useum here; and the superior officer who did the honors to his lordship
showed them the throne of Akbar, a long marble seat, inlaid with precious
stones, with a graceful canopy of the same material over it; and the boys
thought he would have had a more comfortable seat if he had put off the
period of his reign to the present time.

The gates of Somnath, twelve feet high, were beautiful pieces of carving.
They once guarded the entrance to the temple of Krishna, in Goojerat; but
in the tenth century they were carried off by Sultan Mahmoud, of Ghuzni, in
Afghanistan. He captured Somnath, and destroyed all the idols. The Brahmins
offered him immense bribes if he would spare the statue of Krishna; but he
spurned the money, and destroyed the image with his own hands. He found
that it was hollow, and filled with jewels of great value.

When the English conquered Afghanistan, Lord Ellenborough sent the gates to
Agra; but some think they were not the gates of the temple, but of
Mahmoud's tomb, for they were made of a wood that does not grow in India,
and they are not of Hindu workmanship. From the museum the party walked to
the imperial palace of Akbar, still in an excellent state of preservation.
Some of the apartments, especially the bath-room of the monarch, made the
visitors think of the Arabian Nights.

The great black marble slab on which Akbar sat to administer justice was
pointed out. When one of the Jat chiefs seated himself upon it, the story
goes, it cracked, and blood flowed from the fracture. Lord Ellenborough
tried the experiment, and the stone broke into two pieces. The Mosque of
Pearls is a small building of white marble on a rose-colored platform. It
is considered by experts the finest piece of architecture in the fortress.
Nothing could be simpler, nothing grander. Bishop Heber visited it and
wrote this of it:--

"This spotless sanctuary, showing such a pure spirit of adoration, made me,
a Christian, feel humbled, when I considered that no architect of our
religion had ever been able to produce anything equal to this temple of
Allah."

Following the Jumna, the carriages reached the Taj, the wonder and glory of
all India. It was built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, as a mausoleum for the
Empress Mumtazi Mahal. She was not only beautiful, but famous for mental
endowments; and the emperor had so much love and admiration for her that he
determined to erect to her memory the most beautiful monument that had ever
bee