The European portion of the city of Poonah stands on a fine open plain. There are here wide fields, handsome barracks for the European soldiers, bungalows for their commanding officers, a hospital, a lunatic asylum, a pretty little church with reading-room and library adjoining. In fact, there is everything here to render the European comfortable and happy, except the temper of the people, who still cling to the recollections of old times, when Poonah was the capital of their own great kings and warriors, filled with all the pomp and parade of Oriental splendor. The late Sir Jamsetjee Jeeboy has erected a fine residence here; near it is a simple and unpretending Fire-temple for the benefit of the Parsees in this vicinity. The last of the many bright hours spent here we drove about the native town and enjoyed Poonah at night. Every house, fort, temple, palace, and hut was illuminated, those of the poor by a dim light, those of the temples and palaces by innumerable tiny flames that flickered and gleamed in thousands of colors on the marbles and frescoes of the walls, floors, and verandahs. It seemed like passing through some fairy scene filled with the thousand and one pictures of the Arabian Nights. FOOTNOTES: [55] _Bhor_, a Mahratta word for the jujube tree, _Zizyphus jujuba_, which is found among these mountains. The _Ghauts_, or "Landing-Stairs," are the two ranges of mountains extending along the eastern and western shores of the peninsula of Hindostan. The highest peaks in the north-western part are found in the Mahablashwar Mountains, the summer retreat of the Europeans of Bombay. [56] From _Dakshina_ (Sanskrit), "South Country." [57] This chain is now bridged over by a viaduct which once crumbled down and disappeared into the depths below in the presence of a brave English engine-driver, who had the good fortune to arrest the train, that was speeding on its way toward it, just in time to save many valuable lives. [58] A small village on the Khandala Hills. [59] An immense hemispherical altar of stone with a kind of wooden umbrella spreading above, beneath which lies interred some relic of the god to whom the temple is dedicated. [60] See Fergusson's _Rock-cut Temples of India_, p. 27. [61] Followers of the god Siva or Shiva. [62] The Mahratta horses. [63] Founder of the Mahratta empire, born at Junir, about fifty miles from Poonah, in the year 1627. [64] This fort is reputed to be of great antiquity, and was constructed by Palighar, but as to who he was, or how he got there, they do not pretend to know. [65] The city of Poonah is divided into seven quarters, corresponding to the days of the week. Budhwar, therefore, is the Wednesday quarter of the city. [66] A _lak_ is one hundred thousand rupees. CHAPTER X.