With respect to _seraies_, we may, at least, praise the convenience they afford, without bestowing much admiration on the charity of their founders. Some of these are very extensive, covering, perhaps, six or eight acres. They generally consist of a quadrangle, built across the road, which passes under two lofty arched gateways, having battlements, or turrets, over them. The gates open to an extent sufficient to allow any laden elephant, however stupendous, to pass freely. They are made of strong wood, well bound with iron, and studded with iron spikes, of which the points are on the outside; for the purpose of preventing elephants from forcing them by pressure. The surrounding walls of the quadrangle are generally about fourteen feet in height, and from two to four in thickness, according either to the antiquity of the building, or to the parsimony of the builder. They are lined all around with a shed, built on pillars, and divided by mats, &c., into various apartments, all sheltered from the sun and rain by means of doors, &c., of bamboos, mats, grass, &c., as the country may afford; or, eventually, a part is built up with thin brick, or with mud.
In the central parts of the _seray_ there are generally some shops, ranged on each side of the road, and one building appropriated to the _cutwal_, or superintendant of the place; whose office is, properly, to regulate all matters, and to see that travellers are duty accommodated; that the _bytearahs_, or cooks, dress their victuals, and that the _chokey-dars_ take due charge of the goods consigned to their care. All this, however, is done in a slovenly way; the greatest impositions are often practised; and the itinerant journies on from one scene of thievish combination to another.
Although a _seray_ may be built near to a river, or to some sufficient stream, yet there is invariably a well, ordinarily lined with circular tiles, or masonry, in the area. The water is drawn from such wells, for the most part, by means of a truck-pulley, suspended between the limbs of a forked bough cut for the purpose, and having a wooden pin through it as an axle. Each person draws his own water, and for that purpose carries a line, generally about twenty feet long. Few indeed travel, even on foot, without a _lootah_, or brass water-vessel; of which there are various sizes, from a pint, to half a gallon; a _tully_, or flat brass plate, with a border about an inch high, nearly perpendicular; and a _cuttorah_, or metal cup. Some even carry their _daikçhees_, or metal boilers; though, in general, they purchase for a farthing, or, at the utmost, for a halfpenny, a new earthen pot, capable of holding perhaps three quarts, or a gallon, with a lid of the same, in which, if they do not intend to employ the people of the _seray_, they dress their own victuals; leaving the crockery, which no one else will use, it being considered as polluted.