29 



flamingos, pelicans, ducks, and water fowl in great variety; pea- 

 cocks, partridges, quails, doves and green-pigeons supplied our 

 table, and with the addition of two stately birds, called the sahras 

 and cullum, added much to the animated beauty of the country; 

 while monkeys and squirrels, posted in numbers on the trees, ap- 

 proached us with the greatest familiarity. The former are very 

 large, and when silting in groups at a little distance might have 

 been mistaken for the ryuts, or common peasants, who, except a 

 turban and cloth round the middle, are as naked as themselves. 

 When all these enliveners of the day retired to rest, the camp was 

 surrounded by hyenas, wolves, and jackals; the latter hunted in 

 large herds, making a dismal and incessant howl. Tigers, wild- 

 hogs, and porcupines sometimes sallied forth from the forests, and 

 the camp was much infested by serpents, centipedes and scor- 

 pions. 



Ragobah and his family resided in another of the nabob's 

 villas, situated on the banks of Narranseer lake, in the midst of 

 luxuriant gardens, which abounded on the borders of that exten- 

 sive water; after sun-set, the atmosphere was filled with fragrance 

 from the orange trees, tuberoses, champahs,and oriental jessamines, 

 wafted by gentle breezes over the lake: these scenes were truly 

 delightful, especially when illumined by the lunar ray, or the 

 emerald-light of the fire-fly, (Lampyris noctiluca) twinkling in 

 immense numbers among the flowering shrubs. 



These delightful evenings hardly compensated for our suffering 

 during the heat of the day, when the hot winds blew from ten 

 in the morning until sun-set, and were so dry and parching that 

 our thirst was never quenched: in the soldiers' tents, composed 



