, the length may secure him from injury."— PIETRO DELLA VALLE.

These riches were generally secreted in temples: hollow images were filled with jewels; gold and silver, which had been accumulating for ages, were buried under the pavement. At the destruction of the temple of Somenaut, the Brahmins offered the Sultan a large sum to spare the principal idol, which he refused, saying he preferred the title of 'the destroyer of idols,' to the 'seller of idols,' and, brandishing his mace, inflicted so violent a blow on the image, that it broke in pieces, and there issued from it an amazing collection of the most precious jewels. The Sultan was immediately congratulated by his Mahomedan courtiers, on the purity and effect of his zeal; and from thence assumed the additional title, a glorious one in their estimation, of Bhool Skikun, the 'Destroyer of Idols.'"-FORBES, vol. 3, p. 142.

[Holy Prayer!]

"GIVE to us, and to all thy servants whom thy Providence hath placed in these remote parts of the world, grace to discharge our several duties with piety towards thee our God; loyalty towards our king; fidelity and diligence towards those by whom we are employed; kindness and love towards one another, and sincere charity towards all men; that we, adorning the gospel of our Lord and Saviour in all things, these Indian nations among whom we dwell, beholding our good works, may be won over to the love of our most holy religion, and glorify thee, our Father which art in heaven!"-Ibid. p. 30.

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a strong proof of the magnificence of that great but bigoted monarch, and of the melancholy mutability of human grandeur; for in the short space of ninety years, the splendid remains of this princely structure are mouldering into dust, and some parts quite obliterated!

"We first entered by a lofty gateway into a vast area called the Jellougah, or the place where the imperial guards paraded; the gates here, as in most other oriental palaces and cities, being intended for the admission of state elephants, with the exalted houdar on their backs, are on a large scale, and add much to the general grandeur. From the Jellougah we ascended a noble flight of steps into another spacious court, on the western side of which was the duanaum, or public hall of audience, and opposite to it the nobat khani, or music-gallery. On approaching the hall of audience, a timid hare started from the spot where stood the musnud of Aurungzebe; that throne where the proudest monarch in the world was seated in all his glory! The throne was elevated in the most conspicuous part of this superb hall; the hall itself was filled with ameers of the first distinction, and the

spacious court crowded with haughty warriors and other nobles, while the air echoed with the swelling notes from the Nobat Khani, and the voices of the chopdars and heralds loudly proclaiming, May the King of the World live for ever!' From that throne, which the proudest nobles then approached with awe and palpitation, now sprang forth a terrified little hare!'"-SIR CHARLES MALET.- Ibid. vol. 3, p. 105.

[The Hindoo Princes and their Secret
Chamber.]

"MANY Indian Princes, Hindoos and Mahomedans, as also the wealthy nobles, have a favourite upper chamber, with walls and ceiling covered with mirrors of every size and shape: in the centre is a sofa or a swinging bed, suspended from the roof,

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