128 On the Antiquities of Bdgerhdt. [No. 2, 



to ascertain its original size. In the height of the dry season in April 

 last the sheet of water measured 1,560 feet square. Its excavation is 

 popularly ascribed to Khanja Ally. It is said that that chief, being 

 very much troubled from want of good potable water, obtained 

 the sanction of the king of Gour, and caused this tank to be ex- 

 cavated ; and that when he found its water to be brackish, improved it 

 considerably by pouring in it a large quantity of mercury, which, it 

 is said, is a most efficacious antidote to brackishness. This story, 

 however, is not sufficiently romantic to please the simple people of 

 the district, and a sheet of sweet water in a place noted for its saline 

 soil being an uncommon wonder, another has been set in currency for 

 their edification. According to it, when the tank had been dug to a 

 great depth, the workmen came to a perfect temple, with its doors 

 closed from within, which no efforts of theirs could unlock. Mes- 

 sage was therefore sent to Khanja Ally, who, mounted on a swift horse, 

 approached the temple, and struck it with his wand. Anon flew open 

 the doors, and he beheld, within, a Fakir seated at his ease before a 

 lively fire, and smoking his hukka. Khanja Ally saluted him and 

 asked his blessing, to secure a tank full of good water. The Fakir 

 said that he had built the temple on the banks of the Bhairab as a 

 place of retirement, and had just roused himself from a protracted me- 

 ditation to collect food for a meal. He little thought that during his 

 state of abstraction so much earth had accumulated over his temple as 

 to admit of a deep tank being excavated. However since it was so, good 

 water would immediately be produced, but Khanja Ally should fly for 

 life, or the rising spring would drown him. Nor was the latter unpro- 

 vided for such a contingency. His horse was the swiftest on earth, and 

 it bore him through the water to dry land in a twinkling. This 

 story suggests the idea, that when the tank was excavated, traces of a 

 building were found in its bed ; and considering the frequency with 

 which old bricks and broken pottery are met with in the Sunderbunds, 

 such an idea would be by no means unreasonable. 



I have said above that the tank is noted for its tame crocodiles, and 

 well it may be, for nowhere else have I met with a more wonderful 

 instance of the influence which the human mind can exert over the 

 saurian. Upwards of twenty monsters, from 10 to 20 feet long, may 

 here be seen rising and sinking in the water with the docility of a child, 



