her, as they are all of the
sama gote or family. It would, according to their notions, be
incestuous.

_January_ 19, 1850.--Hutteeah Hurrun, thirteen miles. The plain level
as usual, and of the loose doomuteea soil, fertile in natural powers
everywhere, and well tilled around the villages, which are more
numerous than in any other part that we have passed over. The water
is everywhere near the surface, and wells are made at little cost. A
well is dug at a cost of from five to ten rupees; and in the muteear,
or argillaceous soil, will last for irrigation for forty years. To
line it with burnt bricks without cement will cost from one to two
hundred rupees; and to add cement will cost a hundred more. Such
lining is necessary in light soil, and still more so in sandy or
_bhoor_. They frequently line their wells at little cost with long
thick cables, made of straw and twigs, and twisted round the surface
inside. The fields are everywhere irrigated from wells or pools, and
near villages well manured; and the wheat and other spring crops are
excellent. They have been greatly benefited by the late rains, and in
no case injured. The ground all the way covered with white hoar
frost, and the dews heavy in a cloudless sky. Finer weather I have
never known in any quarter of the world.

This place is held sacred from a tradition, that Ram, after his
expedition against Cylone, came here to bathe in a small tank near
our present camp, in order to wash away the sin of having killed a
_Brahmin_ in the person of Rawun, the monster king of that island,
who had taken away his wife, Seeta. Till he had done so, he could not
venture to revisit his capital, Ajoodheea. There are many legends
regarding the origin of the sanctity of this and the many other
places around, which pilgrims must visit to complete the _pykurma_,
or holy circuit. The most popular seems to be this. Twenty-eight
thousand sages of great sanctity were deputed, with the god Indur at
their head, on a mission to present an address to Brimha, as he
reposed upon the mountain Kylas, praying that he would vouchsafe to
point out to them the place in Hindoostan most worthy to be
consecrated to religious worship. He took a discus from the top-knot
on his head, and, whirling it in the air, directed it to proceed in
search. After much search it rested at a place near the river
Goomtee, which it deemed to be most fitted for the purification of
one's faith, and which thenceforth took t