454 



usefulness and beauty, especially in overshadowing the public 

 wells and village markets, can only be known by those who live 

 in a sultry climate: the best wells in Bhaderpoor are similar to the 

 Bowrees, already described; and possibly the wells in Palestine 

 were of the same construction, from a circumstance mentioned in 

 sacred writ. " Jonathan and Ahimaaz being suspected at Enrogol, 

 came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in the court; 

 whither they went down; and the woman took and spread a cover- 

 ing over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon ; and 

 the thing was not known." 



Cheap as every common necessary of Indian life was in Dhu- 

 boy, they were still more so at Bhaderpoor; few indeed were the 

 wants of the inhabitants in that lonely district: a couple of yards 

 of cotton cloth tied round the middle, was all the clothing of the 

 common men; some wore a turhan, A single piece of coarse 

 cotton, several yards in length, put on in graceful folds, was the 

 usual dress of the females. A thatched hut, containing a few 

 earthen pots for cookery, a large jar of unburnt clay to hold grain, 

 another of burnt clay for water, and a glazed pot for oil, comprized 

 the stock of a villager. The oil is produced from various seeds 

 planted for the purpose; expressed, like the kernel of the mowah, 

 by mills of the simplest structure. 



The construction of all the machines for the arts and manu- 

 factures in India are light and simple: in these respects the Asiatics 

 are far behind Europeans, and, as frequently mentioned, are averse 

 to imitation or improvement. Colonel Wilks relates an anecdote of 

 the ingenuity of Shahjee, father of Sevajee, the founder of the 

 Mahratla empire, from which some conjecture may be formed of 



