62 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
but only perhaps when shaken by the sportive gam- 
bols of some passing elephant. 
The gardens of the natives are here exceedingly 
pretty ; but some of them almost overpower the refined 
nasal susceptibility of the European, the most power- 
fully aromatic plants being cultivated for the purpose 
of distillation. There are also some very beautiful 
tanks, or sacred artificial basins of water, and several 
monuments, erected as memorials of suttis which have 
been performed upon the spot. These generally con- 
sist of a mere rude pile of masonry, from ten to twenty 
feet high, of a conical form, and whitewashed ; hut in 
my wanderings about the place, I came upon one of a 
more perishable nature, the intent of which I should 
not have discovered but for the explanation of a Hin- 
doo, who being a near relative of the self-sacrificed 
widow, had built a small hut near it, and made it his 
business to tend and decorate it. It was a thick 
bower, formed by interlacing the flexile stems of 
bamboo, the interior of which was of a conical form, 
presenting very much the appearance of an ever-green 
temple ; upon the side opposite the entrance was a 
rudely carved trunk of wood, intended to represent the 
figure of the widow ; around the apartment were 
ranged different small gods, one or two of stone or 
wood, but the greater number of clay; garlands of 
flowers were hung round over these, and long branches 
of the chumbeli , or double-blossomed jessamine, twined 
