CLASS III. EEPTILIA: OllDER 4. OPHIDIA. 



393 







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THE NAIA HAJE. 



native infantry at Condapilly, in the Northern Cicars. From having once been a town of con- 

 siderable importance, it has dwindled to a very inferior rank, and the hill-fort, at one period of 

 considerable strength, now presents nothing but a meager skeleton of its past celebrity. Tower- 

 ing high above the little esplanade on which the humble range of barracks which sheltered the 

 detachment was raised, the mountain was accessible at only one point, where a winding track — 

 the remains of a flight of stone steps now in complete dilapidation — formed a steep ladder, up 

 which I have often toiled at early dawn, eager to watch the rising sun from the topmost pin- 

 nacle — a sight that amply repaid me for the fatigue of half an hour's climbing. There, crumb- 

 VoL. IT.— 50 



