268 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
arguments which have been advanced in favour of the 
extreme antiquity of these excavations, and am in- 
clined to assign to them as remote a date as those 
which have been so long celebrated in Upper Egypt. 
The great temple at Elephanta is no longer em- 
ployed as a sanctuary of devotion by the Hindoos, 
which is to my mind an additional presumption that 
it is not comparatively a modern structure; as such 
structures would be much less likely to be deserted 
than those of which the origin is cast back into the 
remotest antiquity, when the world was still in its 
youth, and consequently the habits and manners of 
men, by comparison, in a state of infancy. 
We spent an entire day in this interesting cavern, 
not returning to Bombay until after sunset. Another 
party besides ours had visited the island, whom we 
had joined, and passed quite a convivial day together. 
Among the latter was an officer, with an attendant, who 
happened to have great personal attachment towards 
him, in consequence, as I understood, of some service 
which the former had rendered him under circum- 
stances of peculiar embarrassment. This man was al- 
together a remarkable person ; he was a Catti, a tribe 
of which Captain Macmurdo has given the following 
characteristic account : — “ The Catti differs in some 
respects from the Rajpoot ; he is more cruel in his dis- 
position, but far exceeds him in the virtue of bravery ; 
and a character possessed of more bravery than a Catti 
does not exist. His size is considerably larger than 
common, — often exceeding six feet. He is sometimes 
seen with light hair and blue-coloured eyes. His 
frame is athletic and bony, and particularly well 
