Buchanan’s journey through
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thrown fome confectatcd a flies on the man, and offered up the prayers proper for theoccafion, at length procured a releafe. The interpreter, I fufpett, made the mo ftof his ftory, in order to remove my infidelity; as the day before I had refufed myaflent to believe, that certain mantrams pronounced by a Brahman could compel thegods to be prefent in whatever place he chofe. It is almoft unneceflary to obferve,that the poor cattle-driver Was fubjeft to the epilepfy, the recurrence of which thisnight had, I believe, been occafioned by a violent paroxyfm of intoxication, in whichthe whole party had been fo deeply engaged, that until morning I could not get aman to tie up the baggage.
20th Auguft. — In the morning I went to Chica Nayakana Hully; and by the wayvifited a hill called Gajina Guta, which produces much cavi cullu, or reddle. Thishill is reckoned 14. cofs from Chica Nayakana Hully. The part of it which I examinedconfifts of caricul, or brown haematites, and clay. In fome places the haematitesforms a kind of rock ; in others it is found only in fmall lumps, immerfed in the clay.In this hill it has every where a ftrong tendency to decompofition, and then in moftplaces forms red ochre, but in fome parts it falls into a yellow oxyde. I obfervednothing in it like ftrata. Thofe mafles which confift of clay mixed with lumps ofthe haematites, in various ftages of decompofition, bear a ftrong refemblance, exceptin hardnefs, to the hornftone porphyry found near Seringapatam ; for many of thelumps of haematites are angular, and have a glaffy longitudinal fracture, while theirtranfverfe fracture is earthy. Whoever fees thefe mafles, I am perfuaded, will beftruck with the refemblance, and will believe that from the one kind of mineral theother derives its origin. In all this chain of hills, however, I confefs, I faw noporphyry, nor even granite. The reddle is found in large veins, or irregular mafles,running through the rock of hasmatites, or mafles of clay, in very irregulardirections ; and feems to be nothing more than the hornftone of the country diflolvedinto clay, and then ftrongly impregnated with the red oxyde of iron, from a fimilardifiolution of the haematites. It always contains fpecks of yellow ochre. Peoplecome to dig it from Hegodu Devana Cotay, Chin’-raya-pattana, Narafingha-pura,Gubi, and all the intermediate country toward the fouth and weft,, and they fendit ftill farther toward the frontiers. For every ox-load of about 5 cucha maunds, orabout i3olbs. they pay to the renter 12 dudus, or about 6d. He fays, that about30 loads only are annually required. He keeps no perfon on the fpot, and is eitherattempting to deceive me, or is himfelf defrauded; for the excavations made tocolled it are very confiderable. It is ufed to paint walls, and to dye goni or fackcloth,and the cloth ufed by Sannyafis and Jangamas. The dye comes out with the leaftwater, but the colour is eafily reftored.
In the fame places are found lithomargas of feveral colours, which feem to meto be portions of the clay lels impregnated with iron than the reddle; and whichperhaps derived their origin from hornftone, that contained magnefia, as fome areknown to do.
In one of the excavations that have been made by digging out the haematites, andwhich forms a cave, I found the nefts of a flock of wild pigeons, exactly refemblingthofe of the caves of Europe . This bird, therefore, is perhaps one of the moft univer-fally diffufed kinds in the old world, at leaft of fuch as are in a wild ftate. The com-mon fparrow is equally univerfal.
Chica Nayakana Hully is a large fquare town, ftrongly fortified with mud walls,and having bruches, or cavaliers at the angles. In its center is a fquare citadel, fortifiedin a fimilar manner. In the outer town a wide ftreet runs all round, and on both hands
5 fends