820 Observations upon the past and present [Oct. 



-and has never been completed. Passing on you reach the principal 

 attraction of the place, the ghat of Sidhnath. The fish here seemed to 

 me larger, more numerous, and more tame, than even at Bindraban 

 or Mundatta. Many of the inhabitants of the city sending them a daily 

 dinner, two or three of the larger fish may be always seen swimming 

 slowly backwards and forwards before the steps, and when the servant 

 arrives with his handkerchief full of flour and begins calling out ao, ao, 

 stirring the stream with his hand, in a moment the place is in an 

 uproar, and the water becomes so white with the fish that you cannot 

 distinguish them as they jump and splash about in ecstacy. Heads 

 of turtles too, peep out in every direction hastening to the banquet ; 

 these last are of enormous size, and so bold, that they drug their 

 unwieldy shells up the slippery step snapping at every thing their 

 small eyes can detect. I witnessed an amusing struggle between one 

 monster, and a boy whose dhot he was tugging at, and with difficulty 

 extracted my own walking stick from the jaws of another. On first 

 leaching the ghat we were expressing our admiration of the size of 

 the fish. Wait, said a bystander, till you have seen Raghu ; the 

 brahman called out his name in a peculiar tone of voice, but he would 

 not hear. I threw in handful after handful of ottah with as little 

 success, and was just leaving the ghsit despairing, and doubting, when 

 a loud plunge startled me. I thought somebody had jumned off the 

 bastion of the ghat into the river, but was soon undeceived by the 

 general shout of Raghu, Raghu, and by the fish large and small, darting 

 away in every direction. Raghu made two or three more plunges, but 

 was so quick in his motions that I was unable to seize his outline 

 or to guess at his species. The natives bathe fearlessly here though 

 they declare that alligators are often seen basking in numbers on the 

 opposite bank. Mahadeo they believe, has drawn a line in the water, 

 giving a command to the alligator, thus far " shalt thou come and no 

 farther." I am sceptical as to the numbers not having seen one, 

 though of course a stray brute may now and then appear, but the river 

 confined between high banks runs before the ghat in a full deep 

 stream, and alligators do not prefer deep, and shun troubled waters. 

 Mermaids also frequent this favored spot*, and tales are told of them 

 which would form an excellent supplement to Pliny's marvellous 

 chapter on the subject. But I have really so many wonders to intrude 

 upon you that I must husband your patience. 



* Abul Fazl seems not to have doubted that mermaids flourished in Malwa, 

 but he confines them to the romautic " stream of willows, " the Betma (Betwa) 

 river. 



