nearly opposite
(now closed), and conveyed across the arm of the river to its last
resting-place in the Taj.

The death of Shah Jahan and his funeral are minutely described by
Mulla Muhammad Kazim in his "Alamgir Nama." The guides wrongly point
out a pavilion in the Jahangiri Mahal as the place where he died.

In front of the Samman Burj is a beautiful little fountain hollowed
in the floor; on one side of the courtyard is a raised platform laid
out in squares of black marble for the game of _pachisi_, an Eastern
backgammon. [7]

The Khas Mahal.

From the Samman Burj we step into the next set of apartments of
the zanana, connecting with the Khas Mahal and a similar set on the
other side. This part of the zanana forms the east, or river side,
of the Anguri Bagh, or Grape Garden. There is an indescribable grace
and charm about all this quarter of the palace, to which the beauty
of the material, the perfect taste of the ornament and elegance of
the proportions, the delightful background of the landscape, and the
historical associations all contribute. It should be seen towards
evening, not in the full glare of the morning sun.

When the afterglow fills the sky, burnishes the gilded roofs, and
turns the marble to rose-colour, imagination may re-people these
lovely pavilions with fair Indian women--revel in the feast of
colour in _saris_, brocades, and carpets; in the gold, azure, and
crimson of the painted ceilings; and listen to the water splashing
in the fountains and gurgling over the carved water-shoots--a scene
of voluptuous beauty such as the world has rarely known since the
wealth and elegance of Rome filled the palaces and villas of Pompei.

In the walls of the Khas Mahal are a number of niches which formerly
contained portraits of the Mogul Emperors, beginning with Timur, which,
like so many other things, were looted by the Rajah of Bharatpur. A
number of similar portraits and other fine paintings of the Mogul
period are preserved in the Government Art Gallery, Calcutta.

A Persian poem inscribed on the walls of the Khas Mahal gives the
date of its construction, 1636.

THE UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS.--A staircase to the south of the Khas Mahal
leads to a labyrinth of underground chambers, in which the Emperor
and his zanana found refuge from the fierce summer heat of Agra. In
the south-east corner there is a well-house, called a _baoli_; this
is a set of chambers surrounding a well--a favourite retreat in the