e idols wherever they have been able
to do so with impunity. On a platform of stone and earth, near this place,
a finely-formed head of stone is placed, which my guide gravely assured me
was of very ancient date, and represented Adam, the father of men!

I heard with pain during my sojourn at Kannoge, that the house of God had
been made the resort of thieves; a well-known passage of Scripture struck
me forcibly when the transaction was related.

I have before stated that the mosque is never allowed to be locked or
closed to the public. Beneath the one I am about to speak of (a very
ancient building near to Baallee Peer's Durgah), is a vaulted suite of
rooms denominated taarkhanah[19], intended as a retreat from the intense
heat of the day; such as is to be met with in most great men's residences
in India. In this place, a gang of thieves from the city had long found a
secure and unsuspected spot wherein to deposit their plunder. It happened,
however, that very strict search was instituted after some stolen property
belonging to an individual of Kannoge; whether any suspicions had been
excited about the place in question, I do not recollect, but thither the
police directed their steps, and after removing some loose earth they
discovered many valuable articles,--shawls, gold ornaments, sabres, and
other costly articles of plunder. It is presumed,--for the thieves were
not known or discovered,--that they could not possibly be Mussulmauns,
since the very worst characters among this people hold the house of God in
such strict veneration, that they, of all persons, could not be suspected
of having selected so sacred a place to deposit the spoils of the
plunderer.

The process of obtaining nitre from the earth is practised at Kannoge by
the Natives in the most simple way imaginable, without any assistance from
art. They discover the spot where nitre is deposited by the small white
particles which work through the strata of earth to the surface. When a
vein is discovered, to separate the nitre from the earth, the following
simple method is resorted to:--large troughs filled with water are
prepared, into which the masses of earth containing nitre are thrown; the
earth is allowed to remain undisturbed for some time, after which it is
well stirred, and then allowed to settle; the water by this means becomes
impregnated with the nitre, and is afterwards boiled in large iron pans,
from which all the dirt is carefully skimmed, until