194 Account of a Journey to Beylah. [March, 



Hindoos and Mussulmen. It is dedicated to Kalee, the goddess 

 of fate, and there is a large circular tank or well near it, which 

 the natives say has been sounded to a very great depth, without 

 bottom having been obtained-; they relate that one of the priests 

 employed himself for a whole year in twisting a rope for the purpose, 

 but it was not long enough. Those who can swim, jump into the tank 

 from an overhanging rock, and proceed through a subterranean 

 passage to another part of the mountain, which is believed to purify 

 them from their sins. There is also a species of divination practised 

 by throwing a cocoanut forcibly into the water, and according as the 

 bubbles rise in a larger or less quantity, the individual will be happy 

 or miserable. This account of the place, whieh is celebrated all 

 over India, was furnished by people who had been there several 

 times. 



Memoir on the Province of Lus. 



The small province of Lus is about 100 miles long by 80 broad, and 

 is bounded to the south by the sea, to the north by the Jahlawan 

 hills, and to the east and west by ranges of high mountains, which 

 descend from the great mass occupying Beloochistan, and separate it 

 from Sinde and Mukran. Besides these, which terminate on the sea- 

 coast (one at Rus Mooaree, and the other 100 miles further to the 

 westward, near Rus Arubah) there is another spur sent off from the 

 Jahlawan hills, called Jebbal Hahro, which runs down the centre of 

 the province nearly to the coast, and divides it into two unequal por- 

 tions. These three ranges are all of the same formation, principally 

 coarse sandstone, and of the same average altitude, each being about 

 3000 feet high. 



The climate of Lus is subject to considerable variation ; in the winter 

 season it is delightful, the atmosphere being clear, dry, and cool, but in 

 the summer months it is as disagreeable from the excessive heat. During 

 my journey to Beylah, in the month of January, the thermometer 

 stood at 35° for three mornings running, and it did not rise higher 

 than G7° even in the hottest part of the day. Situated just without 

 the limits of the south west monsoon, and nearly encircled by high 

 mountains, which not only reflect the sun's rays, but exclude the wind, 

 the heat in the summer season is intense ; and although the atmosphere 

 is occasionally cooled by refreshing showers, it is severely felt by the 

 inhabitants. 



The western division of the province, lying between the Hahro and 

 Hinglaj mountains, is the smallest and least productive of the two. 



