DESCRIPTION OF A HUNQUAH. 13 



by him on a reduced scale. The other Rajahs, 

 although they have not adopted it as an amuse- 

 ment, have sometimes had recourse to it, in order 

 to rid their countries of the tigers that were 

 troublesome; whole villages being often entirely 

 depopulated by them. It is wonderful to see the 

 number of villages (or rather the sites where 

 they once stood,) in Ramghur^ wholly unculti- 

 vated and deserted. About the end of May, or 

 early in June, when all the grass, and a great 

 part of the underwood becomes dry, and water 

 every where scarce, it was the custom to set the 

 jungles on fire* for the sake of new grass, and to 

 drive off animals of prey from the neighbourhood 



* Many an evening I have been amused for hours with 

 looking at these fires, burning in every direction ; some- 

 times most furiously, at other times the flames proceed- 

 ing calmly over the lowlands for miles in extent, whilst 

 the mountains were burning with rage and violence : the 

 whole producing one of the grandest sights imaginable, 

 rendering the air throughout that country intolerably hot. 

 Sometimes, when the wind is high, the jungle on the hills 

 takes fire spontaneously, in consequence of the friction 

 produced by two bamboos crossing, and rubbing one against 

 the other, the fire from which falling on the grass, then 

 dry, like tinder, soon kindles into a flame and spreads rapidly 

 on all sides. 



