STUDY XI. 



297 



plaited like a fan. In this ftate it is not bigger 

 than a man's arm, and extremely light. The na- 

 tives cut it into triangles, though it is naturally 

 round, and each of them carries one of thofe fec- 

 tions over his head, holding the angular part be- 

 fore, in his hand, to open for himfelf a paflage 

 through the bufhes. The foldiers employ this leaf 

 as a covering to their tents. He confiders it, and 

 with good reafon, as one of the greateft bleflings 

 of Providence, in a country burnt up by the Sun, 

 and inundated by the rains, for fix months of the 

 year. 



Nature has provided, in thofe climates, parafols 

 for whole villages ; for the fig-tree, denominated, 

 in India, the fig-tree of the Banians, a drawing of 

 which may be feen in Tavernier, and in feveral 

 other travellers, grows on the very burning fand of 

 the fea-fhore, throwing, from the extremity of it's 

 branches, a multitude of moots, which drop to 

 the ground, there take root, and form, around 

 the principal trunk, a great number of covered 

 arcades, whofe made is impervious to the rays of 

 the Sun. 



In our temperate climates, we experience a fimi- 

 lar benevolence on the part of Nature. In the 

 warm and thirfly feafon, (lie beftows upon us a va- 

 riety of fruits, replenished with the moftrefrefhing 



juices, 



