REGARDING MATTERS IN INDIA. 621 



in this temple originally there was no tank, and so Siva was obliged 

 to make a passage under the sea to allow the water of the Ganges to 

 come a thousand miles and supply this tank with water. Alongside this 

 tank there was a bench, and there was a sect of holy men who had a 

 right to sit upon it. This bench had the peculiar faculty of elongating 

 itself at pleasure, or becoming shorter, as the case might be, and there- 

 fore, when anybody applied to be admitted a member of this holy sect, 

 he was ordered to sit on the bench. If the bench elongated, he was to 

 be received as a member ; if the bench became shorter, he went head 

 over heels into the water, and could not become a member ; and, as the 

 water was in a very foul state, he did not have a very pleasant bath. 



Now we come to the Palace of Madura. It formerly covered a 

 square mile of ground, and was a most splendid building. Every pillar 

 you see is 50 feet high. There is very little of it left now, and what 

 little there is, is used as a court of justice every day in the season. 

 The next view will give you a better idea of this wonderful place. It 

 is taken from the inside, looking outward, and gives a side-face view 

 of the square, three sides of which still stand. The interior of one of 

 the colonnades also gives a very good idea of the grandeur of the place. 



We now strike across the sea-shore, and on going a little to the 

 north we cross a small arm of the sea, and come to Ramisseram, which 

 has the most celebrated temple in the south, if not in the whole of In- 

 dia. Its corridors are considered the finest in the south the door at 

 the end marks the entrance to the sanctuary they are 300 feet long ; 

 each pillar is one block of solid gray granite. Unfortunately, from its 

 being whitewashed, much of the beauty is hidden. If at any future 

 day it should be cleaned, it will, of course, be in a better state of pres- 

 ervation thereby. 



This gives, an idea of the strange way the Hindoos sculpture the 

 pillars in their temples. The figure is nothing but that of a juggler, 

 and yet he is carved out of one of the pillars in one of the most sacred 

 temples in India. The side-aisle of the Temple of Ramisseram is 700 

 feet long ; the window at the end is five feet high, and gives some idea 

 of its length. When we consider that the pillars are of granite, and 

 the enormous time it must have taken to build such a temple, and 

 carve such a wonderful corridor, I think you will agree with me that 

 it is a work which the world can hardly excel. Four thousand feet is 

 the aggregate length of the corridors. The temple is situated at the 

 edge of the sea, and receives the pilgrim after his long and toilsome 

 march of 3,000 miles from the north. Only those who know what In- 

 dian travel is can conceive what he must have gone through ; when he 

 leaves the Ganges he is laden with bottles, one of which he is bound 

 to leave at every temple till he arrives here, and leaves the last, and 

 here he hopes for rest. But he has no rest yet, for the Bramins take 

 him to the sea, and the actions they make him go through at daylight 

 are very absurd. Then, between here and Ceylon, is a long sand-bank, 



