A tank of peculiar sanctity is now before you, on the steps of which men are ascending and descending: it is called the _Chakra kunda_, and its history is as follows:—“After one of the periodical destructions and renovations of the world, Siva and his bride were alone in the _ananda-vana_, or happy forest, occupying the present site of Munikarniká, they found, as man and wife may sometimes do, that their tête á tête was growing dull, and to vary the party, Siva created Vishnu. After a while, the married pair wished again for privacy and withdrew into the forest, desiring Vishnu to amuse himself by doing what was fit and proper; which, after some consideration, he judged to be a supply of water for the irrigation of the trees, and with his _chakra_, or discus, he dug a hole, which he filled with the ambrosial perspiration from his body, induced by his hard work; and the pool so dug and filled, has remained a spot of peculiar sanctity, termed, from the _chakra_, or discus, _chakra kunda_, or _chakra puskkarnī_, discus-pond. When Siva returned and saw what Vishnu had done, he nodded his head in approbation so energetically, that the jewel (_mani_) of one of his ear-rings (_karniká_) fell off, and the place was thenceforth called _Manikarnika_.” (See _Kasi Khand_, Part I. chap. 26). A Brahman sitting beneath a porch is reading aloud, with his book on his knees, and bending his body backwards and forwards as he reads. Beneath the shade of a fine _pīpal_ tree (ficus religiosa) is a four-headed and holy piece of sculpture, with the bull (_nandī_) reposing before it; also another singularly sculptured stone representing two heads, their bodies formed of snakes entwined. The _pīpal_ is universally sacred: the Hindūs are seen in the early morning putting flowers in _pūja_ at the foot of the tree, and pouring water on its roots. They worship the idols placed beneath it in a similar manner, and they believe that a god resides in every leaf, who delights in the music of their rustling, and their tremulous motion. Near this place is the spot on which the dead are burned; it is dedicated to Vishnu, as _Jalsāī_, or “sleeper on the waters;” and there, many a Hindu widow has devoted herself to the flames with the corpse of her husband. In the Museum is a brazen image of _Jalsāī_ floating on Anantā, the great serpent. THE HINDŪ SCHOOL.