We will, however, quit ancient carriages for those now used in Asia. In Hindostan are a great number of vehicles of native build. It has been frequently remarked that there is little change in the Eastern fashions, that tools and workmen are precisely as they were a thousand years ago, and the work they produce is precisely the same. In examining what is done now by Indian coachbuilders, we are probably noticing carriages of a similar, if not identical, sort with those in use three thousand years ago. The commonest cart in Hindostan is called “hackery” by Europeans; it is on two wheels with a high axletree-bed, and a long platform, frequently made of two bamboos, which join in front and form the pole, to which two oxen are yoked; the whole length is united by smaller pieces of bamboo tied together, not nailed. In France, two hundred years ago, there was a similar cart, but the main beams terminated in front in shafts; in neither the cart of India nor of France were there any sides or ends; the French cart is called “Haquet;” it is probable that the French, who were in India as well as ourselves, may have given the term “hackery” to the native cart, which was so like their own. The native name, however, is “Gharry.” Other carts have sides made by stakes driven into the side beams; the wheels are sometimes of solid wood, or even of stone. Wheels are also made by a plank with rounded ends, and two felloes fitted on to complete the circle. Again, wheels are made like ours, and also with six or eight spokes, which are placed in pairs, each pair close to and parallel with one another. If a carriage for the rich is required the underworks are like those of a cart, but the pole is carefully padded and ornamented with handsome cloths or velvet; the [Illustration: PLATE 5. TWO WHEELED CARRIAGE, HINDOSTAN.] [Illustration: PLATE 6. FOUR WHEELED CARRIAGE, HINDOSTAN.] [Illustration: PLATE 7. HUNGARIAN COACH FROM GINZROT’S WORK.] sides of the body are railed or carved, and the top is of a very ornamental character, similar to the howdah of state that is placed on an elephant. It has a domed roof, supported upon four pillars, with curtains to the back and sides [Plate 5]. The passengers ride cross-legged under the dome, on pillows. The driver sits on the pole, which is broad at the butt-end, and he is screened from the heat by a cloth which is fastened to the dome roof and supported upon two stakes which point outwards from the body. A variety of different shaped native vehicles may be seen in elaborate models in the India Museum at South Kensington, but they do not show much originality of design nor beauty of execution, and are said to be really creaking and lumbering affairs. When the Hindoos wished for a four-wheeled vehicle, the plan appears to have been to hook on one two-wheeled vehicle behind another [Plate 6], connecting them with a perch-bolt, and upon the hindermost they placed the body.