Karera.
Mauli, 26th; seven and a half miles.—As usual, all was barren between Sanwar and Mauli; though at each are the traces of reviving industry. This was formerly a considerable town, and rated in the books at seven thousand rupees annual rent; but now it yields not seven hundred. Its population consists of about eighty families of all classes [686], half of which have been recalled from their long exile in Malwa and Khandesh, and have already given a new aspect to Mauli in its sugar-canes. Her highness’s steward, however, is not one of the faithful. There is a very fine bawari, or reservoir, of coarse marble, constructed by Baiji Raj, ‘the royal mother,’ of the present Rana and his sister, in whose appanage it is. An inscription, dated S. 1737, recorded an ordinance in favour of the Jains, that “the oil-mill of Mauli should not work on the four rainy months”; in order to lessen the destruction of animal life.[[29]]
Heights of Tus and Merta, 27th; fourteen miles and a half.—At length there is an end to our disastrous journey; and from this ground I stir not again, till I start for Samudra (the sea), to embark for the land of my sires. Our route, as usual, over desolate fields, doubly striking as we passed the hunting-seats of Nahramagra, or ‘tiger mount.’ Bajraj, the royal steed, who seemed instinctively to know he was at the end of his journey, was unwilling to quit the path and his companions, when I urged him to pick his way amidst the ruined palace of the Ranas, where, without metaphor, “the owl stands sentinel”; and which was crumbling into and choking up the Bamani, whose monotonous murmur over these impediments increased the melancholy sensations which arose on beholding such a scene. Every year is aiding its rapid decay, and vegetation, fixing itself everywhere, rends its walls asunder. The range of stabling for thirty horses, all of stone, even to the mangers, is one extensive ruin. It was on this spot, according to the chronicles, that the sage Harit bestowed the enchanted blade upon the great sire of the Sesodias, eleven centuries ago; but they have run their career, and the problem remains to be solved, whether they have to commence a new course, or proceed in the same ratio of decay as the palace of the tiger-mount. The walls around this royal preserve no longer serve to keep the game from prowling where they please. A noble boar crossed our path, but had no pursuers; “our blood was cold”; we wanted rest. As we approached our old ground, my neighbours of Merta and villages adjacent poured out to welcome our return, preceded by the Dholi of Tus and his huge kettle-drum, and the fair, bearing their lotas, or brazen vessels with water, chanted the usual strain of welcome. I dropped a piece of silver into each as I passed, and hastened to rest my wearied limbs.
Poor Carey will never march again! Life is almost extinct, and all of us are but the ghosts of what we were [687].
[1]. [Lieut.-Col. T. H. Sweeny, who has much experience in such cases, is satisfied, from the symptoms, that the attack was not due to darnel, the seeds of which, when mixed with cereals, and when they have been attacked by mildew or fungi, are deleterious. The attack was certainly due to the administration of datura fastuosa, used by road poisoners, and his recovery was due to the immediate production of vomiting.]
[3]. [Laws, vii. 70.]
[4]. [Spanish pedrero, originally an engine used for flinging stones: then, a piece of ordnance for discharging fragments of broken iron and the like, and for firing salutes (see J. Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia, ed. 1909, i. 271 f.).]
[5]. [A ravine, deep pool.]