=Gates.=—An interesting essay might be written on portes and _torans_, their names and attributes, and the genii presiding as their guardians. Amongst all the nations of antiquity, the portal has had its peculiar veneration: to pass it was a privilege regarded as a mark of honour. The Jew Haman, in the true Oriental style, took post at the king’s gate as an inexpugnable position. The most pompous court in Europe takes its title from its _porte_, where, as at Udaipur, all alight. The Tripolia, or triple portal, the entry to the magnificent terrace in front of the Rana’s palace, consists, like the Roman arcs of triumph, of three arches, still preserving the numeral sacred to the god of battle, one of whose titles is Tripura, which may be rendered Tripoli, or lord of the three places of abode, or cities, but applied in its extensive sense to the three worlds, heaven, earth, and hell. From the Sanskrit _Pola_ we have the Greek πύλη, _a gate_, or pass; and in the guardian or _Polia_, the πυλωρός or porter; while to this _langue mère_ our own language is indebted, not only for its portes and porters, but its doors (_dwara_).[4.22.16] Pylos signified also a pass; so in Sanskrit these natural barriers are called _Palas_, and hence the poetical epithet applied to the aboriginal mountain tribes of Rajasthan, namely, Palipati and Palindra, ‘lords of the pass.’[4.22.17] =Ganesa.=—One of the most important of the Roman divinities was Janus, whence Januae, or portals, of which he was the guardian.[4.22.18] A resemblance between the Ganesa of the Hindu pantheon and the Roman Janus has been pointed out by Sir W. Jones, but his analogy extended little beyond nominal similarity. The fable of the birth of Ganesa furnishes us with the origin of the worship of Janus, and as it has never been given, I shall transcribe it from the bard Chand. Ganesa is the chief of the genii[4.22.19] attendant on the god of war, and was expressly formed by Uma, the Hindu Juno, to guard the entrance of her caverned retreat in the [590] Caucasus, where she took refuge from the tyranny of the lord of Kailasa (Olympus), whose throne is fixed amidst eternal snows on the summit of this peak of the gigantic Caucasus (_Koh-khasa_).[4.22.20]