Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/222

 would endure forever. He accordingly sink the shaft, and his priestly advieers told him it was ‘all right.” But he was skeptical, sud against the sdvice of the priests, had the pillir raised, when they found the end covered wilh blood, to the great constervation of the sovereign, who was then told that the scepter would scon pas’ away from the Hicdses, He chucked the pillar back in the ground, but the ser- peut below bad had enough of cold irer, and the charm wee broken. The Bijat Soon after lost bis life and hia Kingdom, and from that day to this no Dizdoo king has ever xuledia Delhi.

Afters lunch at the goverument Burgs- low, siiusted in a grove which seemed alive with birds of brillisnt plumage, we started homeward, stopping at several interesting pleces ou our way. One of the grandest buildizss ip the netghborhood is the Tomb of the Emperor Humayoon, who was the ret af the Grand Mogais buried in Indis. The chape of the building is an octagon, of the ustsl red sandstone, most artistically picked cut in relief with white marble. At a distance it has the appearance of delicate pencil inlaying. It stands in the center ef an enélosure of sbeut twelve aecrec, and ig bullt upon s double platform, oy terrace, the upper onze two hundred and eighty feet kqusre. Yon enter the building throuzh a vest pores, with « pointed ereh forty feet high, and in the center isan octagonal dome of marble forty-five feet ip diameter and eighty feet high. Here are the sacrophagi of the Hmperxor, his wife and children; the retnal graves belog, ag usual, below in the yaulle. By a stone stairesse In the thick- ness of the walls we ascended toa gallery, from which gprings the huge dome, and looked down the giddy depth into the vast hatl beneath. The wall of the deme is eleven feet thick, and covered with slabs of pure white marbie. Though over three hundred years old thia splendid maueolenm is in admirable preservation, and impressed me a3 a woncerful masterpiece of a by-gone age.

It was to Humaycon’s tomb that Baha- door-Shah, the last of the Moguls, fled with his sons and hid themselves, after the cap« ture of Delhi in September, 1857. They gave themselves up the next day, being promised that their lives should be spared; but on their way to Delhi, the two older princes were barbarously shot by Major Hedson. The spot where this tragedy oc-