9» W E S T E R N H I N D O O S T A N .
and often the Cobra de Capello, that dreadful, fnake, which is
attendant on feveral o f the incarnations o f Viftchenou. A fiih
is one, which alfifts to explain the objedt o f the fculptures and
tifes o f the excavations.
T hese caverns are the haunts o f monftrous ferpents. Hamilton,
i. 2.39, tells us, that on.firing his fufil, to enjoy the thundering
echo o f the report, he difturbed a Boa, fifteen feet in length,
and two feet in girth, from its antient feat, which put the traveller
to fpeedy fligh t, and an end to his curiofity.
Most o f the figures are colofial,. from twelve to twenty-three-
feet high. Some o f them, with all their extravagancies, are faid-
to be finely executed :: many are crofs leg’d , in their attitude o f
prayer; many have rofaries, w hich prove that thefe places were
objedls o f devotion.
T he woman with three faces and four arms is engraven in
Mr. Pyke's account. I beg leave to make a few remarks on that
figure : round her neck are five necklaces, rich in pearls and gems,
with pendent j e w e l s h e r hair is lo n g , and hangs in beautiful
ringle ts; her ears (not her ear-rings as they are called): hang to
a vail length, exadtly in the Malabar mode? and her head--
drefs is conic, in the Chinefe fafhion, which might have been
in ufe in early times. T he lalt is dropt; the ftrange deformity
o f long ears are Hill r e t a in e d fo far is. certainly o f eaftern
fculpture.
Bu t what can be faid to the figures found in another cave,,
in the neighborhood o f Bombay,, not expreffed by name :• they
are engraven in volume vii. o f the Arcbaelogia\ fome have the
faufage curl, others the cochlear twirl, in the hair, and others
7 the
the rich braid o f pearl; all refembling, in fome degree, the
fantaftic variety in the head-dreffes of the Roman ladies, without
the left trace o f oriental fafhion.
I s h a l l conclude with faying, that the cave o f Elepbanta
takes its name from an elephant, with a lefler on its back, cut
on the outfide of the cave; and in a pafiage is the rude figure of
a horfe, called that of Alexander the Great, to whom the Indians
attribute thefe mighty works, as we Weiß do every thing ftu-
pendous to our favorite Arthur. I mention this tradition to
fhew its great antiquity, as well as that o f the excavations them-
felves. Arrian, in his Periplus marts Erythrai, ii. 166, fays that
there were near Barygaza, foundations of camps, antient chapels,
altars, and <ppxT<* ^ ¡¡x , great wells, all attributed to the
Macedonian hero.
T h e idols mentioned here are quite diminutive to fome in
the Soobabjbip o f Caßmere, in recefles excavated in the mountain,
which are called (fays the Ayeen, ii. 208) Surnmii, and.are pretended
to have been the winter retreat of the antient inhabitants;
one o f the figures was eighty ells h ig h ; there was a woman of
fifty, and a child o f fifteen. In one o f thefe Surnmii was found
a tomb, and in that a coffin; in which was a corpfe preferved
by medical preparations: one would fuppofe that the cuftoms
o f the 'Tartars had been obferved in this place, and burning the
bodies at that time not in ufe.
T h e method of travelling which begins at Surat, and is continued
through moil parts o f India, is by oxen. The ox fup-
plies the ufe o f the horfe; the fmaller fort ferve as pads, the
larger are ufed in drawing a kind o f carriage called a hackerie.
O 2 The
T r a v e l l i n g
i n In d i a .