bernier’s voyage to the east indies.

*73

in them. Four great arches fupport the whole fabric, three of which are vifible, thefourth is clofed in by the wall of an hall, accompanied with a gallery, where certainMullahs (entertained for that end) do continually read the Alcoran, with a profoundr efpe< 3 : to the honour of Taje-Mehalle. The mould of the arches is enriched withtables of white marble, wherein are feen engraven large Arabian characters of blackmarble, which is very agreeable to behold. The interior or concave part of this dome,and the whole wall from top to bottom, is covered with white marble ; and there is noplace which is not wrought with art, and hath not its peculiar beauty. You feeftore ofagat, and fuch fort of ftones as are employed to enrich the chapel of the great duke ofFlorence ; much jafper, and many other kinds of rare and precious ftones, fet a hun-dred feveral ways, mixed and enchafed in the marble that covers the body of the wall.The fquares of white and black marble, that make the floor, are likewife fet out withall imaginable beauty and ftatelinefs.

Under this dome is a little chamber inclofing the fepulchre, which I have not feenwithin, it not being opened but once a year, and that with great ceremony, not fuf-fering any Chriftian to enter, for fear (as they fay) of prophaning the fan&ity of theplace: but really by what I could learn, becaufe it hath nothing rich or magnificentin it.

There remains nothing elfe, than to give you occafion to take notice of an alley inthe fafhion of a terrafs, twenty or twenty-five paces large, and as many or more high,which is betwixt the dome and the extremity of the garden, whence you fee belowyou, at the foot of it, the river Gemna running along a great campaign of gardens, apart of the town of Agra , the fortrefs, and all thofe fair houfes of the Omrahs that arebuilt along the water. There remains no more, I fay, than to caufe you to obfervethis terrafs, which taketh up almoft the whole length of one fide of the garden, andthen to defire you to judge, whether I had reafon to fay, that the Maufoleum, or tomb°f Taje-Mehalle, is fomething worthy to be admired. For my part I do not yet wellknow, whether I am not fomewhat infefted ftill with Indianifm ; but I muft needs fay,that I believe it ought to be reckoned amongft the wonders of the world, rather thanthofe unfhapen mafles of the Egyptian pyramids, which I was weary to fee after I hadfeen them twice, and in which I find nothing without, but pieces of great ftones rangedin the form of fteps one upon another, and within nothing but very little art andInvention.

■d LETTER written to Mr. Chapelain, fent from. Chiras , in Perfia, October 4, 1667.Concerning the fuperjlitious, Jlrange fajhions, and the dodrine of the native Indians , orGentiles of Indoftan. Whence may be feen> that there are no opinions fo ridiculous, andfo extravagant , which the fpirit of man is not capable of

Sir, 1

If I Ihould live whole ages, I know not whether I could ever forget thofe twoe clipfes of the fun, of which I faw one in France , in the year 1654, and the other inthe Indies at Dehli in the year 1666, if I remember aright. The former feemed veryre markable to me, upon the account of the childifh credulity of our common people,and of that panic terror which had fo feized' the heart, that fome bought drugs againftthe eclipfe; others kept themfelves clofe in the dark in their caves, and their well-clofed chambers; others caft themfelves in great multitudes into the churches: thofea Pprehending fome malign and dangerous influence, and thefe believing that they werec °me to their laft day, and that the eclipfe would Ihake the foundations of nature, and

1 overturn