and on the confines
of this circle is a ring of lofty mountains extending all round,
serving at once to keep folks from falling off, as well as forming a
convenient habitation for the _jinns_, &c., aforesaid. The mountain,
(I am not certain on whose trigonometrical authority) is said to be
500 _farasangs_ or 2000 English miles in height.

[242] With regard to the plain, simple sentence, "_yih kahkar takht
uthaya_," we have somewhere seen the following erudite criticism,
viz.:--"With deference to _Mir Amman_, this is bad grammar. The
nominative to _kahkar_ and _uthaya_ ought to be the same!!!" Now, it is
a great pity that the critic did not favour us here with his notions
of _good_ grammar. Just observe, O reader, how the expression stands
in the text: "_yih kahkar takht uthaya_," and you will naturally
ask, "where is the fault in the grammar?" The nominative, or rather
the agent, is _pari ne_, hence the translation, "the fairy, having
thus spoken, took up the throne." The poor critic seems to confound
"_uthaya_" with "_utha_."

[243] One of the would-be poets of our day has translated the above
most elegantly and literally, as follows:--

"What mischiefs through this love arise!
What broken hearts and miseries!"

[244] The _Muhammadans_ have great confidence in charms which
are written on slips of paper, along with numerous astrological
characters. They consist chiefly of quotations from the _Kuran_,
and are often diluted in water, and drank as medicine in various
distempers. As the Indian ink and paper can do no harm, and often
act as an emetic, they are probably more innocent than the physic
administered by eastern physicians, who are the most ignorant of their
profession. The fact is, that the soi disant "teachers" of mankind,
in all ages and countries--the African fetish, the American Indian
sachem, the _Hindu jogi_, the _Musalman mulla_, and the Romish
priest and miracle-monger--have all agreed on one point, viz., to
impose on their silly victims a multitude of unmeaning ceremonies,
and absurd mummeries, in order to conceal their own contemptible
vacuity of intellect.

[245] The _Jata-dhari Gusa,in_ is a sect of fanatic _Hindu_ mendicants,
who let their hair grow and matted, and go almost naked.

[246] _Mahadev_ is a _Hindu_ idol; the emblem of the creative power,
and generally and naturally represented by the Lingum.

[247] _Shevrat_ is a _Hindu_ festival, which corresponds nearly with
the