Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/185

Rh combined with a belief in witchcraft; their oaths are taken on the back of a cat.'

Dr. Wallich, who was accompanying Mr. Crawfurd on a mission to the Court of Ava, also sends letters on his own subjects, and describes a splendid tree, with a large rich drooping flower of a bright scarlet colour, which he has named Amherstia Nobilis after Lady Amherst.

On the 5th they arrive at the opium-inspector's house at Gházípur. 'He tells me the opium in this district alone produces a million annually; it is all sent to China.' The fields are full of white poppies from which the opium is made; attar of roses and rose-water are also prepared at Gházípur, and in February the face of the country is perfumed for miles around with the roses which are in bloom. The party visit the tomb of Lord Cornwallis who, about twenty years before, expired near this spot. There is a bust by Flaxman, and as ornamental details the favourite emblems of the period—soldiers in attitudes of grief, and various inscriptions. They presently arrive at Benares, where they are received with a good deal of state and ceremony. They are escorted by a mounted bodyguard to the Rájá's palace while salutes are fired. The whole native population is on the banks and in the illuminated streets; the bustle, noise, and brilliance are not to be surpassed. Next day they visit the city with its thousand temples, its worshipping priests. They met the inevitable sacred bull in the narrow streets. Even