. Our troubles in Poona and the Deccan by Arthur Crawford. With numerous illus. by Horace Van Ruith . ighty thousand horse—history tellsus—were oft-times picketed to the north, in the lines withinthe fortifications, and two hundred and fifty thousand people,warriors, camp-followers, grass-cutters, dancing girls, andmusicians, lived a life of reckless dissipation in this suburbof Shahpoor, now overgrown with rank vegetation—withgroves of large mangoe trees, countless wild pomegran-ates, guavas, corrinda bushes, date palms and pricklypear. To the liast the great Dome looming as if quiteclose at
. Our troubles in Poona and the Deccan by Arthur Crawford. With numerous illus. by Horace Van Ruith . ighty thousand horse—history tellsus—were oft-times picketed to the north, in the lines withinthe fortifications, and two hundred and fifty thousand people,warriors, camp-followers, grass-cutters, dancing girls, andmusicians, lived a life of reckless dissipation in this suburbof Shahpoor, now overgrown with rank vegetation—withgroves of large mangoe trees, countless wild pomegran-ates, guavas, corrinda bushes, date palms and pricklypear. To the liast the great Dome looming as if quiteclose at hand; to the P3ast again, on the horizon, a longlow chain of [laterite hills which form the frontier of the* See Plate, page 185. THE VALLEY OF THE DHON. 179 territory of the Nizam of Hyderabad; to the south-east,far bey nd tlie outer walls, the fertile valley of the riverDhon, which, tradition alleges, supplied the city of a millioninhabitants with food grain in such abundance that aMahratta ballad says, When the Dhon harvest is scanty,who shall eat? When the Dhon is plenteous, who can eat. THE ASAR MAHAL. it? To the South, below us, the Arkilla or Inner Fortress,encircled by a broad moat—the Sat-Manzla or Seven-storiedPalace towering above the battlements—the graceful, ornate Roza (tomb and mosque) of Ibrahim Adil Shah, retired insolitary dignity, to the right, beyond it. Southward again, theouter circle of fortifications, and then the long shallow lake i8o OUR TROUBLES IN POONA AND THE DECCAN. which in old times amply supplied the City with waterunder high pressure, so that a grateful fountain spoutedbefore the Jumma Musjid, five miles distant. The glint ofthe suns rays on the placid surface dazzles our vision. Thebroad sheet of water seems to wink in derision, as if tosay, If ye Kafirs, ye callow Civil Engineers from CoopersHill only knew our hidden secrets, the mysteries of ournetwork of subterranean ducts, then would the dead Citylive again and flourish! But ye
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