of the Old World. 279 



of "merrie England." On every side were clusters 

 of magnificent teak-trees, interspersed with peepul, 

 jack, and acacia, their branches twined with wild 

 vines, and covered with bunches of deliciously-sweet 

 purple, or rather nearly black, grapes, many coloured 

 corivolvuli, or other beautiful flowering parasites. 

 It was a wild garden of Nature's own planting, and 

 struck with the strange and almost supernatural 

 beauty of the scene, I sat down to contemplate her 

 handiwork. Every sense was gratified. The eye 

 wandered with delight through numerous vistas amid 

 the foliage, and on verdant glades, diversified with 

 parterres of orchids, in full bloom, of every hue and 

 shade, whose presence filled the forest round with 

 fragrant aroma, and loaded the breeze, which was 

 delightfully cool as it played round our heated temples, 

 with pleasant perfume. The bulbul (the Indian 

 nightingale) vied with the other feathered songsters in 

 melody, soft, clear, and harmonious; and for some 

 moments I felt so struck with the transcendent beauty 

 of the scene before me (so like what I imagine the 

 garden of Eden must have been) that I became 

 absorbed in thought imagination, for the time, led 

 me away, and even the elephants were forgotten : short- 

 lived sensations, almost instantaneously passing away, 

 for my eyes soon returned to earth, and my reverie was 

 broken by Chineah laying before me several bunches of 

 delicious grapes that grew temptingly on every side. 



