going from door to door of the officers' quarters, as mendicants, soliciting contributions for the maintenance of their festival solemnities: nor did they ask in vain, gifts being often bestowed either thoughtlessly or from a presumed liberality, by the nominally christian Briton. Conjeveram is celebrated for its sacred and pompous pagodas: but it is also a place memorable in the annals of British warfare. From 1757 to 1780, frequent collisions between the English and French, or between Hyder Ali and the British, occurred here : and, on the year last named, an action was fought by Hyder and his son Tippoo, who personally commanded the Mysore forces, and Colonels Fletcher and Bailie, who led on the small Madras army. In military phrase, it was a well-fought field, but a most destructive conflict. The British troops were but a handful; and Hyder's strength was concentrated around their devoted position. The ranks of the British were, after protracted, heroic, and skilful resistance, broken by the blowing up of two tumbrils of ammunition, and their destruction or capture was completed by Hyder's horse or the French artillery. Many a brave soldier, but thoughtless man, found here his grave on the battle-field: and his slumbering dust serves to enrich the soil around Conjeveram.

The country is level and the soil generally poor; yet the town has the appearance of prosperity; it is large and regular; the streets are wide, and cross each other at right angles; they are shaded with rows of cocoa-nut trees on each side. The houses are generally built of mud, and such as are not terrace-roofed are covered with tiles. The tanks are large; but there is one distinguished above the rest for its size and celebrity-it is resorted to for ceremonial ablutions, by the inhabitants and worshippers from a distance. It is lined with stone, and furnished with flights of steps down to the water. The conduits by which these pools are supplied, are sluggish and scanty, and their chief dependance is upon the monsoon rains. Yet stagnant as are the waters, till they have sometimes seemed to me like a marsh rather than a flowing stream, with a green and sickly scurf gathered on the surface, hither the highest, as well as the lowest, brahmins repaired for cleansing. The first offices of purification in the morning, and other washings connected with pooja or daily devotions, bring the multitudes to these tanks, where all is performed, from the brushing of the teeth, and the necessary washings, to the sprinklings or immersions, and the minutest service which their idolatry enjoins. The principal inhabitants are brahmins, connected with two Hindoo temples; but the town is chiefly dependant upon the attraction and celebrity of the temple dedicated to Mahadeva. The grand entrance is lofty, with a pyramidal tower, gorgeous and tasteless. Its front, sides, and gateway are crowded with sculpture. The style of pagoda architecture is common through the peninsula. The tower is ascended by inside steps, and divided into stories; the central spaces on each being open and smaller as the tower ascends. The light is seen directly through them, and, according to the shades of the sky, which form the back-ground, the effect is sometimes beautiful. The sides of the steps leading to the pagoda are formed by two elephants drawing a chariot, carved in stone. The more sacred place is surrounded by a double wall. Upon a central paved court stands the inner temple, raised from the ground a few feet; a deep verandah runs round the whole court, supported by columns of stone, which serves as a receptacle or choultrie, for pilgrims and devotees. The form of these pillars is shaped to suit the appearance of animals sacred to the several deities by which they are rode. The walls, basements, entablatures, and all other parts of the pagoda are covered with sculptured imagery in alto, or demirelief. These fantastic representations of Vishnu, the preserver, Seva the destroyer, Krishnu, Gunesa, Kamadeva, Sureea, Chandava, Agni, and Baroona, with the bull and twisted snake, the flute, the parrot, the bow of sugar cane, the sun and his chariot, with a seven-headed horse; the moon and her antelopes, and the ram, and the crocodile, exemplify the absurdities of idol worship.

I have wandered about the courts of this huge and imposing temple, and, apparently without offence, have passed through the chambers where the idolatrous furniture was kept. There is an immense Ruth, or Car, and smaller conveyances for the idols: but I never entered the sanctuary where the idol is placed, or witnessed the worship offered before the shrine of the false god; which is at the far end of the central building. The carved work and imagery sculptured on the pillars and walls of the choultries and pagodas are, many of them, elaborately and well executed; but no English reader can imagine the scenes which are here exhibited in the light of day-incestuous and bestial pollution are the mildest forms of corruption; -never any scene so astonished me, or opened my eyes to the defilements of Hindooism. Things which it would be a shame for men even to think

of in secret, are here carved, as in action, on the granite pillars of the resting-places for the devotee, or by the gates at which he enters for worship.

It is by night that the scenery of their processions and idol worship are conducted with most pomp. Unawares, I found myself in the midst of one of these performances. On my approach to the town, along the public road, I passed numbers of natives, in groups of families or social pilgrims : some with burdens on their heads, others carrying children in their arms, or on their hips, or leading older ones who could run along; some were aged, and bent to their tall staves, but all were pressing onward to the scene of attraction; some devoutly, but others as to a merry making, or a gala-day. I came upon the scene in the centre of the town. The procession was led by a wandering faqueer, or religious mendicant an old man, vigorous and active, with a white flowing beard; he was robed in the sacred salmon-coloured cloth, and carried in his right hand a staff, with an iron head, shaped like Vishnu's sceptre. He sang and danced as he moved onward; he was followed by twenty or thirty mounted on Brahminee bullocks, and beating tom-toms; four elephants bearing banners, and the Nagara, or royal drum; and long files of dancing girls, their shining hair set with joys and garlands of flowers, and their hands linked in each others' as they moved in measured steps to the music of the temple. The image of Vishnu was small, adorned richly with jewels, and clothed with brocade; he was mounted on a gilt and glittering figure of Hanuman, the monkey god; and attendant brahmins carried the chowrie and chuttre, the cow-tail fan and umbrella. The idol and his attending ministers were carried on a vast platform, raised high above the heads of the crowd. The procession was closed by a company of shaven, chanting brahmins. The platform was lighted up by hundreds of torches borne around; fifty men carried large trisuls, whose trident heads were all flame; rockets were firing on all sides, and the other fire-works were numerous and vivid. Even the shining of the moon did not spoil their effect; there was a large supply of sulphurous blue in the fire-works, and the flaring blaze of the lamps and torches gave to the branches of the tall cocoa-trees a metallic lustre. Two immense colossal figures of pasteboard, gaudily dressed and dexterously