430 Voyage of the Novara. 



one of these dancing saloons, adorned in the most marvellous 

 manner, a sort of altar rose in the background, richly hung 

 with gold filagree work and stained cut-glass, and fringed with 

 singular representations of the god. In the doorway stood, 

 on the left hand side, a copy of the statue of the Venus de' 

 Medici ; on the right, of the Apollo Belvedere ; on a small 

 table were visible butterflies, fire-flies, and conchs, in orna- 

 mental glass cases. On the walls, of plain deal boards, 

 were suspended on one side, adjoining the portrait of Anthony 

 da Padua, a number of representations of voluptuous Oriental 

 " odalisques ;" on the other, near an engraving in copper of 

 Carlo Barromeo, all sorts of obscene engravings, such as 

 are offered for sale only in the most abandoned quarters 

 of Paris and London, and then under the cover of night. 

 For that matter, we believe that the Hindoo priests, who 

 superintended the erection of this hall consecrated to the 

 worship of Vishnii, gave themselves less anxiety respecting 

 the subjects treated of in the pictures suspended round, than 

 that the walls should appear richly decorated with engravings 

 and pictures. Adjoining this half-open dancing booth for 

 the women in attendance on the temple, rises the chief 

 Hindoo temple in Madras, a stately edifice of blocks of 

 syenite, and surrounded by a lofty wall painted with 

 the usual white and red streaks ; and on which a fleecy- 

 coated long-tailed baboon was performing his antics. Two 

 gloomy pyramidal towers shoot up from the wall of the 

 temple, and a beautiful colonnade leads to the entrance porch. 



