Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/353

CARAVANSARAIS AND STREETS OF AHMADABAD 295 where also we din'd with them. After which we re- tir'd to one of the houses which stand in the street, which they call Terzi (Darzi) Carvanserai, that is the Tayler's Tnn. For you must know that the Carvan- serai, or Inns, in Ahmedabad, and other Great Cities of India, are not, as in Persia and Turkey, one single habitation, made in form of a great Cloyster, with abundance of Lodgings round about, separate one from another, for quartering of strangers; but they are whole great streets of the City destinated for strangers to dwell in, and whosoever is minded to hire a house; and because these streets are lockt up in the night time for security of the persons and goods which are there, therefore they call them Carvanserai. Notwithstanding the wearisomness of our journey, because we were to stay but a little while at Ahmedabad, therefore after a little rest we went the same evening to view the market-place, buying sundry things. It displeas'd me sufficiently that the streets not being well pav'd, al- though they are large, fair and strait, yet through the great dryness of the earth they are so dusty that there's almost no going afoot, because the foot sinks very deep in the ground with great defilement; and the going on horseback, or in a coach, is likewise very troublesome in regard of the dust, a thing indeed of great dispar- agement to so goodly and great a city as this is. I saw in Ahmedabad roses, flowers of jasmin and other sorts, and divers such fruits as we have in our countries in the summer; whence I imagin'd, that probably, we had repass'd the Tropick of Cancer, and re-enter M a little