478 POONA. Chap. XXYII. 



remind them of the presence of foreign rulers. On the whole, 

 in their own simple way, they probably enjoy as much hap- 

 piness as the peasantry of most other countries in tlie world, 

 while their wants are fewer and their desires more easily 

 attainable. 



In the country between Shirwul and Poona the harvest 

 had already been reaped when we crossed it. In one or two 

 places there were avenues of mango-trees by the road-side, 

 but generally the country was bare and treeless. The great 

 city of Poona, once the seat of Mahratta power, still retains 

 the signs of its former splendour. In the narrow crowded 

 streets there are many large houses of two stories, with much 

 richly carved wood about the balconies and doorways, and 

 frescos painted on the walls of Gods and Goddesses, and scenes 

 in the lives of the Pandus or of Krishna. The bazar is gene- 

 rally thronged with Brahmins, Moslems, Lingayets, Bohrahs, 

 Parsees, men, women, and children, while the shops are 

 occupied by silversmiths, workers in copper, brass, and wood ; 

 sellers of grains, drugs, oils, and ingredients for curries ; of 

 sweetmeats, of cloths, of blue and green bangles for women, 

 and of endless other wares. The temples are numerous, but 

 none of them are remarkable either for size or beauty. The 

 old palace of the Peishw^as forms one side of an open space, 

 and is surrounded by a liigh wall with semicircular bastions. 

 The entrance is by an archway, ilanked on either side by 

 solid Norman-looking towers, with a balcony over it, extend- 

 ing from one tower to the other, from which the young 

 Peishwa Mahadeo Rao threw himself in 1795. 



In 1773 the Peishwa Narrain Eao was murdered in this 

 gloomy-looking castle by his uncle Eagonath Rao, and many 

 another deed of darkness has been done within its walls. 



Leaving the town, we drove past the Hira Bagh or 

 " diamond garden," where there is a large tank with a wooded 

 island in the centre, to the foot of the rocky hill of Parbuttv, 



