PENKONDA. 
13 
naked rocks lie piled heap upon heap, with here and 
there, perched on some giddy point, a tomb, an altar, 
or a line of battlements, without an indication of the 
path by which it is to be approached. Upon the 
top of the mountain, embedded between two fantastic 
peaks, is the citadel, a ponderous mass of masonry, 
which looks as if by its weight it had cloven the 
summit asunder, and was now about to sink into the 
earth. Within the walls of this elevated retreat, are 
the remains of several palaces and temples, and the 
scenery around is wild and desolate, dark, rugged 
and uncultivated ; but there is a grandeur about it 
which is wonderfully imposing, an air of mystery and 
gloom, a howling solitude, which render it a proper 
cradle for the scolding winds, threatening clouds, 
and fire-dropping storms. A home it is 
• Wherein the cub -drawn bear would couch, 
The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf, 
Keep their fur dry. 
It was in these regions of desolation and waste, 
that the army of the renowned Mallek-ul-Tija was 
destroyed by a petty raja, named Sirkeh, in the time 
of Miamun Oolla, who was Suba of the district, 
about the middle of the fifteenth century. The tale 
is known under the title of 
sirkeh’s revenge, 
and is thus told : — 
Mallek-ul-Tija, with a very large army, invested 
c 
