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erecting on the spot a very handsome stone temple, profusely carved by the best artists of Benares. Once a week the inhabitants of BaMmpur troop forth in their best clothes to pay their respects at the place which the
goddess had so palpably singled out for her favour. A school and a police thSna are the only public buildings. The former was built by the Mahardja, and is largely indebted to his liberal support. One hundred and forty boys are instructed in English, Persian, Urdu and Hindi, and the best of them have attained considerable proficiency, reading difficult
English poetry fluently. The principal private building is, of course, the Maharaja's house, an imposing pile in the Indo-Palladian style of architecture, enclosing a large court, on one side of which are ranged the dwellinghouses and offices, on the other the stables and out-houses for the accom.modation of its master's hundred elephants. garden, a deer enclosure, a caged tiger, and a few chained leopards, complete the establishment. Not far to the west of this is a very fine solid house, built three storeys high, round a central open space, as in Italian houses. The founder of this was one Moti Gir Goshdin, a wealthy jewel merchant. His descendants now live on the ground-floor and out-houses, while the upper story has been occupied by the Maharaja's lithographic printing press, whence are issued books in Hindi and Urdu, dealing chiefly with morality, medicine, religious ceremonial, and the history of the owner and his ancestors. collection of Hindi poetry has been published, and a Hindi translation of the Raj-tarangini and an edition of the chief local ballads are promised. The old bazar was a little narrow street running down to the Suwawan, but this has been almost entirely deserted for the new and more commodious shops built in two cross streets of a respectable width by the present Maharaja. Here are found a few good clothiers who supply the wants of the Maharaja and his principal dependents, and the usual braziers, graindealers, grocers and druggists, form the population of the town and its neighbourhood. There is sufficient custom to admit of a daily bazar. The principal grain merchants of the south of the district find this a convenient dep6t for the surrounding rice country, and till Sir Jang Bahadur adopted his present closely protective commercial policy, numbers of Naipalese used to flock here to barter the spices and iron of the hills for cotton clothes, blankets and salt.
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There are no manufactures of great importance, but coarse cotton cloth, coarse blankets and felt, knives, and round clothes' baskets (pitdras) of cane from the neighbouring banks of the Kuwana, are produced in limited force of twenty-two town policemen preserves order and quantities. indifferent cleanliness. Except two houses of the Shankarach^rj Goshains, which are common in these parts, there is no peculiar religious sect but this is the only town in Oudh where I have seen the ancient custom of the Ohaturmasha retirement, recalling the earliest legends of Buddhism, regularly observed. Hundreds of travelling mendicants collect here for the rains, and when they again depart oh their pilgrimages receive a small present of clothes from the Mahdrdja. There are no great fairs, but on the
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ninth day of Muharram, about 6,000 Muhammadans collect with flags at a spot sacred to Kardmat Ali, a local saint. It is singular that they should have poached on the traditions of Buddhism, and point out a small sakhu
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