306 PILGRIMS RESTING UNDER TREES. 



so that on the hottest days it casts a large circle of 

 umbrageous shelter around it : admirably fulfilling the 

 conditions pictured in these beautiful lines of Byron, 

 descriptive of pilgrims resting under the shade of 

 ancient trees : 



"Here, in the sultriest season let him rest: 

 Fresh is the green beneath these aged trees. 

 Here winds of gentlest wing will fan his breast, 

 From Heaven itself he may inhale the breeze. 

 The Plain is far beneath; oh! let him seize 

 Pure pleasure while he can: The scorching ray 

 Here pierceth not, impregnate with disease. 

 Then let his length, the loitering pilgrim lay, 

 And gaze untired, the mom, the noon, the eve, away." * 



Though these lines were descriptive of a scene in 

 far other climes than the plains of India, they stand 

 prominently forth as an admirable picture of clumps of 

 this noble tree, as they are found growing there, with 

 restful groups of white-robed natives reclining beneath 

 their shade, when in the hot season an incandescent 

 sun scorches the surrounding plain with rays of fire, f 

 The Tamarind is regarded by Orientals peculiarly a 

 tree of the East, and of India in particular, for both 

 in the Arabic and the Persian, it is known as the 

 " Tamar-El-Hind, " from which its European name is 

 evidently taken. Another fine description of just such 

 another picturesque scene, is found among the numer- 

 ous striking and dramatic allusions to oriental life, 

 which we find so frequently made use of throughout 



* Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto ii, Stanza 50 

 (N.B. This scene is laid in Greece near the convent of Zitza). 



f Among some of the Indian Natives, however, the Tamarind is 

 regarded as an unhealthy tree to camp under. 



