42 
NOTE ON A TOUR IN MYSORE. 
in the Mysore Province ; and this is probable, as its design 
reca,lls that of a Mysore gold plate presented to H.R.H., 
the Prince of Wales, and figured by Sir G. Birdwood'. 
A hunt for coins in the Sravan Belgola bazar brought to 
light a number of common copper issues of Tipu Sultan 
and Krishna Kkja Wodeiyar ; aud I acquired a double 
Paisa of Tipu in very good preservation. As regards the 
caparisoned elephant carrying a flag on the obverse of this 
coin, the following legend was gravely told to me. When 
Tipu was engaged in a battle against the English in Arcot, 
one of his elephants refused to carry a gun up a hill which 
was to be stormed, and was only persuaded to do so by a 
promise from the Sultan that, if he carried the gun, his 
portrait should be immortalised on the coins. But, unfortu- 
nately for the legend, the elephant device on the coins was 
introduced by Haidar, and simply continued by Tipu after 
his father's death. During the course of my tour a mild 
numismatic fraud was perpetrated. A leaden coin was 
shown to me which, at first sight, read as follows : — 
Obv. . . . NAC between two stars. 
Rev. Plain. 
But, on closer examination, the legend resolved itself 
into COGNAC. The coin was the lead button of a 2 star 
brandy bottle ! 
From Sravan Belgola. 1 returned to Chaurayapatna, and 
went on from there, through an unexciting tract of countrr. 
to Hassan, which possesses good official buildings, bur has 
no merit from a curio-liuuter's point of view. On the fol- 
lowing day the journey was continued, across open moor- 
land with good views and a fresh breeze blowing across the 
Western Ghftts, to Belur. Here I found two clever o-dd- 
smiths, one of whom was making a handsome pair of ear- 
' 0?) cii pi 10. 
