tiful pillar of a single freestone, more than fifty feet high,
surmounted by a figure of Krishna, with the glory round his head.[8]
Some few of the rays of this glory have been struck off by lightning;
but the people declare that this was done by a shot fired at it from
a cannon by order of Aurangzeb, as his army was marching by on its
way to the Deccan. Before the scattered fragments, however, could
reach the ground, the air was filled, they say, by a swarm of
hornets, that put
the whole army to flight; and the emperor ordered his gunners to
desist, declaring that he was 'satisfied of the presence of the god'.
There is hardly any part of India in which, according to popular
belief, similar miracles were not worked to convince the emperor of
the peculiar merits or sanctity of particular idols or temples,
according to the traditions of the people, derived, of course, from
the inventions of priests. I should mention that these hornets
suspend their nests to the branches of the highest trees, under
rocks, or in old deserted temples. Native travellers, soldiers, and
camp followers, cook and eat their food under such trees; but they
always avoid one in which there is a nest of hornets, particularly on
a still day. Sometimes they do not discover the nest till it is too
late. The unlucky wight goes on feeding his fire, and delighting in
the prospect of the feast before him, as the smoke ascends in curling
eddies to the nest of the hornets. The moment it touches them they
sally forth and descend, and sting like mad creatures every living
thing they find in motion. Three companies of my regiment were
escorting treasure in boats from Allahabad to Cawnpore for the army
under the Marquis of Hastings, in 1817.[9] The soldiers all took
their dinners on shore every day; and one still afternoon a sipahi
(sepoy), by cooking his dinner under one of those nests without
seeing it, sent the infuriated swarm among the whole of his comrades,
who were cooking in the same grove, and undressed, as they always are
on such occasions. Treasure, food, and all were immediately deserted,
and the whole of the party, save the European officers, were up to
their noses in the river Ganges. The hornets hovered over them; and
it was amusing to see them bobbing their heads under as the insects
tried to pounce upon them. The officers covered themselves up in the
carpets of their boats; and, as the day was a hot one, their
situation was still more uncomfortabl