[51] A peculiar little seed from which a cooling drink is prepared. A preparation of rice and water, when cooled, is often called "siste." [52] See _Cutch_, chapter vi., by Mr. Postans, 1839. [53] The illusion or unreality of all created things, according to Brahman mystics. [54] The "Puranas," or Hindoo Antiquities, are by no means as ancient as they are named. They are eighteen volumes in all, but consisting of no less than one million six hundred thousand sacred lines treating of creation, mythology, tradition, and legend. CHAPTER IX. From Bombay to Poonah, the capital of the Maha Rashtra, or the great Indian kings.--Campooly.--The Ascent of the Bhor Ghauts.[55]--Khandala.--Caves of Carlee or Karli.--"Puja Chakra," or the famous Wheel-worship of the Brahmans.--Poonah.--Kirki.--A Visit to the Peishwa's Palace.--Temple of Parvati.--The Pundit and the Brahman Priest at Prayer.--Sanskrit and English Colleges at Poonah.--Suttee Monuments at Sangam.--Hindoo Bankers, etc. From the island of the ancient goddess Bamba Dèvi to Poonah, the capital of the great Indian kings, one passes through the most extravagant contrasts of sights and scenes to be found anywhere in the wide world--gorgeous temples of gods and squallid dwellings of men; fertile plains and arid wastes; towering hills crowned with ancient forts and temples, now lonely or deserted; deep cave-structures in the hearts of isolated mountains, where still lie written in stone the romantic culture of a long-past age. Our dâhk, which was simply a native carriage furnished with horses instead of bullocks, trotted briskly along the magnificent "Lion Causeway." Passing rapidly the eastern side of the island of Salsette to Thannah, and crossing the great viaduct and round the promontory of Parsek, we turned to the south, and emerged on a striking plain whose attractiveness increased at every mile of the road until we began the descent of the Bhor Ghauts on the other side. [Illustration: BULLOCK CART.] In some parts our road lay over a great green floor soft as velvet, intersected with innumerable river-like channels, made in the lowlands by the ever-encroaching sea. Palm trees fringed these salt-water streams, dotted with hundreds of the fanciful sails of fishing-smacks, bunder-boats, and brightly painted canoes, all moving to and fro swiftly and silently under the shadows of the hills, which rise in fantastic broken forms on one side. There is no sound far or near to break the spell; the silent, forest-clad Ghauts and the whole sea-begirt valley lie asleep in that enchanted atmosphere.