more so by very excellent steps, cut out in several places where the communication would be difficult or impracticable without them. A winding stair of this sort leads to a kind of temple cut out of the solid rock, with some figures of idols in high relief upon the walls, very well finished. From this temple there are flights of steps, that seem to have led to some edifice formerly standing upon the hill; nor does it seem absurd to suppose that this may have been a palace, to which this temple may have appertained; for besides the small detached ranges of stairs that are here and there cut in the rock, and seem as if they had once led to different parts of one great building, there appear in many places small water channels cut also in the rock, as if for drains to a house; and the whole top of the hill is strewed with small round pieces of brick, which may be supposed, from their appearance, to have been worn down to their present form during the lapse of many ages. On a plain surface of the rock, which may once have served as the floor of some apartment, there is a platform of stone, about eight or nine feet long, by three or four wide, in a situation rather elevated, with two or three steps leading up to it, perfectly resembling a couch or bed, and a lion very well executed at the upper end of it, by way of pillow: the whole of one piece being part of the hill itself. This the Bramins, inhabitants of the place, call the bed of Dhermarâjah, or Judishter, the eldest of the five brothers, whose exploits are the leading subject in the Mahabhârit. And at a considerable distance from this, at such a distance indeed, as the apartments of the women might be supposed to be from that of the men, is a bath, excavated also from the rock, with steps in the inside, which the Bramins call the Bath of Dropedy, the wife of Judishter and his brothers. How much credit is due to this tradition, and whether this stone couch may not have been anciently used as a kind of throne, rather than a bed, is matter for future inquiry. A circumstance, however, which may seem to favour this idea is, that a throne, in the Sanscrit and other Hindoo languages, is called Singhâsen, which is compounded of Sing, a lion, and âsen, a seat.

But though these works may be deemed stupendous, they are surpassed by others that are to be seen at the distance of about a mile, or mile and half, to the south of the hill. They consist of two pagodas, of about thirty feet long, by twenty feet wide, and about as many in height, cut out of the solid rock, and each consisting originally of one single stone. Their form is different from the style of architecture according to which idol temples are now built in that country. These sculptures approach nearer to the Gothic taste, being surmounted by arched roofs or domes, not semicircular, but composed of two segments of circles meeting in a point at top. Near these also stand an elephant full as big as life, and a lion much larger than the natural size, both hewn also out of one stone.

The great rock is about fifty or one hundred yards from the sea; but close to the sea are the remains of a pagoda built of brick, and dedicated to Sib, the greatest part of which has evidently been swallowed up by that element; for the door of the innermost apartment, in which the idol is placed, and before which there are always two or three spacious courts surrounded with walls, is now washed by the waves, and the pillar used to discover the meridian at the time of founding the pagoda, is seen standing at some distance in the sea. In the neighbourhood of this building there are some detached rocks, washed also by the waves, on which there appear sculptures, though now much worn and defaced. And the natives of the place declared to the writer of this account, that the more aged people among them remembered to have seen the tops of several pagodas far out in the sea, which, being covered with copper (probably gilt), were particularly visible at sun-rise, as their shining surface used then to reflect the sun's rays, but that now that effect was no longer produced, as the copper had since become incrusted with mould and verdigris. — CHAMBERS. Asiatic Researches.

Thou hast been call'd, O Sleep! the friend of Woe,

But 'tis the happy who have call'd thee so. XV. p. 129. Daniel has a beautiful passage concerning Richard II.

sufficiently resembling this part of the poem to be inserted here:

To Flint, from thence, into a restless bed,
That miserable night he comes conveyed;
Poorly provided, poorly followed,
Uncourted, unrespected, unobey'd;

Where, if uncertain Sleep but hovered
Over the drooping cares that heavy weigh'd,
Millions of figures Fantasy presents

Unto that sorrow waken'd grief augments.

His new misfortune makes deluded Sleep
Say 't was not so:false dreams the truth deny :
Wherewith he starts; feels waking cares do creep
Upon his soul, and give his dreams the lie,
Then sleeps again :—and then again as deep
Deceits of darkness mock his misery.

Civil War, Book II. st. 52, 58.

The Aullay.-XVI. p. 132.

This monster of Hindoo imagination is a horse with the trunk of an elephant, but bearing about the same proportion to the elephant in size, that the elephant itself does to a common sheep. In one of the prints to Mr. Kindersley's "Specimens of Hindoo Literature," an aullay is represented taking up an elephant with his trunk.

Did then the Ocean wage

His war for love and envy, not in rage,

O thou fair City, that he spared thee thus ?—XVI. p. 133.

Malecheren, (which is probably another name for Baly), in an excursion which he made one day alone, and in disguise, came to a garden in the environs of his city Mahâbalipoor, where was a fountain so inviting, that two celestial nymphs had come down to bathe there. The Rajah became ena

moured of one of them, who condescended to allow of his attachment to her; and she and her sister nymph used thenceforward to have frequent interviews with him in that garden. On one of those occasions they brought with them a male inhabitant of the heavenly regions, to whom they introduced the Rajah, and between him and Malecheren a strict friendship ensued; in consequence of which he agreed, at the Rajah's earnest request, to carry him in disguise to see the court of the divine Inder, —a favour never before granted to any mortal. The Rajah returned from thence with new ideas of splendour and magnificence, which he immediately adopted in regulating his court and his retinue, and in beautifying his seat of government. By this means Mahabalipoor became soon celebrated beyond all the cities of the earth; and an account of its magnificence having been brought to the gods assembled at the court of Inder, their jealousy was so much excited at it, that they sent orders to the God of the Sea to let loose his billows, and overflow a place which impiously pretended to vie in splendour with their celestial mansions. This command he obeyed, and the city was at once overflowed by that furious element, nor has it ever since been able to rear its head. · CHAMBERS. Asiatic Researches.

Round those strange waters they repair.

XVI. p. 135.

In the Bahia dos Artifices, which is between the river Jagoarive and S. Miguel, there are many springs of fresh-water, which may be seen at low tide, and these springs are frequented by fish and by the sea-cow, which they say comes to drink there. - Noticias do Brazil. MSS. i. 8.

The inhabitants of the Feroe Islands seek for cod in places where there is a fresh-water spring at the bottom. — LANDT.

The Sheckra.-XVIII. p. 151.

This weapon, which is often to be seen in one of the wheelspoke hands of a Hindoo god, resembles a quoit: the external

edge is sharp; it is held in the middle, and, being whirled along, cuts wherever it strikes.

The writing which, at thy nativity,
All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain.

XVIII. p. 154.

Brahma is considered as the immediate creator of all things, and particularly as the disposer of each person's fate, which he inscribes within the skull of every created being, and which the gods themselves cannot avert. — KINDERSLEY, p. 21. NIECAMP, vol. i. p. 10. § 7.

It is by the sutures of the skull that these lines of destiny are formed. See also a note to Thalaba (Book V. p. 211.) upon a like superstition of the Mahommedans.

Quand on leur reproche quelque vice, ou qu'on les reprend d'une mauvaise action, ils répondent froidement, que cela est écrit sur leur tête, et qu'ils n'ont pu faire autrement. Si vous pa

roissez étonné de ce langage nouveau, et que vous demandiez à voir où cela est écrit, ils vous montrent les diverses jointures du crâne de leur tête, prétendant que les sutures même sont les curactères de cette écriture mysterieuse. Si vous les pressez de déchiffrer ces caractères, et de vous faire connoître ce qu'ils signifient, ils avouent qu'ils ne le sçavent pas. Mais puisque vous ne sçavez pas lire cette écriture, disois-je quelquefois à ces gens entêtés, qui est-ce donc qui vous la lit? qui est-ce qui vous en explique le sens, et qui vous fait connoître ce qu'elle contient ? D'ailleurs ces prétendus caractères étant les mêmes sur la tête de tous les hommes, d'où vient qu'ils agissent si différemment, et qu'ils sont si contraires les uns aux autres dans leurs vues, dans leurs desseins, et dans leurs projets ?

Les Brames m'écoutoient de sang froid, et sans s'inquiéter ni des contradictions où ils tomboient, ni des conséquences ridicules qu'ils étoient obligés d'avouer. Enfin, lorsqu'ils se sentoient vivement pressés, toute leur ressource étoit de se retirer sans rien dire. P. MAUDUIT. Lettres Edifiantes, t. x. p. 248.