54 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



already engulfed the great mass of the indigenous nations 

 of India, and which was still ready to absorb in a similar 

 manner any number more of them, that the aborigines 

 of Central India came in contact. What has been the 

 result will be discussed in a future portion of this work. 



In a new country like this, few objects of antiquarian 

 interest attract the attention of the traveller. Allusion 

 has already been made to the traces of isolated settle- 

 ments of Aryans in the country, who had all been swept 

 away again, or had been absorbed in the indigenous 

 element surrounding them, before the true history of 

 the country opens; and a few shapeless ruins still remain 

 to mark the sites of some of these settlements "in the 

 unremembered ages." Generally, however, even the 

 religious edifices, which in the East seem to outlast all 

 others, will be found to be of very modern date, and of 

 little pretension to interest. They will frequently be 

 met with standing on the embankment of some water- 

 tank, covered with the lotus in full bloom, and shaded 

 by great trees of mango, tamarind, and fig. Very often 

 the camp will be pitched alongside of them, for the sake 

 of the fine shade ; and the wild fowl and snipe that 

 frequent the tanks will probably form an attraction, to 

 the sportsm^an at least, superior to the allurements of 

 such poor antiquities. 



Snipe and wild fowl begin to arrive in these central 

 regions of India, voyaging from the frozen wilds of 

 Central Asia, early in October ; and, before the end 

 of November, every piece of water and swampy hollow 

 afibrds its continorent to the efun. The common teal,^* 

 and the whistling teal,t are the most numerous, as well 

 as the first to make their appearance. The lovely blue- 

 * Querqtiedula crecca. f Dendrocijgna mcsuree. 



