Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/284

, and usually with some attribute of a presiding deity keeping watch and ward over the site. The most magnificent display of fountains is to be seen, however, at the "water-garden" of Balaji, situated about 2½ miles outside Katmandu, at the foot of a spur of the surrounding mountains now maintained in its primitive state as a royal game preserve. Here is a fine spring of water, which, gushing out of the hillside, is collected in a number of beautifully clear ornamental ponds, grouped about the terraced grounds of this delightful pleasaunce. Against a dark green background of bamboos, the crystal water in the grey stone tanks reflecting every hue, is a refreshing sight to the traveller, heated with his dry and dusty journey along the road from Katmandu, and the rippling waters overflowing from one terrace to another seem to invite him to stay and rest.

In one reservoir, where the reflections of the foliage seem to suggest a subaqueous