THE PALACE OF THE RAJAH

HURCHUND.

BY J. A. ST. JOHN.

I am more excellent than he: thou hast created me of fire, and hast created him of clay.

Speech of Eblis, in the Koran.

IN crossing the desert of Ajmere, in the autumn of 1817, in company with Lieutenant Murray of the 51st regiment, N. I., whose early death caused such universal grief in the army of India, we one evening encamped on the southern shore of the salt lake, which lies between Sirr and Khomanoh. The night was cold, and the morning which succeeded it still colder. Nevertheless, the Lieutenant was stirring with the dawn, and being of an active and curious disposition, had roused me from my morning slumbers, and prevailed on me to sally forth with him to explore the nature of the surrounding country, before the sun was actually above the horizon. Turning our back upon our little encampment, we

directed our course towards the north, and had just emerged from the grove of sacred peepuls, which is traversed by the road from Sirr to Khomanoh, when the sun's first rays fell upon the earth. My face happened, at that moment, to be turned towards the lake; and a scene, or rather vision, was presented to my eye, which, for splendour and sublimity, exceeded all that the fancy of man can ever have created, even in a dream. A forest of towers, palaces, spires, pyramids, battlements, and domes, piled above each other, frosted with gems and gold, and thrusting their glittering pinnacles into the clouds, seemed to be based upon the lake, and to stretch away, right and left, in an interminable line, into the desert. The appearance, however, lasted but a moment, for before I could bring my mind to bear, as it were, upon the pageant, the mighty fabric was shattered to fragments, as if riven by a thunderbolt, and the ruins, like a picture painted on a cloud, were blown away over the waste by the cold breezes of the morning. The Jemadar, or native officer, who accompanied us, a Rajpoot of high birth and gallant character, exclaimed, as the spectral city vanished-Hurchund Raja ca poori!" The city of the Rajah Hurchund." From this I discovered that my companions, as well as myself, had beheld the vision; and furthermore learned, upon inquiry, that at certain seasons of the year it may always be seen in some part or other of the desert, but most frequently on the spot where it had appeared to us.

Both my companion and myself now put several questions to the Jemadar respecting Hurchund, but could learn nothing more than that the city, or palace of the desert, was called after his name. My mind, however, involuntarily conceived the most extraordinary curiosity to learn the history of the Great Rajah, the phantom of whose grandeur was supposed thus to hover over his ancient dominions, in order, it would seem, to shame the present race into humility, by giving them an idea of the wealth and magnificence of their ancestors. Occupied with these reflections, I journeyed on to Jussulmer, observing little, and doing nothing; while my friend, the Lieutenant, kept a journal, containing the history of our suppers and dinners; sketched every landscape, bad and good, which presented itself, and composed five sonnets on fire-flies and ruins, which we encountered on the way. At Jussulmer, however, it was fated that my curiosity should be gratified. Conversing with a venerable priest of the Jairus, that ancient sect among whom the primitive faith of Hindoostan is supposed to be preserved, and full of the idea of the Great Rajah and his palace, I inquired whether in his profound researches into the history of his country, he had met with any account of the Rajah Hurchund. Certainly," said he, " and I have here, in this temple, the very chronicle in which it is found." He then went into the sanctuary, and a moment afterwards returned with the manuscript in his hand. It was written, I found, in the Sanscrit, and with

all that simplicity of style for which the ancient writings of most nations are remarkable. I sat down on the base of a pillar, and read, or rather devoured the chronicle; and so firm a hold did the subject take of my imagination, that, though I made no copy, I could, at this distance of time, repeat the whole story word for word, whether in the original or in English. Perhaps the circumstances under which I became acquainted with it, may have given this history an undue degree of importance in my eyes; but of this the reader, when he has carefully perused it, will be the best judge.

Hurchund ascended the throne of Northern India a few months before he had reached his twentieth year. The seat of government, at the period of his accession, was Ajmere; but in journeying through his dominions he discovered in the desert a beautiful oasis, or island, in the centre of which was a verdant mountain of moderate elevation; and with reckless absurdity he resolved to abandon the palaces of his ancestors, and to erect a new capital upon this enchanting but solitary spot. It was in vain that his mother, his brothers, and the sage counsellors of his deceased father, represented to him the madness of building a city in a situation which, however beautiful in itself, was surrounded by a desert that was nearly impassable. That which they regarded as an objection, was his principal reason for fixing upon the place. He loved to contemplate beauty by the side of deformity, sterility mocked by abundance, and the pomp,