four hundred years ago; for I find that about that time one Khán Jahán alias Khánjá Ally, a chief of great piety and liberality, who was rusticated from the court of Delhi, was sent to this place to hold the post of a tehsildar. Many fine buildings and stately mosques were erected under his auspices, and the place was in every respect greatly improved. What was its name then, I cannot now ascertain; the inscriptions that I have examined to find it out, being altogether silent on the subject. Its present name is but of yesterday. It was given to it long after its glories had passed away, and its history forgotten. A deserted village on the outskirts of the Sunderbunds, its humble inhabitants needed but the aid of a poor bi-weekly fair to supply their wants; that fair was, and is still, held on a raised spot on the riverbank where once stood the pleasure ground of Khán Jahán. The illiterate dealers and pedlars who frequented it to sell their goods called it the garden fair,' Báger hút, and the name was adopted by Government when, in May, 1863, it was made the head quarters of a magisterial sub-division.

From the few traces still visible I believe the garden must have, at one time, included an area of about 200 biggahs. On one side of it there was, until recently, a dirty putrifying tank overgrown with jungle, which in olden times must have been a pleasant sheet of water; and on the other a mound, probably the debris of what once was a summer house. Traces of metalled footpaths are met with at different places, as also the remains of a high road, 30 feet broad, made of well-burnt bricks placed on edge, which, it is said, formerly extended from this place to Chittagong.

Three miles to the west of the garden, there is a large tank, over a hundred biggahs square, noted for its sweet water and a number of tame crocodiles. I had no opportunity to ascertain its size, but judging from the impression its sight produced on me and from memory, I believe it is fully as large as the Pála Diggi near Murshidábád, and nearly as large as the Mahipál Diggi in Dinagepur. Bábu Guru Churn Doss, Deputy Magistrate of Jangipur, in a letter published in the Society's Proceedings for October 1862, says that "it must be in size equal to, if not larger than, that in the Dilkosh Bang of the Raja of Burdwan." But as the tank under notice has silted up and its water has receded much from the original banks, it is not easy

to ascertain its original size. In the height of the dry season in April last the sheet of water measured 1,560 feet square. Its excavation is popularly ascribed to Khánjá Ally. It is said that that chief, being very much troubled from want of good potable water, obtained the sanction of the king of Gour, and caused this tank to be excavated; and that when he found its water to be brackish, improved it considerably by pouring in it a large quantity of mercury, which, it is said, is a most efficacious antidote to brackishness. This story, however, is not sufficiently romantic to please the simple people of the district, and a sheet of sweet water in a place noted for its saline soil being an uncommon wonder, another has been set in currency for their edification. According to it, when the tank had been dug to a great depth, the workmen came to a perfect temple, with its doors closed from within, which no efforts of theirs could unlock. Message was therefore sent to Khánjá Ally, who, mounted on a swift horse, approached the temple, and struck it with his wand. Anon flew open the doors, and he beheld, within, a Fakir seated at his ease before a lively fire, and smoking his hukka. Khánjá Ally saluted him and asked his blessing, to secure a tank full of good water. The Fakir said that he had built the temple on the banks of the Bhairab as a place of retirement, and had just roused himself from a protracted meditation to collect food for a meal. He little thought that during his state of abstraction so much earth had accumulated over his temple as to admit of a deep tank being excavated. However since it was so, good water would immediately be produced, but Khánjá Ally should fly for life, or the rising spring would drown him. Nor was the latter unprovided for such a contingency. His horse was the swiftest on earth, and it bore him through the water to dry land in a twinkling. This story suggests the idea, that when the tank was excavated, traces of a building were found in its bed; and considering the frequency with which old bricks and broken pottery are met with in the Sunderbunds, such an idea would be by no means unreasonable.

I have said above that the tank is noted for its tame crocodiles, and well it may be, for nowhere else have I met with a more wonderful instance of the influence which the human mind can exert over the saurian. Upwards of twenty monsters, from 10 to 20 feet long, may here be seen rising and sinking in the water with the docility of a child,

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at the beck of a puny miserable-looking Fakir who could not resist a from the tail of the smallest of them. They are fed with live fowls and kids, and they unhesitatingly come close by dry land to receive them. Meat is offered to them on the palm of the hand, which they quietly take away, without ever snapping at the hands themselves. Little children play about on the bank without any risk; and men, women and children bathe in the tank without ever having to repent of their temerity.

Some time ago a rumour was brought to the notice of Government that infanticide was committed in this part of the Sunderbunds, and I was directed to make an inquiry. But I found it was unfounded; the fact appeared to be that the simple people of the district believe that these crocodiles can bless young ladies to come into an interesting condition, and their blessings are sure to bear fruit. Accordingly many young women repair to this place to bathe in the sacred water of the tank, and implore the blessing of the saurian monsters. They offer them fowls and kids; then paint a human figure with red lead on a stone pillar in the neighbourhood, and, embracing it, vow to give away to the crocodiles the first fruit of their blessings. This vow is never broken, the firstborn is invariably brought to the tank, and when, at the call of the Fakirs, the crocodiles rise to the surface, the child is thrown on the water's edge with words implying a presentation. But it is taken up immediately after, and borne home amid the rejoicings of the family. I could find no proof to shew that any child had ever suffered from this exposure.

Parents whose children die early also often seek the blessings of these crocodiles, by exposing their infants on the bank of the lake.

There is another source whence has arisen the notoriety of Bágerhát as a place for infanticide. The Fakírs and Sanyasis who live in the adjacent part of the Sunderbunds, have a high reputation for supernatural powers in healing the sick; hence, whenever a child is afflicted with any uncommon or mortal malady, or born with any permanent infirmity, such as dumbness, deafness, or blindness, and frequently when medicines have failed (and the pharmacopoeia of an ordinary native village, which embraces only a few simples, is soon exhausted) the superhuman aid of those worthies is sought with all the blind faith of veneration which characterises an ignorant and

superstitious race. Parents from different parts of Jessore, Pubna, Farrídpur and Backerganj repair to this place, and occasionally leave their children with the Fakirs, in the hope of their taking pity on the sufferers, and curing their afflictions. This is generally a temporary arrangement, and the little ones are taken home as soon as they are cured, and often long before, if the hope of recovery become faint or fail. Rarely one out of several sons is, in fulfilment of a vow, dedicated to the service of religion, to be brought up amongst the Fakirs; but never is a child abandoned in the tank, or in the neighbouring jungle, with a view to destruction.

Close by and to the north of the tank there is a large tomb which holds in its centre the mortal remains of Khán Jahán. It is built of remarkably well-burnt bricks of a large size, and strengthened by stone boulders in some of the piers. In style it differs little from similar structures in other parts of Bengal-a square of 45 feet, having a central hall along the whole length, and connected with two side aisles by open archways. The exterior has an arched doorway on each side, the north being closed. The height is 47 feet to the top of the dome, which is a well proportioned structure, somewhat pointed at the top, and seated on a collar high enough to raise it above the line of the cornice without itself being offensively prominent.

The plastering of the building has peeled off in many places, but from what remains it is evident that the builder was perfectly familiar with the art by which the masons of Delhi of that time gave a marblelike smoothness and polish to chunam work. The steps round the grave are inlaid with encaustic tiles of various colours, the richness of which has withstood the wear and tear of four hundred years without any serious damage. Some of the tiles are hexagons 4 inches across, while others are squares of 6 inches each side. The substance of the latter is a white stone ware, and the enamelling on it is of a character which makes me suspect these tiles to have been imported from China. The former are of red earth, and the glazing and designs on them are of inferior execution. Their counterparts are commonly met with in Pathan buildings in Gour and elsewhere. The art of making these tiles has now been lost to the natives; the only remains of it are to be met with among the potters of Murshidábád and Bírbhúm, who apply a glazing of some consistency in blue, green and white,

on the kalkis or tobacco-bowls of ordinary Mahomedan hukkas, as also on a common musical instrument called the báyáñ.

The grave of Khán Jahán is placed in the middle of the hall, and is covered by a large slab of pure white Jeypur marble, raised on three masonry steps inlaid with encaustic tiles. It was erected in the year of Hijira 863 = A. D. 1458,—just 409 years ago. According to popular belief, the tomb was built in the lifetime and at the expense of the Khán, who departed this life on the night of Wednesday the 26th of Jilhijja i. e. about the end of March or the beginning of April. The epitaph is in Arabic, inscribed in golden letters, and, like most epitaphs, is brimful of nauseating praise (vide Appendix A), but the Khán in popular estimation was not unworthy of it. In his lifetime he was reckoned a saint, and to this day he is worshipped as such by Hindus and Mahomedans alike. Flowers are strewn over his grave every day by the attendant Fakirs, and pilgrims from various parts of eastern Bengal come all round the year to offer to it their salutations. On the full moon of Chaitra, supposed to be the anniversary of the Khán's death, a grand mela is held near the tomb, when over ten thousand people assemble to commemorate his piety and sanctity.

On the sides of the grave-stone, there are four different inscriptions, copies of which I also annex (Appendixes B to E). Three quotations from the Koran are also given, but these I did not deem worth copying. The only available article of interest in the building was an old curiously-carved Koran-stand, which I brought away for deposit in the museum of the Asiatic Society; as the stand was never used. by anybody, the sacrilegious hands I put on it, will, I fancy, cause no inconvenience to the faithful.

In the side-aisles there are three or four graves, but without inscriptions, and the attendants could give no reliable account of the people whose bodies rest in them.

The tomb is situated in a large quadrangle surrounded by a masonry wall. Within this enclosure there are several graves, but of no historical or artistic importance. There is, however, a small cenotaph on the north side which is worthy of a short notice. If is of modest size and no architectural pretension; but it was built by a zealot, one Mohammed Taer alias Pír Ally by name, whose religious fervour forced