Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/175

 fast enough to supply the demand, until it was discovered they were painted sparrows!

The bright burnt sienna colour of the kitten is not tortoise-shell, she has been dyed with hinnā! her original colour was white, with black spots; however, she looks so pretty, she must be fresh dyed when her hair falls off; the hinnā is permanent for many months. The poor kitten has a violent cold, perhaps the effect of the operation of dyeing her: no doubt, after having applied the pounded menhdī, they wrapped her up in fresh castor-oil leaves, and bound her up in a handkerchief, after the fashion in which a native dyes his beard. Women often take cold from putting hinnā on their feet.

ANCIENT HINDŪ RUIN.

My tents were pitched near Meerunke Sarā'e: in the evening, as I was riding into Kanauj, at the tomb of Bala Pīr, I met Captain C on an elephant, and accompanied him to see the remains of a most ancient Hindū temple. Of all the ruins I have seen this appears to me the most remarkable and the most ancient: the pillars are composed of two long roughly-hewn stones, placed one upon the other, and joined by a tenon and mortise; no cement of any sort appears to have been used. The style of the building is most primitive, and there is a little carving—and but a little—on some of the stones; the structure is rapidly falling into decay. I regret exceedingly I cannot remember the marvellous stories that were related to me connected with this ruin and its inhabitants.

"For they were dead and buried and embalm'd, Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled: Antiquity appears to have begun Long after their primæval race was run."

On my return to the tents, my ayha complained bitterly of the annoyance she had experienced on the long march of thirteen miles and a half, over bad roads; she had been upset in her bailī, a native carriage, drawn by two bullocks, and her serenity was sadly discomposed.

7th.—This day, being Sunday, was a halt,—a great refreshment