38 FOOTFALLS OF INDIAN HISTORY
must have chosen for his family stronghold to develop one of the buttresses of the guardroom of the selfsame walls, occurring on a small plateau. Below us lies the floor of the winding pass with the stream that forms a moat at the foot of our moun- tain-stairway. In front a great curving staircase, constituting what our modern railway companies would call a loop of the fort, protects those temples and hot springs of Rajgir which still form the objective of a yearly Hindu pilgrimage. And out in the open, a stone's throw away as it seems in this clear plain atmosphere, but really perhaps a mile by the road, is the modern village of Rajgir, anciently Raja-Griha, the city or dwelling-place of kings.
Already the villagers are showing us friendly attentions. The servant who has come with us was born a few miles away, and his womenfolk are arriving with our first meal in hospitable readi- ness. The peasant-guard have established them- selves in the outer rooms for our protection, and a small boy of the neighbourhood is clamouring to be taken on as an attendant. It is as if we were guests of Semiramis in Nineveh of old ! It is like pitching our tent on the ruins of Babylon, and entering into friendly relations with lineal descendants of the ancient inhabitants !
How beautiful is the country that lies stretched before us,! Outward from the mouth of our twist- ing pas:, at Christmas time or thereabouts, it will be covered in the green of rice and other crops,
