484 



lie assured me, by a change of the mode. 1 hardly know how to 

 disbelieve the testimony of men who had no system of their own 

 to support, and could have no interest in deceiving me." 



While the mischievous monkey, as well as the innocent dove, 

 found an asylum within the walls of Dhuboy, the adjacent country 

 was infested by tigers and savage beasts; who, in defiance of Py- 

 thagorean systems and brahminical tenets, waged perpetual war 

 on the antelopes and innocent animals near the villages; even the 

 monkeys with all their wily craftiness could not escape them. The 

 peasants in the wilds of Bhaderpoor confirmed the stratagem used 

 by the tiger to effect his purpose, as mentioned by Dr. Fryer. 

 " The woodmen assert, that when the tiger intends to prey upon the 

 monkies, he uses this stratagem: the monkies, at his first approach, 

 give warning by their confused chattering, and immediately betake 

 themselves to the highest and smallest twigs of the trees ; when the 

 tiger, seeing them out of his reach, and sensible of their fright, lies 

 couchant under the tree, and then falls a roaring; at which they, 

 trembling, let go their hold, and tumbling down, he picks them up 

 to satisfy his hunger. That monkies are their food, their very 

 ordure declares, scattered up and down, where is visible the shaggy 

 coats of hair of these creatures." 



As I did not always travel with the Arabs and Scindians lately 

 mentioned, I found it necessary to be escorted, in the distant parts 

 of my purgunnas, by a little troop of cavalry, and a number of 

 armed peons; not so much from the fear of tigers and wild beasts, 

 as of the Bheels and Gracias, a savage race of men who inhabit the 

 hills and wood-lands near Bhaderpoor and Chandode. The protec- 

 tion I afforded the villages against their cruel depredations, irritated 



