At the period of my visit there were about 782 of them.

{158b} Rajmahal was, in the seventeenth century, the capital of
Bengal.

{160a} Monghyr is termed the Birmingham of India, on account of its
extensive manufactories of cutlery and weapons. Its population is
about 30,000 souls.

{160b} Patna is the capital of the province of "Bechar," and was
once celebrated for the number of its Buddhist temples. Near Patna
was situated the most famous town of ancient India, namely,
"Parlibothra." Patna contains a great many cotton and a few opium
factories.

{161} In all Indian, Mahomedan, and in fact all countries which are
not Christian, it is a very difficult task to obtain anything like
an exact calculation of the number of inhabitants, as nothing is
more hateful to the population than such computations.

{162} I landed with two travellers at Patna, and rode on to
Deinapore in the evening, where our steamer anchored for the night.

{170} If a Hindoo has no son, he adopts one of his relations, in
order that he may fulfil the duties of a son at the funeral of his
adoptive father.

{173} The dislike which the Hindoos evince towards the Europeans, is
chiefly in consequence of the latter showing no honour to the cow,
of their eating ox-flesh, and drinking brandy; and that they spit in
their houses, and even in the temples, and wash their mouths with
their fingers, etc. They call the Europeans "Parangi." This
disrespect is said to make the Hindoos dislike the Christian
religion.

{177} Many of the more recent Indian towns were built by the
Mongolians, or were so much altered by them that they altogether
lost their original character. India was conquered by the
Mongolians as early as the tenth century.

{183} At the time of its greatest prosperity it had 2,000,000
inhabitants.

{185} Some writers describe this colossal crystal as being twenty-
five feet long.

{190} If these two towers did belong to a mosque, why were they
built of such different sizes?

{193} The cheprasses are servants of the English government. They
wear red cloth scarfs, and a brass plate on the shoulders, with the
name of the town to which they belong engraved upon it. Each of the
higher English officials are allowed to have one or more of these
people in their service. The people consider them much superior to
the ordinary servants.

{200} Children are generally considered as impure until the ninth
year, and are therefore not subj