242 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE GUEBRE PRIEST. 
Although Jumsajee Merjee had prudently adhered 
to his first plan of committing his depredations at a 
distance from his home, his fame as a robber had ne- 
vertheless spread far and wide ; he therefore thought 
that he should be more secure if he quitted the lonely 
tomb which he had hitherto made his abode, and fix- 
ed his future dwelling among the less solitary but 
more sequestered buildings upon the same plain. There 
was such a choice of places, that the difficulty of se- 
lection was not great; and after examining several 
edifices still in a sufficient state of preservation to 
afford him and his family a commodious abode, he 
chose an elegant mausoleum among a cluster of 
several which, though dilapidated within, were per- 
fectly entire without, and promised a securer asy- 
lum, as he thought, than the one he had lately oc- 
cupied. This latter, being placed upon an eminence, 
and commanding a striking view of modern Delhi, 
was occasionally visited by stragglers for the mere 
beauty of the prospect, and his privacy was in con- 
sequence disagreeably invaded. The circumstance of 
its being inhabited created no surprise, as nothing can 
be more common in India than to see ruins taken pos- 
