CHAPTER V. 



THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE RAINS 



FOR the last few days the burning winds have 

 ceased to blow. The air without has lost its 

 crisp dryness, and the landscape its wintry aspect, 

 while within the house the same refreshing breeze no 

 longer passes through the tatties. The heat in con- 

 sequence, though really no greater, is to the sensations 

 far more oppressive. This cessation of the hot winds 

 is one of the indications of the approach of the rainy 

 season. In the afternoon, when I paid my usual visit 

 to the terrace, I became aware of another. The appear- 

 ance of the river had entirely changed. 



Since that evening when I had sat and watched the 

 passing boats, the water in the streams and pools had 

 been continually diminishing. The stream below the 

 terrace had shrunk in some places to half its former 

 breadth, and it had everywhere almost entirely ceased 

 to flow. It was now quite a wide sheet of water. 

 The water had even submerged most of the melon- 

 beds, and along the bank it was rushing in a rapid 

 current full of whirls and eddies. Further beyond, 

 where only yesterday there had stretched that dreary 

 waste of sand, there was now a lake extending far 



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