…of the Sun, with its sacred tank, occupies the low ground within the town.

The principal object of my visit was, however, Buddh Gaya, where five hundred years before the birth of Christ the immortal founder of the Buddhist religion had obtained "enlightenment "-a spot considered one of the most sacred places on this earth of ours by perhaps a third of the entire human race. Even in this matterof-fact age, which is supposed to have eyes and ears only for utilities, one may be pardoned for leaving the direct road to Calcutta in order to visit a spot round which so many memories cluster.

My way lay along a dusty road through open fields, and for some distance alongside the dry sandy bed of the river Phalgu. The country through which I passed presented this April morning a very different appearance, no doubt, from what it wears during the brief winter which succeeds the rainy season in India. Under the mild winter sky, man- and beast, field and forest, seem to revive a little, and the European tourist flits through the verdant country, charmed with the mild sunshine of these favoured climes. And if he writes a book of his travels, its pages reflect the lovely blue sky and the soft, mild climate he has been enjoying. In April it is other wise, as the resident in India knows only too well. As I proceeded on my way, a carved stone here and another there on the roadside, or built into a mud but, served to indicate my approach to Buddh Gaya and its ancient temple.

A drive of about six miles from the Government Dak Bungalow brought me to a large group of buildings enclosed within a high masonry wall, which the driver of my cab seemed to think must be the object of my visit. It was a Hindu monastery, situated in a garden on the riverside iverside. I went in through the wide-open gateway, accompanied by my coachman. On the terraced roof of a building of some three or four storeys, the Mahant or Abbot-Maharaj they styled him-was taking his ease, and after being informed by my loquacious coachman, It who knew nothing whatever about me, that I was a visitor from Calcutta, directed, his servants to show me