on low wheels, and is sufficiently broad to admit of four persons ascending abreast. The first ladder was sent hither from Cairo in A. H. 818 by Moyaed Abou el Naser, king of Egypt.

In the same line with the mosque and close by it stands. a lightly built, insulated and circular arch, about fifteen feet wide and eighteen feet high, called Bab-es-Salam, which must not be confounded with the great gate of the mosque, bearing the same name. Those who enter the House of Allah for the first time are enjoined to do so by the outer and inner Bab-es-Salam; in passing under the latter they are to exclaim, "O God, may it be a happy entrance!"

On the side of Makam Ibrahim, facing the middle part of the front of the Kaabah, stands the Mambar, or pulpit of the mosque; it is elegantly formed of fine white marble, with many sculptured ornaments; and was sent as a present to the mosque in A. H. 969 by Sultan Soleyman Ibn Selym. A straight, narrow staircase leads up to the post of the Khatyb, or preacher, which is surmounted by a gilt, polygonal pointed steeple, resembling an obelisk. Here a sermon is preached on Fridays and on certain festivals.

The gates of the mosque are nineteen in number and are distributed about it without any order or symmetry.

I

THE TAJ MAHAL

BAYARD TAYLOR

PURPOSELY postponed my visit to the Taj Mahal—

the most renowned monument of Agra-until I had seen everything else in the city and its vicinity. The distance of this matchless edifice satisfied me that its fame was well deserved. So pure, so gloriously perfect did it appear, that I almost feared to approach it, lest the charm should be broken. It is seen to best advantage from the tomb of Itmun e' Dowlah, the Prime Minister of Shah Jehan, which stands in a garden on the northern bank of the Jumna, directly opposite to the city. If there were nothing else in India, this alone would repay the journey.

The history and associations of the Taj are entirely poetic. It is a work inspired by Love and consecrated to Beauty. Shah Jehan, the "Selim" of Moore's poem, erected it as a mausoleum over his queen, Noor Jehanthe "Light of the World"-whom the same poet calls Noor-Mahal," the Light of the Harem," or, more properly, "Palace." She is reputed to have been a woman of surpassing beauty, and of great wit and intelligence. Shah Jehan was inconsolable for her loss, and has immortalized her memory in a poem, the tablets of which are marble, and the letters jewels-for the Taj is poetry transmuted

into form, and hence, when a poet sees it, he hails it with the rapture of a realized dream. Few persons of the thousands who sigh over the pages of Lalla Rookh are aware that the "Light of the Harem" was a real personage and that her tomb is one of the wonders of the world. The native miniature painters in Delhi show you her portrait, painted on ivory—a small, rather delicate face, with large, dark, piercing eyes, and black hair flowing from under a scarf adorned with peacock's feathers.

The Taj is built on the bank of the Jumna, rather more than a mile to the eastward of the Fort of Agra. It is approached by a handsome road, cut through the mounds left by the ruins of ancient palaces. Like the tomb of Akbar, it stands in a large garden, inclosed by a lofty wall of red sandstone, with arched galleries around the interior. The entrance is a superb gateway of sandstone, inlaid with ornaments and inscriptions from the Koran, in white marble. Outside of this grand portal, however, is a spacious quadrangle of solid masonry, with an elegant structure intended as a caravanserai, on the opposite side. Whatever may be the visitor's impatience, he cannot help pausing to notice the fine proportions of these structures, and the rich and massive style of their architecture. The gate to the garden of the Taj is not so large as that of Akbar's tomb, but quite as beautiful in design. Passing under the open demi-vault, whose arch hangs high above you, an avenue of dark Italian cypresses appears before you. Down its centre sparkles a long row of fountains,