SUL 433 appearance, suitable to his rankand dignity. The royal gift had been packed up with becoming care, and its acceptance does not appear to have struck Safdarjang as incompatible with the rebellious attitude he had assumed. The box in which it was enclosed was opened with due ceremony, when it was discovered that the emperor, with grim pleasantry, had selected as an appropriate gift an image of Mari Bhawani! That neither donor nor recipient venerated that goddess, mattered no more than that the Philis- tines regarded the ark with little reverence; the one was as fatal by its presence as the other, and the mortality which ensued in Safdarjang's camp was perfectly appalling. The simple expedient resorted to by the Philistines does not appear to have occurred to the modern sufferers, who adopted the more oumbrous measure of moving their whole army, and Mari Bhawáni was left in undisturbed possession. The unfinished walls still exist, and the triumph of the destructive goddess is celebrated by periodical fairs, held in the months of Kuár and Chait, which are attended by 10,000 to 12,000 persons, Sagar.–Ságar in the village of Bandhua, in the Sultanpur pargana, is a fine large masonry tank, on the border of which stands what may be called, in comparison with any thing to be found for a long distance, an imposing pile of buildings. The tank was dug at the expense of one Baba Sahajrám, a Nánakshahi Faqír, a great miracle-monger, and is thence known as Bába Ji-ká-ságar. The buildings mentioned were the Baba's residence. He and his successors received several revenue-free grants from officials in the king's time, and these have now been confirmed in perpetuity by the British Government. A large concourse of people, about 8,000 to 10,000, assemble at this tank at fairs held every year in the months of Kártik, Chait, and Jeth. Lohranaw. In the village Lohramáu, pargana Sultanpur, is a shrine of Debi, which is said to occupy the site of an old Bhar temple. There is now a brick shrine enclosed by mud walls, but these were erected only twenty five years ago by the zamindars of the village. Three or four hundred people collect here every Monday, and a much larger number twice a year in the months of Kuár and Chait to worship the presiding goddess Set Baráh.-- In the village of Kotwa, a mile or two south-east of the Amghát bridge, nearly at the summit of a lofty mound overlooking the river Gumti stands a small sbrine. In point of size it is very insignificant, but this is more than compensated by its extreme sanctity. It is dedicated to the "white boar," one of the incarnations of Vishnu. It is reputed to contain a statue of the god, but such is not the case; all there is to do duty for it is a small hollowed block of carved stone. In what its similitude to a hoar consists it is difficult to say. There is perhaps a bare possibility that it represents the jaws of that animal as depicted on the Báráh coing, but even this is improbable, and if it be the case, the figure to which it belonged must have been of colossal proportions. All that the villages can contribute to the explana- 55
