AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAE EAST 337 



a few inclies to give the set of the horns. In doing this, 

 the wonderful provision for giving requisite strength to 

 the structure, without undue weight, by constructing the 

 bony cores like hollow cells, crossed by stays in every 

 direction, will not fail to be perceived. 



We marched on down the valley of the Jonk through 

 tracts of sal, mostly devastated by dhya cultivation, to 

 the Mahanadi, and then along it and its tributary, the 

 Arpa, to the little civil station of Bilaspiir, where we 

 arrived on the 28th of April, and began to make arrange- 

 ments for an expedition to the elephant haunts in the 

 great sal forest to the north of that station. It was re- 

 ported to be scarcely inhabited except by a few utterly 

 savage Bhiimias; and it was certain that no suppHes of 

 any sort would be procurable. Our first business was, 

 therefore, to hire a large herd of Banjara bullocks, with 

 their drivers, and load them up with grain ; and such was 

 then the land-locked condition of this fertile country that 

 we purchased as much wheat, gram, and rice as we required 

 at the rate of about 100 lb. for a shilling ! 



On the 3rd of May we rode out to Eatanpiir, the ancient 

 capital of a Rajput dynasty which ruled over the greater 

 part of this eastern country from the earliest times till 

 the invasion of the Marathas in the eighteenth century. 

 This ancient place is an example of the decay which has 

 overtaken many of the old Hindu cities since the extinction 

 of the native dynasties, and the decay of orthodox Hindu 

 rehgious sentiment. Standing on a Httle central lull, on 

 whose summit the white painted dome of a temple forms 

 a landmark to the surrounding country, the eye looks over 

 great vistas of enormous banyan and mango groves, em- 

 bosomed in which sleep the waters of a hundred and fifty 

 tanks, and shrouded in whose recesses, with here and there 

 a ribbed spire visible above, he the crumbling ruins of a 

 vast number of temples, palaces, and forts. A day's ramble 

 scarcely discovers a tithe of the archaeological treasures 

 which here await the inspection of the curious. Much 

 of the city has already fallen to pieces. Great untenanted 

 masonry buildings attest the former wealth and state 

 of its inhabitants, while mean Httle mud shanties and 



