set of beings has of late been generated, whose jurisdiction is almost as fully ac knowledged by the lower classes of Musalmans, and so me called christians, as by their own more proper subjects. One of the most recent births in this family is that of Olu Bebee or our lady of the flux. Her immediate parentage is indeed obscure, but although it might be difficult to trace in her title any claim of affinity to the longer established divinities, it seems her power is sufficient to enable her to contend successfully with one of the mightiest of them, and to attack Kali Devi herself in the persons of her votaries and special protegees, the inhabitants of the city of Calcutta.

The cause of the quarrel I have not heard; but it has become necessary to seek for protection at the shrine of each of the contending powers, which could only be obtained, by the usual ceremonies of propitiation. Kali has declared that she will interpose her special protec tion against the malice of Ola to every one who will eat Salao fish at her shrine; and in consequence of this promise the

road to Kalighat has been crowded with

devotees for the last four or five days. Others who wish to be doubly sure, first pay a visit to a newly constructed image of Ola Bebee at Kidderpore, where they endeavour to avert her rage by liberal offerings, and thence proceed to eat the prescribed food at Kalighat. There is not a doubt that so long a journey in the sun has actually brought on the disease it was undertaken to avert; and many females, especially, have proved victims to their credulous superstition.

It would appear that the rival deities were not satisfied with the offerings which they had respectively received, and that further measures were necessary to impress their worshippers with a proper notion of their power, during this season of mortality. Kali, to support her authority, caused a circular to be promulgated, and in a mode calculated to give it publicity, which perhaps has not been equalled by the ingenuity of any European and the effect of it, on the native population of Calcutta, has certainly been much greater than that of the circular of Lord Sidmouth, which has recently been so much discussed. The following we believe to be a literal translation of this extraordinary docu

:

ment:-" Sri Sri! the Divine Mother Kali's commands.

"Sri! Sri! the divine Mother Kali commands. The disease of Ola-oot'ha has seized numbers of people. Therefore amongst women such as are heads of families, or men, will go to Kali-g'haut and worship according to their means, and bathe in the sacred Old-Gunga.* Thus they shall escape Ola-oot'ha.'Whoever shall contemn this order, his family shall be seized with Ola-oot'ha.' Instantly on the receipt of this you are to write three copies+ of it and to distribute them in three places. He or she who does not distribute these three copies, shall be afflicted with Ola

oot'ha.

66 Dated 29th of Bhadoor, (12th Sept.)"

This order, we understand, was promptly obeyed by a great majority of those who received it, of whatever cast or race, Native Portugueze, Musalmans, and Chinese, as well as Hindus. Numbers of poor old women, to whom the seen tottering along the road on their circular was principally addressed, were pilgrimage to Kali-g'haut. The death of having gone through the prescribed cereseveral of these unhappy creatures after monies and within a few yards of the temple, was not sufficient to open the

*Tally's Nullah, on the banks of which is situated the great temple of Kali, was formerly the channel of the Hooghly.

†The circulation of the proclamation, on the part of Kali-mâ, which injoined this observance, was ingeniously provided for. It was the express duty of each individual who received it to write three copies and distribute them in three different places. A subsidiary expedient was then resorted to, and a cowrie was left at the doors of several of the inhabitants in different quarters of the town, by some unknown agents of the goddess, with written directions to convey it, with suitable donations, to the temple at Kali-ghaut, and to distribute three other cowries with similar instructions. Thus had the Brahmans formed a re

gular combination of devices to secure the success of their avaricious views, and the whole scheme appears to have been conducted with admirable cunning and vigilance. We understand that the temple at Kali-ghaut has actually derived very considerable profit from this disgraceful im'position. Such are the effects of superstition and ignorance. Last week a respectable native was proceeding in the middle of the day, under a burning sun, to the sacred temple, in the hope of averting the displeasure of the goddess, but he was seized with illness on the road. He returned home, and died in a few hours. Many other devotees have perished under similar circumstances.

THE morning was hot, a circumstance in our favour as the sellers of wool are in the habit of wetting it, under an idea, as they pretend, of its twisting the closer, but more probably to make it weigh heavier. However, after a little delay on our part, that the wool might dry as soon as possible, we had it weighed by a pole with a weight, on the principle of the steel yard, which the Garpan had sent with us. As more was brought than we advanced for, we agreed to take it, on the principle of encouraging the Garpan to give more another year. The surplus amounted to eighty-eight rupees and one Timásha; and the Garpan had ordered rupees alone to be received, which shewed that he had given directions for more to be brought than we had contracted for, in order to try whether we really meant to purchase, or used the plea merely in his presence to mask other designs. At this place we found many Jouári and Dhán merchants, who were troublesomely inquisitive as to who we were, what could be our motives for coming, and why we purchased shawl wool. The sight of some of our wares seemed to convince them, that we were what we appeared to be. I consider this day as the epoch at which may be fixed the origin of a trafic which is likely to be extremely beneficial to the honorable Company.

Misar has only one house made of bricks baked in the sun and five tents of goatherds: it is situated upon a rising ground upon the left bank of a rapid stream forming one of the branches of the Satúdrá or Setlej. This stream comes from 860 57 E. and runs down a valley about two miles and a half in breadth and near eight in length, running S. W. After a course of about half a mile, it joins that which we forded yesterday.

July 31st.-Thermometer 34°, ice threeeighths of an inch thick. The changes of temperature, so frequent and rapid in this climate, require that the quadrupeds naturally belonging to it should have some very warm cloathing, to protect them against their ill effects; and we find that this has been very liberally bestowed by Asiatic Journ.--- No. 29.

nature. The sheep has a very thick and heavy fleece; the [goat has at the root of his long shaggy hair a very fine fur inter spersed generally; the cow has a material of the same kind, not much inferior in warmth and softness, which I apprehend might prove a substitute for beaver; the hare has her fur of peculiar length and thickness; and even the dog has a coat of fur added to his usual covering of hair. The wild horse (Equus Quagga),* the wild ass (Goorkhen, Onagre), and I believe the mule, the offspring of these animals, are found in abundance on the mountains of Tatary; but whether they have any thing of the fur kind I cannot say : that animal, however, which is here called the Baral,‡ and which seems to have many characters of resemblance to the deer as well as to the sheep, has certainly at the bottom of the brittle hair of the former the most beautiful brown fur I ever

saw.

This morning the Nerba came to take leave of us, and as his behaviour had been uniformly attentive, I was desirous of shewing him that we were sensible of it, and accordingly gave him a double bladed knife and my sword. The latter was in fact no great gift, as it was bought at Najidábád for three rupees, and was intended solely for the journey. He was however highly pleased with the compliment. His name was Thar-chand; and he said, that he was in the suite of the Wazir, and should accompany him to Lassa. He wore a pendant in one ear, in which, along with rows of small turquoises, the never failing ornament of this part, was a large irregular pearl, such as are in high request in this country, on account of their size. These I understand are brought to Calcutta, in considerable numbers, during the rainy season, from the Lackadive islands, and sold at a very easy rate. The Nerba's outer garment was woollen, of green, red, blue, and yellow

narrow stripes manufactured at Guinak : under this were four other garments; and both men and women constantly load themselves with several vests to prevent suffering from the cold.

On the back of this habit, and on the right shoulder, were sewed the saw, adze, chissel, rule, and all the insignia of Free Masonry in iron; the symbols of a fraternity of which he said he was a member. I purchased from him some gold dust at the rate of forty Sirinagar Timáshas for the Fitauk of seven Mashas. The Nerba appeared to have gold dust to the amount of about five thousand rupees; and it was understood, that every person, willing to become an adventurer in the gold mines, pays to the chief of the district one Fitauk as an entrance fee, and all lumps above a certain weight. This occupation is more profitable here than in most other places; as though the gold digger works only three months, he expects that the result of his labour should keep him the whole of the year. Leave Misar at ten A. M. having loaded our wool upon the yaks which brought it, and for the hire of which the Nerba would receive no gratification; the first instance of disinterestedness I have witnessed in this country. At four thousand five hundred paces enter Tírtápúri. At four thousand five hundred and twenty-five, pass several piles of stones inscribed as is usual, and some figures carved in stone and painted. Reach the summit of the height at four thousand five hundred and seventy-five paces and encamp.

Tírtápúri is the residence of a Lama and several Gelums, who live in separate houses made of rough stones, and follow a pastoral life. It is perched upon the top of an eminence, about two hundred feet higher than the plain, and has table land running from it eastward. Steep, craggy, limestone rocks in a state of decomposition immediately overhang it, threatening some of the houses with destruction at no distant period. Insulated pillars, which have resisted the influence of the weather longer than the softer portions of stone by which they were surrounded, seen upon the very point of falling, but apparently give no alarm to the inhabitants. Still higher, and losing their heads in the clouds, are pointed mountains, which from their brilliant

whiteness, appear to consist of chalk, covered here and there with a layer of yellow ochre. Immediately at the foot of the rock, on which the buildings stand, runs a very rapid stream, which is said to proceed from a lake at the foot of the Himálaya, called Ráwan hrád, and to constitute the principal branch of the Satúdrá.

To the west of the town, and about a quarter of a mile distant, are the hot springs, forming one of the most extraordinary phænomena I have ever witnessed. From two mouths, about six inches in diameter, issue two streams, bubbling about four inches higher than the level of the stony substance whence they escape. The water is very clear, and so hot that the hand cannot bear to be put into it for an instant; and a large volume of smoak curls round them constantly. They burst forth from a table of calcareous stone nearly half a mile in diameter, and raised in most places ten or twelve feet above the plain on which it stands. This has been formed by the deposit from the water of the springs whilst cooling. Immediately surrounding the springs, the stone is as white as the purest stucco. The water flowing over a surface nearly horizontal, as it escapes from the vents, forms shallow basins of different size and shape. The edges of all these basins are curiously marked with indentations and projections, like the tops of mushrooms and fleurs-de-lis, formed by calcareous matter prevented from uniting in one uniform line, by the continual but gentle undulation of the water entering into and escaping from the several basins, which are emptied by small and successive falls into the surrounding plain. By degrees, however, the fringed edge becomes solid, and contracting the basin, of which the hollow fills likewise, the water takes a new course and makes new reservoirs which in their turn become solid. Although the water appears perfectly transparent, the calcareous earth, which it deposits, is of different colours: in the first instance, near the mouth, it is delicately white without a stain; at a little distance it assumes a pale straw tint; and further on, a deep saffron hue: in a second the deposit has a rosy hue, which, as it recedes from the source, becomes of a deeper red. These various colours are deposited

in the strata, which hardening, retain the tinges they received when soft, and give rise to variously stratified and veined stone and marble. The whirls, twists, knots, and waves, which some of the fractured edges exhibit, are whimsically curious, and shew all the changes which the stony matter undergoes, from soft tufa to hard marble. I observed that the marble is generally formed in the middle of the depth of the mass, rising up with nearly a perpendicular front of the height before mentioned : the table must have been the work of ages. The calcareous matter, which is so largely dissolved and suspended by the water whilst hot, is probably furnished by the chalky mountains above Tírtápúri, but the origin of the heat I have no clue to discover. The water must be most strangely situated, fortwo streams so inconsiderable to throw down such a prodigious quantity of earth; and the surface where quiet is also covered with a thin crust of semi-transparent matter, like that which rises on supersaturated lime

water.

bles.

the Geru earth. At twelve thousand eight hundred paces come to our ground and encamp in a green pleasant spot, in a hollow surrounded with many springs, at 4h 30'. p. m. At eight p. m. thermometer 460.

A

August 2d.-Thermometer 32°. severe frost during the night. ice a quarter of an inch thick over standing water. At ten thousand March at 10h. 20'. eight hundred and twenty-five paces a large sheet of remarkably blue water at the foot of the mountains to the right, called Rawanhrad, said to give rise to the principal branch of the Satúdra, and to communicate by a river with the lake Mansarowar, named by the natives Mapang. Rúwanhrad bears S. twenty-five E. distant eight miles. At sixteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven paces halt and encamp at five p. m. At seven p.m. thermometer 47°. This day we saw more wild horses than on any former one, also several wild asses of the kind called Gúrkhar, and likewise I believe some mules. The asses are a little less than the horses. Saw likewise Barals and many yaks.

August 3d.-Slight frost, thermometer 34°. March at 9h, 507. At seven thousand two hundred and eighty-seven paces, cross a stream over a wooden sankhoo. At seven thousand three hundred and twentyfive encamp on a high spot. This is Gangri or Darchan. There are four houses of unburnt brick or stones, and about twenty-eight tents, amongst which that of the servant of the Latákí agent is apparently the best. Sixteen years ago the old pundit says this was a place of conse quence. There we find many Juart and Dhermu merchants with grain, and three tea merchants, who say they are acquainted with Pekin, which they call the capital of Maháchin: but they themselves reside two months journey beyond Pekin. The Tatars of the districts we have seen wore their hair plaited: these people had it cut all round, so that it hung low and loose in their necks, and they wear coats of kid skins made soft by rubbing, and their hair turned inwards.

A cascade issues from the rocks just above Darchan, and falls into the Ráwanhrad, which is supplied by the melting of the snow on the great mountains at the foot of which it is situated. It is said

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