either
fish, flesh, or fowl:--yet, when I pressed for his undisguised opinion, I
found that he not only denied the existence of God, but declared it was
his belief the world formed itself.

I was induced to walk three miles from the killaah, on a cool day in
December, to view the remains of a piece of sculpture of great antiquity.
I confess myself but little acquainted with Hindoo mythology, and
therefore my description will necessarily be imperfect. The figure of
Luchmee is represented in relief, on a slab of stone eight feet by four,
surrounded by about a hundred figures in different attitudes. Luchmee, who
is of course the most prominent, is figured with eight arms; in his right
hands, are sabres, in his left, shields; his left foot upon the hand of a
female, and the right on a snake.[18] This figure is about four feet high,
and finely formed, standing in a martial attitude; his dress (unlike that
of the modern Hindoo) is represented very tight, and, altogether, struck
me as more resembling the European than the Asiatic: on his head I
remarked a high-crowned military cap without a peak: the feet were bare.
There can be no doubt this figure is emblematical; the Hindoos, however,
make it an object of their impure and degrading worship.

I could not help expressing my surprise on finding this idol in such
excellent condition, having had so many samples throughout Kannoge of the
vengeance exercised by Mussulmaun zeal, on the idols of the Hindoos. My
guide assured me, that this relic of antiquity had only been spared from
the general destruction of by-gone periods by its having been buried,
through the supposed influence of unconverted venerating Brahmins; but
that within the last thirty years it had been discovered and dug out of
the earth, to become once more an ornament to the place. My own ideas lead
me to suppose that it might have been buried by the same convulsion of the
earth which overturned the idolatrous city.

I observed that a very neat little building, of modern date, was erected
over this antiquity, and on inquiry found that the Hindoos were indebted
to the liberality of a lady for the means of preserving this relic from
the ravages of the seasons.

There is in the same vicinity a second piece of mythological sculpture, in
a less perfect state than Luchmee, the sabred arm of which has been struck
off, and the figure otherwise mutilated by the zealous Mussulmauns, who
have invariably defaced or broken th