188 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
the flood/’ but once so populous and extensive,, that it 
is said to have contained thirty thousand shops which 
sold betel alone,, and the circumference of its walls is 
stated to have been a hundred miles. Nineveh, Ba- 
bylon, and ancient Tyre, must have shrunk into in- 
significance by a comparison with this vast city and 
her swarming population ; — Borne and Carthage in the 
highest glory of their renown would have dwindled into 
a mere suburb when placed in contrast with this mar- 
vellous capital. Whether the account of its extent 
and numerous population be matter of fact or of fiction, 
there is no doubt that Kanouge was once a great city, 
“ Towering in its pride of strength,’’ 
and whose walls and bulwarks were (< glorious to 
behold.” Many writers indeed contend for this being 
the celebrated Palibothra of antiquity, and it is 
certainly no improbable conjecture, though, among so 
many conflicting opinions, any attempt to fix the 
site of that once renowned capital is now quite 
hopeless. It is one of those secrets yet, and most 
likely never, to be resolved, over which time only 
accumulates doubts and difficulties. Speculation, how- 
ever ingenious, can never realize the truth, which is 
hid in the impenetrable obscurity of ages ; facts only 
can place it in indubitable reality before us, and 
these, at least upon this interesting subject of inquiry, 
are now lost to us for ever — they are buried in the 
mighty grave of the past. 
Just before our arrival at Cawnpoor we witnessed 
one of those frightful acts of superstition for which 
the Hindoos are so remarkable, perhaps above any 
