An Indian Summer's Day. 



" Al-hamdu-l-illah! but that's well worth a thirty-mile 

 ride! 



" Two tigers located here, did you say ? and the men 

 away preparing for my honour's hunting ? and the luke- 

 warm tub is ready ? The gods be propitious indeed ! " 



NIGHT. 



The glare of a long hot weather day is past, and the 

 misty river breathes cool airs that stir the lighter foliage. 

 An excellent dinner, prepared by the faithful " Bulbul 

 Amir, 5> is just over, and a long cheroot glows peacefully 

 as the grateful smoke curls slowly aloft. Cicadce and 

 crickets maintain their ceaseless songs, and from the mar- 

 gin of the pool beyond that dark bank rises the occasional 

 croak of a wakeful frog. 



We are set out in the open, away from the now heat- 

 retaining trees, and may gaze straight up into the serene, 

 star- pricked arch of the sky. The moon is up, turning the 

 jungle into fairy-land, and its inhabitants, that have hidden 

 in silence during the heat of day, are now abroad, wander- 

 ing in search of food and water throughout this wonder- 

 ful tropical night. The nightjars that sail mysteriously 

 about during the crepuscular hour, uttering a strange cry 

 of " Chyeece chyeece !" have taken up their nocturnal 

 call, and "Chuckoo chuckoo chuckoo !" continuously to 

 each other across the broad shingly river-bed. Very 

 faintly, so far down-stream is he, may be heard the distant 

 braying of a chital stag. 



Even the presence of aboriginal man seems but to add 

 to the sense of contented peacefulness, a soft <c rub-a-dub, 

 rub-a-dub," proclaiming the Korkus awake in their rude 

 hamlet, beyond which the sleeping hills slope down to the 

 narrow valley. 



