UNDER THE jAMUNS 



Enot the reader indulge in fond fancies of the 

 delicious and succulent fruit hanging in all its 

 lusciousness on a sun-bathed old wall in distant 

 England, nor yet conjure up visions of the vale 

 of far Kashmir : these plums are but the small black fruit 

 of the Indian jdmun (Eugenia jambulana) ; and they grow 

 in lavish profusion, astringent, rough, and alum-like to 

 the cultivated palate, on the larger trees that mingle with 

 groves of mango and mhowa on the highest plateaux of 

 the southern Satpiiras. The jdmun displays its prodigal 

 harvest just before the commencement of the monsoon 

 rains, and at this season its shady green boughs are to 

 be seen hanging heavy-laden with the well-known berries 

 that are about the size and colour of English damsons. 

 A few of the more favoured trees bear fruit that is quite 

 passably sweet, and almost free from astringent taste ; and 

 these are resorted to by the Indian black bear and his 

 apparently near relative the aboriginal Korku. 



Both Korkus and bears have, before the fruiting of 

 thejdmtin, been regaling themselves on the fallen jungle 

 mangoes, and, before that again, on the rich flowering of 

 the mhowa tree, not to mention the sakhriya a queer, 

 sweet-flavoured, whitish berry, which grows in myriads 

 on a prickly bush partaking of the nature of a creeping 

 bramble; and their palates are tickled by the distinct 

 change in diet now afforded by Eugenia jambulana. From 

 the deep glens and ravines that sink away sheer from the 



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