Arrival at Vcllore. 449 



projected excursion at a late hour of the evening, and when we 

 reached Vellore at 11 a.m., Captain Stevens was awaiting us at 

 the station, to greet the voyagers by the Novara in the 

 name of the commandant of the fort, and convey them to the 

 fort, three miles off, in a waggon drawn by oxen, as is the 

 custom of the country. The waggon was about as large as an 

 ordinary sized sitting-room, and contained several arm-chairs 

 and cane stools, the position of which could be altered at 

 pleasure. 



Vellore was once one of the strongest fortresses in India, the 

 wells of which were formerly rendered inaccessible by numerous 

 colonies of alligators. These Hindoo fortifications have, how- 

 ever, lost their military importance for Europeans, as they are 

 on all sides " overcrowed," as Rittmeister Dugald Dalgetty 

 would say, by eminences, from which they could easily be can- 

 nonaded. Within the fort itself are several extraordinary 

 buildings, once pagodas and houses of entertainment for priests 

 and pilgrims (choultries). The former sanctuary, now used as 

 an arsenal, is a chef-d'oeuvre of architectural skill, with splendid 

 relievos and figures sculptured in granite blocks. Most of the 

 divinities have four arms, symbolical of the universality of their 

 power. The various edifices seem to have been once an abode 

 of Brahmins, a sort of Hindoo monastery in which, in addition to 

 the pagoda, there were ranged all round, a temple, colonnades, 

 and halls for the residence of the priests. In some of the 

 smaller apartments there still are openings for windows, with a 

 finely carved grating hewn out of the solid granite, the workman- 



G G 



