Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/117

 were numerous. In the marshes were wild hogs in droves of from two to three hundred; and little pigs squeaking and running about were seen with several of the droves.

The gentleman who went out on the elephant returned, bringing with him two large wild boars and a young hog. We had the tusks extracted, and gave the meat to the servants, I being too much a Musalmanī myself to eat hogs' flesh of any sort or description. The Rajpūts will eat the flesh of the wild boar, although they abhor the flesh of domesticated swine.

Mr. Chambers came down to the river, where he had eight boats containing indigo to the value of two lakh. He showed me some fine old casowtee stones covered with Hindoo images, dug up in Gaur, and gave me some specimens of the Gaur bricks; the stones he is sending home to the owner of the factory, Lord Glenelg. From the hill-men in charge of the indigo boats, I procured what is used by them as a salt-box, and was of their own making; merely one joint of a thick bamboo curiously carved and painted, in the hollow of which they carry their salt. They gave me also an arrow for bruising, with a head of iron like a bullet. Thus ended a most interesting visit; and to this account I will add Mr. Chambers' description of the place, copied from his manuscript.

"THE RUINS of GAUR.

"The ancient city of Gaur, said to have been the capital of Bengal, seven hundred and fifty years before the commencement of the Christian era, is now an uninhabited waste. It is situated on the east side of the Ganges, and runs nearly in a direction with it from to, about twenty-five miles below Rajmahal. It lies in N. lat. 24° 53´, and in E. long. 88° 14´, and is supposed by Rennell to be the Gangia regia of Ptolemy. It has borne various names; it was formerly called Lutchmavutee or Lucknowtee, as well as Gaur; and when repaired and beautified in 1575, by the great Akbar, who is said to have been particularly attached to this city, it received from him the name of Zennuttabad, from his fancying it a kind of terrestrial Paradise. The extent of the city appears, from the old embankments which