570 Lieutenant Burnes’ Memoir on the 
shrubs on it have at a distance the appearance of a forest ; and, on a nearer 
approach, assume sometimes that of ships in full sail, at others that of 
breakers on a rock. In one instance, I observed a cluster of bushes, which 
looked like a pier with tall-masted vessels lying close up to it, and on 
approaching, not a bank was near the shrubs to account for the deception. 
From it, too, the hills of Cutch seem more lofty, and to have merged into 
the clouds, their bases being obscured by vapour. The wild ass, or khar 
gada, is the only inhabitant of this desolate region. ‘These animals roam 
about in flocks, as the Scripture says, “scorning the multitude of the city, 
and make the wilderness and barren lands their dwellings.” ‘They are not 
much larger than the common ass, but at a short distance they sometimes 
appear as large as elephants, from the deception of vision. As Jong as the 
sun shines the whole surrounding space of the Runn resembles a vast 
expanse of water, the appearance it commonly assumes, and which is only to 
be distinguished from real water by those who are long habituated to such 
optical delusions. When the sun is not shining the Runn appears higher at 
a distance, but this has been remarked of the sea and other extensive 
sheets of water, and is of course to be accounted for on the same principle. 
The natives of Cutch, Muhammedans as well as Hindis, believe this Runn 
formerly to have been a sea, and have a tradition, which is in the mouth of 
every one, that a Hindi saint, named DutraManat’Ha, a Jogi* of Deno- 
dar, underwent penance (tapasyd), by standing on his head with supdra 
leaves under it, on the top of Denodar hill (which overlooks the Runn) for 
a period of twelve years. At that time he resumed his proper position, 
and Gop became visible to him, when a convulsion of nature took place, 
and the hill on which he stood split in two, the sea that lay northward of him 
(which is the present Runn) dried up, and the ships which then navigated it 
were wrecked and its harbours destroyed, with other miraculous and wonder- 
ful events. There is no race of people who have such recourse to supernatural 
agency in their history as the natives of India; and to those who have been 
accustomed to inquire into it, the above tale will appear but a graft of one 
of their numerous versions of some real event which has at one time or 
other actually happened in the country, and which has travelled down to 
* See note M. 
