description of travellers; and evinced a profuse munificence which might be termed princely. On one side of the way is a range of low houses, built of brick and plastered, or chunamed; not unlike a set of English almshouses. Into these the considerate European sojourner will not enter. They are consecrated as ceremonially clean and retired, temporary, dwellings of the poor Hindoos of caste; square courts within, and an open space in the centre, with provision for ablutions and other observances connected with their religion, secure to the punctilious idolater opportunities equal to those enjoyed in the usual native houses. On the other side of the road, a spacious double-storied house, built in a style of finished and sumptuous elegance, according to Hindoo ideas of architecture, is set apart and guarded from the pollution or intrusion of the curious, for the more opulent classes of the Hindoos. The tank, or pond, with stone steps and a supply of water, has been constructed near to this building; and beyond it is placed the choultrie usually occupied by European travellers. It consists of a central hall, two rooms on each wing, and a cool and agreeable chamber above, to which we ascend by a flight of outside steps. This house is built on a raised foundation, and in a style which was deemed suitable to the tastes and manners of the English. When first opened, it was furnished with many luxuries, couches, tables, and rattan mats. I have heard that even wine and refreshments were provided by the liberality of the founder;

but the thoughtless or reckless conduct of some travellers is said to have destroyed the furniture, and provoked a cessation of the hospitality. The table was broken, the walls were disfigured by doggerel rhymes, or coarse expressions, and the corners of the rooms have been occupied for culinary purposes; so that the house is almost unfitted for the reception of English females, by the thoughtless ribaldry of their countrymen.

Contiguous to this, but surrounded by a small tope, or jungle, is a pundal, or rustic pagoda: rising from an elevated floor, twelve pillars of granite support a flat roof of the same material. The sides of the pillars are ornamented with sculptures of their mythology. Krishna in his childhood, on one; crushing the serpent, on another; and on a third, playing on the flute: Hanuman Rahoo, on a fourth pillar, swallowing the moon, with other representations. Some of these exhibitions are most indelicately offensive. Here the land is not generally cultivated; but there are villages where it has been cleared, and where the cultivation is varied with an abundance of the banian, the cocoa-nut, and the tamarind trees. Other parts are covered with jungle of a stinted and profitless description. The following domestic picture will give an idea of native travel in India.

Under the cool shade of that wide spreading banian tree, which shoots forth its tendrils and multiplies its pillared branches, an avenue around the parent stem, you will perceive a Hindoo family. The party consists of a man, his wife, and youthful daughter; their baggage has just been removed from the back of that weak and hungry-looking ox. It is about ten o'clock, and a meal has been prepared by the mother and daughter. The husband and father having pulled off his turban and upper garments, till his body is bared to the waist, he eats his solitary breakfast: neither wife nor daughter is allowed to partake with him. As soon as he has finished his repast, his daughter brings the ox's saddle, on which he lays himself down to sleep. The mother and daughter are then at liberty to take the portion which has been left for them: nor are they discontented; it is the universal custom of their people, and they have known no other. It was not, however, their lot to find rest when their scanty meal was finished. Though just come off a journey, they are busily employed in preparing the ingredients for the afternoon supply: firewood has first to be gathered. The fire-places are of simple, or rather rude preparation; two oblong holes in the ground containing the lighted wood, over which the cooking vessels are placed. The whole stock of culinary utensils consists of four earthen pots or chatties, and a brass pot. This last is an important part of the Hindoo's kitchen apparatus: it is used for drawing water and drinking from: as brass is almost the only material which can be used without violating their superstitious usages, since it admits of being cleansed, even although it has been touched by the impure saliva! Plates and dishes find a substitute, in the Hindoo kitchen, in the leaf of the Indian fig-tree. This leaf is of a thick and glutinous quality, and when dry and pinned together with bits of straw or thorns, it forms a substantial plate, off which I have myself taken my food. The turmeric, the tamarind, the cocoa-nut, the garlic, and red pepper, with other condiments, compose the mixture provided by these females for the dinner of their sleeping lord; and now they one or the other lie down to indulge the almost universal custom, and take their forenoon sleep. When the sun has gone down from his meridian, they will rise and make preparation for resuming their journey. I shall start at the same time for Bal-Chitty's choultrie, and try to take a few hours sleep there.

But, alas! the comforts to be here enjoyed are few. It is a small-sized granite choultrie, near to which is a tank surrounded with stone, with a few huts on both sides of the road, which, added to the two or three small shops, opposite the choultrie, compose the native village. Before the setting of the sun, if we take an evening walk about half a mile to the left, we shall find a rather pretty and rural village. Two grassy lanes, crossing at right angles, the one with the other, lead to the dwellings of the villagers; like most well-conditioned Hindoo hamlets, a grove of trees and a tank of water are placed side by side at the entrance. A few native travellers have halted for the night; some are performing their ablutions in the tank; others having cooked and taken their food, are preparing for their rest under the shelter of the tope. On each

side of the lanes there are rows of clay-built houses, some of them flat-roofed, and others roofed with tiles; a few are of more rude construction, with bamboo supporters, walled with matting or basketwork, and thatched with leaves of the palmyra or cocoa-nut tree. A few cocoa-nut trees are growing as an avenue before the better houses; and, in front, under a narrow verandah, seats of hardened clay have been raised two or three feet from the ground. The walls, inside and out, are painted or washed with a white and red daub, which has been laid on in alternate longitudinal stripes. It is a Brahmin village, or an Agraharan; except, therefore, a very few, every dwelling is sacred. The seat and the ground near the door of each have been marked with stripes of the ashes of cowdung, on which no man of lower caste dares to tread. These lines are fresh laid every morning. It is one of the first offices for a female of the family, at the break of day, to come forth with the cow-dung and water, and holding in her hand some incense, or a few sacred flowers, while she repeats a formula of prayer, to draw out these lines. The nearest tree enjoys the same marks of distinction. A court for their cattle, either in a central square or close behind, with a mud-wall enclosure, is attached to such houses. At the top of one of the lanes stands a stone choultrie, designed only for religious ceremonies, and containing a large wooden elephant, painted white and ornamentally gilded. Several pillars have been raised in front of the