110 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
of the Soane and the Ganges we made but very little 
way. On the following morning we passed Buxar 
fort ; but were not allowed to sail under it in con- 
sequence of the banks having given way from the 
frequent striking of boats against them, which had 
endangered the security of the walls. We were there- 
fore obliged to cross the river where there was for- 
tunately good tracking ground and quiet water. It 
was near this fort that Major Adams, in the year 
1764, at the head of about six thousand sepoys and 
a few hundred Europeans, routed a native army of 
forty thousand men. 
We next reached Ghazipoor, where there is a 
beautiful building, called in the language of the coun- 
try, chalees satoon — the place of forty pillars. Here 
we saw several Hindoo children spinning tops, pre- 
cisely like the common peg-top used by children in 
Europe, and spun in the same manner. This cir- 
cumstance, though trifling, is not undeserving of notice. 
As the Hindoos are very scrupulous in their avoid- 
ance of European customs, and Europeans entertain 
no such prejudices but copy whatever they approve, 
the natural inference is, that this childish amusement 
was borrowed from Hindostan, and is of very primi- 
tive antiquity. 
