A SKETCH IN AN INDIAN JUNGLE 7 



The hills facing west are still dark and gloomy, while everything 

 opposite is already bright and sparkling in a flood of light, under 

 a sky of the deepest blue. Even the stream appears to rejoice 

 at the return of day ; it seems to splash more noisily, and is as 

 clear as crystal down to its stony bed ; the surface glassy, except 

 where the wavelets rush round a rock or boulder, which still 

 throws a deep shadow across its pellucid depths. 



As fair a landscape as one could wish to see was spread out 

 before the two tents pitched upon the bank in a small clearing, 

 closely hemmed in on all sides but that of the river by dense 

 forest forest which stretches almost uninterruptedly to the Bay 

 of Bengal and Burma on the one hand, and to the Persian 

 Gulf on the other. Gloomy, but exceedingly grand, it hides in 

 its recesses everything that hunter could desire ; but, thanks to 

 its almost trackless solitude, it is all against him and in favour 

 of the game ; besides the danger from elephant, tiger, or rhino- 

 ceros, another awaits him here in a very deadly garb the subtle 

 and treacherous poison of malaria. With the first rays of the 

 warm morning light all nature seems to awake ; the prowlers of 

 the night are already far from the river, where, during the dark 

 hours, they had come to drink, feeding their way slowly back 

 along the narrow paths made by themselves to their silent 

 jungle homes far away ; the cicadse cease their monotonous 

 clicking, the barking deer's hoarse cry becomes less frequent 

 and more distant, jungle cocks crow everywhere like their tame 

 brothers at home, to welcome the new day ; the cooing of doves 

 and pigeons now come, from almost every bush ; parrakeets rush 

 about once more in their rapid flight, screeching with refreshed 

 energy; squirrels run about and jump from branch to branch, 

 and at last there is some movement among the corpse-like bodies 

 stretched out at full length and covered from head to foot with a 

 white cotton sheet or dirty blanket, very much like a shroud, 

 ranged parallel to each other, and closely packed on some 

 matting and leaves under a bamboo shed near the tents. Pre- 

 sently a very dirty face appears, and then another, followed by a 

 still more dirty body clothed very scantily in, if possible, still 

 more filthy rags. Shivering and yawning the men at last turn 

 out coolies who had been hired as baggage carriers, messengers, 

 and trackers. Some of these are inhabitants of the swampy 

 plains at the foot of the hills deadly to other people ; tall, 



