411 



they put a stop to journeying, voyaging, and all warlike operations, 

 until the middle of August, when the earth is discovered,' and 

 the rice begins to ripen; all this while it floated in the water, 

 which it rejoices in. This is the first harvest, natural and uncom- 

 pelled, because of the rain. The other crop ripens about March, 

 with great pains of bringing water by gutters into their sown-fields: 

 which, notwithstanding, yields not so plentiful a crop as the first." 



The lands in the Dhuboy districts are generally more enclosed 

 than the Baroche purgunna; the hedges, frequently shaded by 

 large mango and tamarind trees, are formed by different kinds of 

 euphorbia, and a variety of bushes, shrubs, and creeping plants, 

 in the rainy season profusely covered with blossoms of every 

 mingled hue, which they more or less preserve through a few suc- 

 ceeding months. Their early fragrance is delicious; the nightly 

 dews, impregnated by the odours, exhale their short-lived sweets, 

 and render a morning Avalk delightful. Those who do not then 

 enjoy them, may truly say, 



We lose the prime, to mark how spring 

 The tender plants, how blooms the citron grove, 

 What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed ; 

 How nature paints her colours, how the bee 

 Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweet. Milton 



Such beauties are lost on those who do not rise at an early hour in 

 India: the heat soon becomes too powerful for rural excursions. 

 It is late in the evening before the atmosphere becomes cool ; the 

 plants have lost their freshness, and every thing appears through 

 a different medium. 



My first improvement in the garden at Dhuboy, was to make 



