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pilgrims and strangers attracted to this sacred spot, often amount to several thousands.*

The ruins of Buddha Gaya are situated in an extensive plain, a few hundred yards from the Nilayan river, which, by its junction with another torrent, the Mahana, forms the Phalgu. They now consist mostly of irregular and shapeless heaps of brick and stone. The number of images scattered all round this place to a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, is astonishing; "yet, they all appear to have belonged to the great temple or its vicinity, and to have been carried thence to different places." The most remarkable modern edifice is a convent of sannyasies. This appears to have been at one time the metropolis of Buddhism; + but none of that sect are now to be found in the vicinity. Here, as elsewhere, the votaries of Mahadeva have obtained the ascendancy over the disciples of the royal philosopher of Benares; and the sanctity of Gaya, according to the Brahminical legends, is owing to the victory obtained here by Vishnoo, over an asoor named Gaya. The Gayawals, or priests of Gaya, have the character of being pre-eminently ignorant, dissolute, and extortionate; and the British Government is unhappily disgraced by a partnership in their infamous gains.‡ -We now resume our voyage up the Ganges.*

Hamilton, vol. i. p. 264. We greatly regret that we are unable to furnish a more particular description of this interesting city. † See MOD. TRAV. Birmah, pp. 98-102. Gaudama is believed to have flourished in the sixth century before the Christian era; and the overthrow of the last Buddhic dynasty is supposed to have taken place about 300 years B. C.

Hamilton, vol. i. p. 265. "The British Government has an agent at Gaya, who levies a tax on each pilgrim according to the magnitude of the ceremonies he means to perform." In 1811, the number of pilgrims who obtained licenses, exceeded 31,000, They are chiefly Bengalees and Mahrattas,

On the 16th, the Bishop left Monghyr, and early on the fourth day, reached Patna. Near the place where he moored on the 16th, was the first field of barley that he had seen in India. The ground, which appeared to be a sand-bank recovered from the river, was full of monstrous ant-hills, looking at a distance like large hay-cocks. Both ants and cockroaches are a great plague in this part, and the lizard performs a useful service in diminishing their numbers. Near the mooring-place, a very large crocodile swam close to the boat, not of a black and dusky colour, like those in the lower country, but "covered with stripes of yellow and brownish black, like the body of a wasp, with scales very visibly marked, and a row of small tubercles along the ridge of his back and tail." At the village where the Bishop stopped the next evening, there were some Brahmins ploughing, their strings flowing over their naked shoulders. "The ground was sown with rice, barley, and vetches; the one to succeed the other. Abdullah asked them, to what caste of Brahmins they belonged, and, on being told they were Pundits, inquired, whether a mixture of seeds was not forbidden in the Puranas? An old man answered with a good deal of warmth, that they were poor people, and could not dispute, but he believed the doctrine to be a gloss of Bhuddh, striking his staff with much anger on the ground at the name of the heresiarch." The next day, two novel circumstances struck the Bishop's notice; one was the appearance of considerable herds of swine, of a small kind resembling the Chinese breed, near most of the villages; the other, a system of planting tara palms in the docked trunks of decayed peepul-trees, which are thus made to form an excellent fence or "rude flowerpot" for the young plant." I conclude," remarks

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the Bishop," that they are not Hindoos who thus mangle and violate the sacred tree of Siva." On the third night, the halting-place was on a pleasant open shore, well cultivated and populous, opposite Futwa; "a large and ancient town, on a river for which the people seem to have no other name than Futwa kee nuddee." This place is "famous for a very long and handsome old bridge, (an object of some rarity in India,) and a college of Mussulman law and divinity, the moulavies of which are widely renowned.”

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PATNA.

THE Bishop was compelled to hurry past the ancient city which Major Rennell somewhat too confidently pronounces to be clearly the Palibothra of Pliny. He therefore saw it only from the river, in which direction it has, at a little distance, a very striking appearance; being full of large buildings with remains of old walls and towers, and bastions projecting into the river, with the advantage of a high, rocky shore, and considerable irregularity and elevation of the ground behind it. On a nearer approach, we find, indeed, many of the houses whose verandahs and terraces are striking objects at a distance, to be ruinous; but still, in this respect, and in apparent prosperity, it as much exceeds Dacca, as it falls short of it in the beauty and grandeur of its ruins.*......At

* "About Patna, there is a rich colouring of decay, rather than antiquity. The walls, towers, &c., are of brick. Many lofty. houses, having terraced roofs and balconies, have been plastered; but the chunum, black, dull, and in parts falling off, leaves the brick building naked. All this, reflected at sun-set in the smooth waters, made a fine picture; with the still-life beauties of which, busy groupes at all the ghauts and in the balconies, and wealthier natives seated on carpets and cushions, smoking and conversing, happily contrasted."-Sketches of India, p. 162.

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