30 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
tion without, but in a state of much greater dilapidation 
within. The chambers were spacious though cheerless, 
and their aspect of utter desolation rather repelled 
than invited confidence in their security from peril ; 
for throughout the East, deserted buildings are almost 
invariably the abodes either of beasts of prey or of 
those venomous reptiles with whom too near a proxi- 
mity is no less dangerous. Having scraped together 
a quantity of dried leaves and sticks which were scat- 
tered among the ruins, by igniting some powder in the 
pan of a pistol, he kindled a fire in a small chamber, to 
which there was an ascent by a short flight of stone 
steps, much broken, and in many places the flat sur- 
face of the stair was greatly encumbered with rub- 
bish. 
The external appearance of the building to which 
the soldier had retired, was sufficiently imposing, and 
something more ornamented than the subject present- 
ed in the preceding engraving, which represents a spe- 
cimen of the architecture of this period, amid the ruins 
of the once imperial Indraprastha. Although probably 
a Patan structure, it was much more decorated than 
the buildings imputed to the Afghan races, and sur- 
mounted by domes and minarets at the angles, the 
former, marked into segments, rising above a terraced 
roof, covered with coarse stucco, as in the former 
instance. 
The towers, abutting upon the plain from the 
angles of the front facing the water, were embellish- 
ed with plain columns rising from a turreted base, 
and supporting a parapet, within which rose a dome 
of considerable magnitude. The facade intervening 
