LVIII.

Skeleton Mantis, and Oil plant of Guzerat.

There is as great a variety of plants cultivated for the oil which is expressed from their seeds, as there is of the Mantis tribe of insects, in Guzerat. The plant here delineated is one of the most delicate of its kind; and the mantis, or soothsayer, a singular variety among the creeping-leaves, begging-flies, and other insects of the mantis tribe.

LIX.

The Durbar, and adjacent Scenery at Dhuboy.

This plate represents the durbar, or palace of the former Hindoo governors, after being a little altered to the English fashion. It is pleasantly situated on the border of a tank, surrounded by temples and sacred groves of the brahmins. The fore-ground represents that part where cattle were generally led to water. The other sides are enclosed by walls of hewn stone, with steps to the water.

LX.

The Gate of Diamonds at Dhuboy.

The Memoirs contain a particular account of the Eastern Gate at Dhuboy, and assign a reason for this distinguishing appellation. The plate represents its present ruinous state, and the remains of its former magnificence, in the temple and adjoining part of the city walls.

LXI.

Specimen of Hindoo Sculpture on the Gate of Diamonds, at Dhuboy. This composition was selected to convey some idea of the immense profusion of sculpture bestowed on this celebrated eastern portal, particu

larly described in the Memoirs. One hundred thousand figures of different kinds would fall far short of the number sculptured on its walls and

towers.

LXII.

Peasants at a Well in Hindostan.

The engraving was made from a drawing by Baron de Montalembert, and is an exact representation of the subject. The ox carries a double skin filled with water, hanging on each side, which is sold in the cities and towns throughout India at a very moderate price.

LXIII.

The Indian Squirrel and Tamarind.

These are both of the natural size and colours. There are larger squirrels in India, more like those in Europe; but the little beauty here delineated is common in every town and village throughout Hindostan; perfectly familiar in the houses and gardens of natives and Europeans: the stripes are sometimes of a darker brown. The tamarind leaves and blossoms are of the usual standard; the fruit is shorter than is generally seen, on account of the size of the plate.

LXIV.

Grains in Guzerat. Chena, Buntee, Codra, Natchnee.

The early grains were all drawn from nature, at the commencement of the different harvests in the Dhuboy Purgunna. The Linnean names, and specific distinctions are mentioned in the work: their varied tints, and rich appearance add much to the beauty of the luxuriant plains of Guzerat. These grains are all reaped, in what is called the first harvest, commencing soon after the periodical rains are over.

LXV.

Grains in Guzerat. Juarree, Bahjeree, Batty, or Rice.

These latter grains, whose Linnean distinctions appear in the work, are more nutritive and yaluable than those in the preceding plate. They were all drawn and coloured from nature; and when fully ripe, clothe the fertile purgunnas with the most luxuriant and varied beauty, in a province deservedly named the Paradise of Nations.

LXVI.

The Wedded Banian Tree.

This tree is so called in Hindostan, where the seed of the Palmyra (borassus flabelliformis) has been dropped by a bird, or scattered by the wind into the decaying trunk of a burr, or banian-tree, (Ficus indica). The trees thus united form a peculiar contrast, especially when the Palmyra soars loftily above the spreading branches and picturesque trunks of the burr. The trees from which this drawing was made grew near the bottom of the excavated mountains in the island of Salsette; and were much frequented by the Baya, or bottle-nested sparrow.

LXVII.

Hindoo Devotees of the Gosaing and Jetty Tribes.

The various tribes and castes of Hindoo mendicants are fully described in the Memoirs. The Gosaing with his lark is one of the Gymnosophists, who generally travel throughout Hindostan without clothes. The Jetty, or Bramacharee, is another kind of beggar, who always ties a cloth over his mouth, from the fear of inhaling some animalcula with his breath, and

thereby hastening a spirit into another state of existence, according to the doctrine of the Hindoo metempsychosis.

LXVIII.

Hindoo Devotees of the Jungam and Byragee Tribes.

These superstitious mendicants have some characteristic difference from those in the preceding plate, the detail of which would be neither interesting nor entertaining to the English reader. Some of the distinctions in the artificial gradations of caste among these people are slightly mentioned in the Memoirs. The contrasted appearance of the well-fed Jungam and the meagre habit of the abstemious Byragee are sufficiently

obvious.

LXIX.

Scene on the Banks of the Nerbudda, near Chandode.

Although mentioned near Chandode, this drawing, made considerably more to the westward, contains a view of the village of Succultera, and the sacred groves in that part of the Baroche Purgunna; with the costume of the natives.

LXX.

A Brahmin Woman of Distinction in Guzerat.

This drawing was taken from a brahmin female of high rank, who could not, from religious prejudice, drink water drawn by a woman of inferior caste. There is a grace and dignified air peculiar to these women, arising from the simple custom of carrying jars of water upon the head; sometimes two or three are placed on each other. A Hindoo temple and Ficus Indica in the distant view.

LXXI.

Small Hindoo Dewal on the bank of the Nerbudda.

These little temples, generally shaded by a banian-tree, are built near a Hindoo village, for the convenience of the peasants; and also for the comfort of the boatmen navigating the river; who on festivals, and stated ceremonies, frequently land, and perform their devotions to the deity therein worshipped. The Raje-pipley hills form the distant prospect.

LXXII.

A Banian Tree, consecrated for Worship in a Guzerat Village.

This tree was sketched, not only for its perfect form, and the ramifications and trunks surrounding the parent stems, (from which they did not then extend to a great distance,) but because it gave an exact representation of a village deity often mentioned, in those small hamlets where no building is appropriated to Hindoo worship. To this stone, sometimes rude and shapeless, and sometimes sculptured into the form of a deity, the peasant repairs to perform his daily devotions.

LXXIII.

Scenery among the Sacred Hindoo Groves at Chandode.

This view contains some of the smaller dewals, or temples, under the Ficus Indica and groves of Mango and Pepal trees, on the banks of the river Nerbudda, where the brahmins pass their lives in voluptuous indolence, with the female choristers, and dancing girls. Sacred bulls stray unmolested, and monkeys are cherished, while the poor out-cast Chandalah is not permitted to enter, nor even to breathe the surrounding atmosphere.