It was the month in which the Hindoos prefer to celebrate their marriages, and we met in several streets merry processions of that kind.  The bridegroom is enveloped in a purple mantle, his turban dressed out with gold tinsel, tresses, ribbons, and tassels, so that from a distance it appears like a rich crown.  The depending ribbons and tassels nearly cover the whole face.  He is seated upon a horse; relatives, friends, and guests surround him on foot.  When he reaches the house of the bride, the doors and windows of which are securely closed, he seats himself quietly and patiently on the threshold.  The female relations and friends also gather together here, without conversing much with the bridegroom and the other men.  This scene continues unchanged until nightfall.  The bridegroom then departs with his friends; a closely covered waggon, which has been held in readiness, is drawn up to the door; the females slip into the house, bring out the thickly-veiled bride, push her into the waggon, and follow her with the melodious music of the tam-tam.  The bride does not start until the bridegroom has been gone a quarter of an hour.  The women then accompany her into the bridegroom’s house, which, however, they leave soon afterwards.  The music is kept up in front of the house until late in the night.  It is only the marriages of the lower classes that are celebrated in this manner.

There is a road leading from Puna to Pannwell, a distance of seventy miles, and travellers can post all the way.  From Pannwell to Bombay the journey is made by water.  I adhered to the cheaper baili, and Mr. Brown was so obliging as to procure one for me, and to lend me a servant.

On the 15th of March I again set out, and on the same day arrived at Woodgown, a village with one of the dirtiest bungalows in which I ever made up my bed.

16th March.  Cumpuily.  The country between this place and Woodgown is the most beautiful that I saw in India; the view from a mountain some miles on this side of Kundalla, was particularly striking.  The spectator stands here in the midst of an extensive mountainous district:  peaks of the most diversified forms are piled in numerous rows above and alongside of each other, presenting the most beautiful and variegated outlines.

There are, also, enormous terraces of rock, flattened cones of peaks, with battlements and pinnacles, which at first sight might be taken for ruins and fortresses.  In one place the lofty roof of a majestic building presents itself—­in another, a gigantic Gothic tower rises aloft.  The volcanic form of the Tumel mountain is the most uncommon object which meets the eye.  Beyond the mountains extends a wide plain, at the extremity of which lies the polished surface of the long wished-for ocean.  The greater part of the mountains is covered with beautiful green woods.  I was so much delighted with the extreme beauty of the prospect, that I congratulated myself for the first time on the slow pace of my sleepy oxen.