PARAS-NATH. 45 
Though Mudderbund is elevated and well wooded, its vegetation is 
not rich. Grasses and Cyperacee are all burnt up; there are no 
mosses on the trees, and very few Lichens on the rocks. The latter 
consist of hornblende, schist, and gneiss tossed up at all angles round 
the base of the mountain, which is = and has probably been - 
upheaved through the surrounding be 
In the evening a very gaudy Sek was performed. The car, filled 
with idols, was covered with gilding and silk, and drawn by noble 
bulls, festooned and garlanded. A procession was formed in front ; and 
it opened into a kind of arena, up and down which gaily dressed 
dancing-boys paced or danced, shaking castanets, the attendant wor- 
shippers singing in discordant voices, beating tom-toms, cymbals, &c. 
Images (of Boodh apparently) abounded on the car, in es of which 
a child was placed. The throng of natives was very great and per- 
fectly orderly, indeed, sufficiently apathetic: they were RS 
civil in explaining what they understood of their own worship. 
At 2 r.m., the thermometer was only 65°, though the day was fine, 
a strong haze obstructing the sun’s rays; at 6 P.M., 58°; at 9 P.M., 
56°, and the grass cooled to 49°. Still there was no dew, though the 
night was starlight. 
Feb. 4th.—At 2 a.m., temperature 54°, grass 48°. At 4 past 6 
A.M., having provided Doolies, or little bamboo chairs slung on four 
men's shoulders, in which I put my papers and boxes, we commenced 
the ascent. At first we passed through woods of the common trees, 
with large clumps of Bamboo, over slaty rocks of gneiss, much inclined 
and sloping away from the mountain. The view from a ridge about 
500 feet high, was superb. We saw the village, its white domes 
buried in the forest below, which continued in view for many miles to 
the northward. Descending to a valley, some Ferns occurred, and a 
more luxuriant vegetation, especially of Urticee; by a rivulet wild 
Bananas formed a beautiful, and, to me, novel feature in a native 
wood. I took for granted they were planted; but I have since heard 
that the Banana grows wild in the Rajmahal hills (N.E. of this and of 
which these mountains are a continuation), and no doubt here also. 
white-flowered Rubiaceous plant (Hamiltonia suaveolens) was very 
abundant and handsome, with a few Composite, many Acanthacee and 
Leguminose, but no mosses, and few tree-Lichens or Fungi. The 
conieal hills of the white ants are very abundant. The structure ap- 
