B O O T A N. 
143 
The obliging and attentive assiduity of the good man who lived 
here, and his solicitude to shew us every part of his extensive charge, 
drew us inadvertently to loiter away more time than in prudence we 
ought to have done; and, though night was coming on apace, we could 
not part till he had carried us into a detached garden, abounding with 
orange and other trees, and on the borders of which was a large pond 
covered with the lotus [nymphcea niloticci) in full bloom ; a flower for 
which the inhabitants have a religious esteem, and which they often 
place before their idols, deeming it to be peculiarly acceptable to them. 
It is held in the same religious estimation in India, as it was in Egypt; 
and serves, among other evidences, to point out a remote connection 
between the people of Egypt and India, and the religions of both. 
It was long dark, before we reached our own habitation; and, though 
no visible danger obstructed our way, yet it was not unfrequently 
necessary, to appease the Dewtas [genii loci) at several stages, with 
the occasional offering of a few narrainees; nor was I inattentive to the 
advice of our guide, notwithstanding that I believed him to have no 
small interest in these oblations. 
The narrainee is a base silver coin, struck in Cooch Bahar, of the 
value of about ten-pence, or one third of a Sicca rupee. The commo¬ 
diousness of this small piece, the profits the people of JBootan derive 
from their commerce with Cooch Bahar, and some local prejudices 
against the establishment of a mint, have given the narrainee in these 
regions, as well as in those where it is struck, a common currency, 
though both countries are perfectly independent of each other, and 
totally different in their language and manner. The name of the coin is 
