MISCELLANIES. 



530 



lately occupied by his vackeel, the 

 eunuch Lutafut, a man of great 

 consequence at this period. Here 

 we found convenient quarters for 

 all our party, totally distinct from 

 each other ; also for our cattle and 

 attendants. 



In the evening, on taking a 

 more complete view of this Mo- 

 gul mansion, we were surprised to 

 find the apartments just mentioned 

 formed only a very small part of 

 this immense pile, which occupied 

 six squares, corresponding with 

 that in which we immediately re- 

 side. Each of them comprised an 

 elegant mansion, capable of ac- 

 commodating, in a magnificent 

 style, half a dozen numerous fa- 

 milies, while the various ranges 

 of inferior rooms, lodges, and out- 

 offices of every description, were 

 amply sufficient to cover, at the 

 least, five thousand troops ; there 

 were also stables for five hundred 

 horses. 



The morning after our arrival 

 we visited the jumma musjid, a 

 noble building which does honour 

 to the magnificent taste of its 

 founder, the emperor Shah Jehan, 

 who erected this superb edifice 

 five years after the completion of 

 the Taje Mahal at Agra. The en- 

 trances are all extremely grand, 

 the lofty minars elegantly fluted, 

 and the whole in good preserva- 

 tion. Besides the jumma musjid, 

 are many smaller mosques : some 

 with gilded domes make a dazzling 

 appearance, the majority are of 

 plainer materials, and many falling 

 to decay. 



Our limited stay at Delhi pre- 

 vented us from seeing more of the 

 city than came within the compass 

 of this morning's ride. On leav- 

 ing the junmia mufjid, wc pro- 

 ceeded through several street5,dcs- 



picably poor, and thinly inhabited. 

 Two or three of a larger size 

 seemed more populous, were of 

 considerable breadth, and occupied 

 by the aqueduct already mentioned 

 in the centre, now in a slate of di- 

 lapidation. 



THE ZINORE COUNTRY. 



In theZinorepurgunna, a coun- 

 try little known in the annals of 

 Hindostan, I saw human nature 

 almost in primitive simplicity, but 

 far removed from the savage con- 

 dition of the Indians of America, 

 or the natives of the South-sea 

 islands. The state of civil society 

 in which the Hindoos are united 

 in those remote situations, seems 

 to admit of no change or amelio- 

 ration. The Brahmins pass their 

 lives in listless indolence within 

 the precincts of the temples, with 

 little profit either to themselves or 

 the communitj'. Among the in- 

 ferior castes, whose minds are un- 

 cultivated, and who have no com- 

 munication with the rest of the 

 world, I found it next to an im- 

 possibility to introduce a single im- 

 provement in agriculture, build- 

 ing, or any useful art or science. 

 In any nation, where the art of 

 printing is unknown, and no books 

 are introduced, the higher classes 

 can enjoy but little intellectual 

 pleasure. 



I sometimes frequented places 

 where the natives had never seen 

 an European, and were ignorant of 

 every thing concerning us: there 

 I beheld manners and custoris 

 simple as were those in the patri- 

 archal age ; there, in the very 

 style of Rebecca and the damsels 

 of Mesopotamia, the Hindoo vil- 

 lagers treated me with that artless 

 hospitality so delightful in the 



