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processions to the temples, and perform their flowery sacrifices in 

 the surrounding groves. The elders look on with complacency, 

 younger females dance on the banks, while the boys rush into the 

 foaming cataract, and swim about the lake. This annual supply 

 of water is far more beneficial than the gifts of Bacchus in other 

 countries; the peasants and their cattle here assuage their thirst 

 in seasons of drought, when the surrounding reservoirs fail, and 

 the small rivers are generally exhausted. 



These dances Avere less formal, and more active than any I 

 had seen in India, unlike those of the dancing-girls, and little re- 

 sembling the English country-dance; the tune and figure seemed 

 both unstudied; and the songs which accompanied them, like the 

 rhapsodies of the Italian improvisatore, or those of their own Bhauts 

 and minstrels, were all extemporaneous effusions. The dances on 

 this occasion reminded me of those mentioned in scripture, when 

 " Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in 

 her hand, and the women went out after her, with timbrels and 

 dances:" or perhaps they were more like those which Lady Wort- 

 ley Montague describes among the modern Greeks; " whose man- 

 ner of dancing is certainly the same that Diana is said to have 

 danced on the banks of Eurotas. The great lady still leads the 

 dance; and is followed by a troop of young girls, who imitate her 

 steps, and if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are ex- 

 tremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully 

 soft. The steps are varied, according to the pleasure of her who 

 leads the dance, but always in exact time; and infinitely more 

 agreeable than any of our dances." 



During these festive rites the brahmins offer sacrifices, in the 



