95 



" Nearly five quarts of oil were extracted from this animal, 

 which the peasants of that country consider to be very efficacious 

 in rheumatic complaints, and it is used externally in those and 

 some other disorders. The oil of the lion was extracted by stew- 

 ing the flesh, when cut up, with a quantity of spices: the meat was 

 white, and of a delicate appearance, and was eaten by the wau- 

 grees, or hunters, who extracted the oil." 



We left Cambay at day-break on the 2d of May, and in three 

 hours reached the village of Sujeutra, fifteen miles distant; where 

 we pitched our tents, and spent the sultry hours in a tamarind 

 grove, near a spacious lake; indeed all the towns and villages we 

 saw, had those valuable reservoirs: Abul Fazil mentions an 

 ancient city of Guzerat, called Beernagur, that contained three 

 hundred Hindoo temples, each of which had a tank of water. He 

 also describes the country two hundred years ago exactly as it is 

 at the present day, when the abundance of mangoes and other 

 fruit trees gave it the appearance of a perfect garden; in the midst 

 of which stands the rich and populous village of Sujeutra, in 

 the Pitlad purgunna, surrounded by extensive fields, highly cul- 

 tivated, and planted with rows of mangoes, tamarinds, and khirneys, 

 all large and shady fruit trees. Sujeutra belongs to a set of dancing- 

 girls, who frequently have lands and villages assigned them by the 

 princes of Hindostan. 



When the sun declined, we renewed our journey, over a broad 

 sandy road, very heavy for the cattle and palanquin bearers. Tra- 

 velling by moonlight, we arrived at a late hour at Kairah, a con- 

 siderable fortified town belonging to the Brodera chieftain, situated 

 on an eminence, near the confluence of two small rivers, called the 



