A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 754 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 754 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08.
by a stone ballustrade curiously carved; the ceiling being curiously plastered and painted.  In this tomb is deposited the body of a calender, or Mahometan devotee, at whose cost the whole of this splendid mosque was built.  Under the court-yard is a goodly tank of excellent water; none other being to be had in the whole extent of the city, except brackish and corroding, by the use of which so great a mortality was occasioned among the inhabitants of this city, that Akbar left it before it was quite finished, and removed his seat of empire to Agra, so that this splendid city was built and ruined in the space of fifty or sixty years.

The name of this place at first was Sykary, signifying seeking or hunting:  But on his return from his pilgrimage to Ajmeer, and the subsequent birth of his son Selim, the present emperor, Akbar, changed its name to Futtipoor, or the city of content, or heart’s desire obtained.  Without the walls, on the N.N.W. side of the city, there is a goodly lake of two or three coss in length, abounding with excellent fish and wild-fowl; all over which grows the herb producing the hermodactyle, and another bearing a fruit like a goblet, called camolachachery, both very cooling fruits.  The herb which produces the hermodactyle, is a weed abounding in most tanks near Agra, which spreads over the whole surface of the water.  I did not observe its leaf; but the fruit is enclosed in a three-cornered hard woody shell, having at each angle a sharp prickle, and is a little indented on the flat sides, like two posterns or little doors.  The fruit while green is soft and tender, and of a mealy taste, and is much eaten in India; but, in my opinion, it is exceedingly cold on the stomach, as I always after eating it was inclined to take spirits.  It is called Singarra.  The camolachachery, or other fruit resembling a goblet, is flat on the top, of a soft greenish substance, within which, a little eminent, stand six or eight fruits like acorns, divided from each other, and enclosed in a whitish film, at first of a russet green, having the taste of nuts or acorns, and in the midst is a small green sprig, not fit to be eaten.

Canua is a small country town, eighteen c. from Agra, W. by S. around which very good indigo is made, owing to the strength of the soil and brackishness of the water.  It makes yearly about 500 M.[243] Ouchen, three c. distant, makes very good indigo; besides which no town but Biana is comparable to Canua.  The country which produces the excellent indigo, which takes its name from Biana, is not more than twenty or thirty coss long.  The herb nill, from which indigo is made, grows in form not much unlike chives or chick-pease, having a small leaf like that of senna, but shorter and broader, set on very short foot-stalks.  The branches are hard and woody, like those of broom.  The whole plant seldom exceeds a yard high, and its stem, at the biggest in the third

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.