MONEA. 
35 
waters into the river Ganges under the walls of a 
small town named Maena ; the junction now takes 
place about four miles lower down at Monea, which, 
formerly an inland town, now stands upon a projecting 
I 
tongue of land washed by both rivers. Neither of 
these places could be recognised by its former inhabi- 
tants, so complete is the transformation. The channel 
of the Sone is very deep and the waters are, during 
the greater part of the year, too rapid to be safely 
navigated by small boats; indeed for many weeks 
after the first fall of the summer rains it is imprac- 
ticable, except to boats of a peculiar construction. 
It has its source in the wild and barbarous province 
of Gundwana, near a place of great sanctity called 
Omirkantac, which stands upon a curious table-land 
considerably elevated above the surrounding country. 
This place is the constant resort of innumerable diseased 
and deformed Hindoos, who ascribe to its waters the 
power of effecting all sorts of cures. The Brahmins 
have attributed to it a still more mysterious property, 
when the water is administered by their own hands. 
They affirm that in certain cases of abject poverty — 
that is, when the last cowries of the dupe have been 
distributed among them — it will endow those who 
drink it with the extraordinary facult}^ of discovering 
by intuitive knowledge all the secret places of con- 
cealed treasure, within a certain distance round about 
them. This is not a naked assertion on the part of the 
