43^ REMARKS ON SOME ANTIOUITIES ON THE 



prefent the hair in feveral fmall curls of a black colour. 

 This was the grand idol of the place, but on approach- 

 ing it, placed thus at full length on a raifed terrace on 

 which feveral lamps and a profufion of flowers were 

 placed, no external figns of adoration or refpe6t were 

 fhewn by the prieRs. In a corner of the room was a 

 fmaller figure reprefented fitting crofs-legged on a coil- 

 ed fnake, the expanded head of which fhaded him. 

 From the fame habit and the fame rotund turn of fea- 

 ture, it was eafy to fee thatBooDHOo was alfohere re- 

 prefented. A female figure, the natural fize, decently, 

 and not ungracefully, arrayed in the fame garb, wa« 

 reprefented Handing in another corner, and holding a 

 lamp in the extended hand. In a third corner ftood a 

 male figure faid to reprefent Vistnhu: and in the 

 fourth Rama Swamy, of a dark blue colour, and dif- 

 tinguifhed by his peculiar attributes of feveral hands 

 and the correfpondent Hindu ornaments of bracelets, 

 rings, and chains. How a figure fo totally different in 

 its drefs and ornaments came to be placed here, I was 

 not, for want of an interpreter, able to learn. We may 

 however conclude, that the votaries of Boodhoo do 

 not exclude the worfhip of the other Avatars, The 

 gallery which ran round the inner apartment was entire- 

 ly covered with paintings, in compartments rudely 

 finifhed, each apparently containing the hiftory of fome 

 event of the life of Boodhoo : thefe, they told me, 

 were alfo narrated in ,a great book always kept by the 

 Moodelier of the place : one of thefe paintings feemed 

 to reprefent the birth of the divine child ; others repre- 

 fented his youthful adventures ; fome of which feemed 

 a kin to thefportive Kishen's amufements on the plains 

 of Muttrd. In one, a youth held earneft converfe 

 with a nymph, among deep fhades and woods, while a 

 monkey, hid by the branches of a tree, feemed to liften 

 with mifchievbus intent : in another, the God appear- 

 ed as a youth flyly ftealing and diftributing handfuls of 

 coin from a cheft, towards which an aged man approach- 

 ed with cautious fteps, holding a huge key in his hand: 



on 



