o have built a church upon the same
plan at that place, before he set out for the invasion of Syria.

The west face of the quadrangle, in which the tower stands, formed
the church, which consisted of eleven large arched alcoves, the
centre and largest of which contained the pulpit. In size and beauty
they seem to have corresponded with the Minar, but they are now all
in ruins.[27] In the front of the centre of these alcoves stands the
metal pillar of the old Hindoo sovereign of Delhi, Prithi Raj, across
whose temple all the great mosque, of which this tower forms a part,
was thrown in triumph. The ruins of these temples he scattered all
round the place, and consist of colonnades of stone pillars and
pedestals, richly enough carved with human figures, in attitudes
rudely and obscenely conceived. The small pillar is of bronze, or a
metal which resembles bronze, and is softer than brass, and of the
same form precisely as that of the stone pillar at Eran, on the Bina
river in Malwa, upon which stands the figure of Krishna, with the
glory around his head.[28]

It is said that this metal pillar was put down through the earth, so
as to rest upon the very head of the snake that supports the world;
and that the sovereign who made it, and fixed it upon so firm a
basis, was told by his spiritual advisers that his dynasty should
last as long as the pillar remained where it was. Anxious to see that
the pillar was really where the priests supposed it to be, that his
posterity might be quite sure of their position, Prithi Raj had it
taken up, and he found the blood and some of the flesh of the snake's
head adhering to the bottom. By this means the charm was broken, and
the priests told him that he had destroyed all the hopes of his house
by his want of faith in their assurances. I have never met a Hindoo
that doubted either that the pillar was really upon this snake's
head, or that the king lost his crown by his want of faith in the
assurance of his priests. They all believe that the pillar is still
stuck into the head of the great snake, and that no human efforts of
the present day could remove it. On my way back to my tents, I asked
the old Hindoo officer of my guard, who had gone with me to see the
metal pillar, what he thought of the story of the pillar?

'What the people relate about the "kili" (pillar) having been stuck
into the head of the snake that supports the world, sir, is nothing
more than a simple _historical_ fact kn