Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/287

 it was churned by the good and evil spirits for the amrita, or immortal beverage. Like Venus she arose beautiful from the foam of the ocean, ascended to the heavens, and captivated all the gods.

In the sketch which I copied from a native picture at Prāg, the beautiful goddess, seated in a water-lily, is bathing in a novel style. Four elephants, from their trunks, are pouring the Ganges water over her.

Oh! Lachhmī, send the chestnut horse to abide in my stables! let me rejoice in Akbal! (good fortune.)

"From the body of Lachhmī the fragrance of the lotus extends 800 miles. This goddess shines like a continued blaze of lightning!"

It is as well to remark, with respect to this sketch, that at the end of each of the trunks of the four elephants there is a turn, which, in the original old Hindoo drawing from which I copied it, I could not comprehend. In putting it on stone I left those four turns, but not quite so large as in the original. Since which time I have minutely examined a marble image in my possession, of two elephants pouring water over the head of the beautiful goddess, who appears seated on a water-lily, with a chatr, the emblem of royalty, over her head, and the buds of the lotus in her hands.

Each of these elephants holds in his trunk one of those long-necked globe-shaped bottles, in which the pilgrims carry holy water, and from them they are pouring the liquid. It is possible that the circles that are indistinct in the Hindoo drawing of the four elephants may have been the outlines of such bottles.

However, the sea-born goddess is placed in a much more picturesque point of view, if you imagine her as she appears, floating in the beautiful and pure blossom of the lotus, while bathed from the trunks of the elephants with the sacred water of the Ganges.

Since our arrival from Cawnpore, I have never mounted my horse, my spirits have been too much depressed.

June 1st.—Finding myself ill for want of exercise, I commenced rising early; dressing by candlelight, going out by