304 RIFLE AND SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



ging him ashore. Some of these saurians are enormous 

 brutes, at least twenty feet long. 



Our next visit is to Oodeypore, and we started this 

 afternoon for the railway station of Nusserabad. Captain 

 Bell very kindly lent us his " shigram," which is an enormous 

 carriage drawn by four camels, and long enough to sleep in 

 comfortably. A dak of camels was laid along the road, and 

 we did the sixty miles in about ten hours. We stopped only 

 once, for dinner, which we brought with us and ate by the 

 roadside, whilst our beds were being made in the " shigram." 

 Then we turned in and slept soundly, the carriage trotting 

 along a smooth road to the railway station. The only dis- 

 turbing element was an occasional " bobbery " camel. 



The train leaves Nusserabad at 5 p.m. and arrives at 

 Chittore (the nearest station to Oodeypore) about noon. We 

 found one of the Maharaja of Oodeypore's carriages waiting 

 at Chittore, and drove to the dak bungalow, where we intend 

 to stay for the night. It is a long drive, seventy or eighty 

 miles, to Oodeypore, and to-day our time will be fully taken 

 up visiting the ancient fortified town of Chittore. This used 

 to be called the " invincible city," and for many years formed 

 the stronghold of the Rajpoots in their struggles with the 

 Mahommedan invaders. 



Situated on a high rocky plateau, with sides nearly perpen- 

 dicular, it was almost impregnable in the earlier days of 

 nrearms, and was not only the capital of Meywar, but the 



