17 



Adjoining the durbar is a handsome mosque, called the Jumma 

 Mosseid; it was anciently a Hindoo Pagoda, converted into a 

 mosque when the Moguls conquered Guzerat; the idols which 

 then adorned it are buried beneath the pavement. It forms a 

 square of two hundred and ten feet; a succession of domes of dif- 

 ferent dimensions, supported by pillars, compose a grand colon- 

 nade round the interior area. This temple was once paved with 

 white marble, the greater part is now removed, and replaced with 

 stone: over the south entrance was a handsome minaret; its com- 

 panion having been destined by lightning, was never replaced. 



Cambay is also celebrated for a curious Hindoo temple, which 

 I frequently visited. I was first concluded into an open court, its 

 walls adorned with a variety of small sculpture, and images in sepa- 

 rate niches; on the east side is an inner temple, the whole length of 

 the outer square, but only six feet wide, in which are placed a 

 number of statues, nearly of the human size, many of white marble, 

 some of black basalt, and a few of yellow antique; inferior deities 

 in the Hindoo mythology, cast in silver, brass, and other metals, 

 were ranged below them. After a present to the brahmins, we 

 lighted candles, and descended thirty feet into a large subterrane- 

 ous temple, covered by a dome, and entirely dark: on three sides 

 of this temple are a number of empty niches, a little above the 

 floor; and on the east is an opening into another narrow temple, 

 the length of the large one, which contains five images of white 

 marble sitting in the eastern manner, two on each side of a throne 

 placed under a magnificent canopy in the center, which contains 

 the celebrated statue of Parisnaut, one of the principal Hindoo 

 deities. I cannot praise the artist's skill although superior to most 



VOL. II. D 



