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and their overshadowing banian-trees, have a more cheerful and 

 brilliant appearance than in the surrounding districts: the sweet 

 variety of the red, white, and blue lotos, gently agitated by the 

 breeze, or moved by the spotted halcyon alighting on the stalks, 

 with the rails and water-hens lightly running over the foliage, are 

 altogether lovely. Our tents were pitched in one of these delight- 

 ful situations on the margin of a lake, about a mile from the walls 

 of Brodera. 



I do not know whether the seed of the lotos is eaten, or put to 

 any other use in India, nor can I ascertain the variety of these 

 plants in different parts. Eustathius says there are many kinds 

 of lotos : he thinks Homer speaks of it as an herb, for he calls it; 

 avfovw etiap ; and adds, that there is an Egyptian lotos, which Herodo- 

 tus affirms grows abundantly in the Nile, resembling a lily ; the 

 Egyptians take out the pulp or seed, dry it in the sun, and bake 

 it as bread : this I think cannot be any of the class in Iiindostan. 

 Athenseus, in his Deipnosophist, quotes a description of the Ly- 

 bian lotos, from Polybius, which was used as food by the natives ; 

 but that also differs very much from the lily of the Nile, or the 

 nymphea of Hindostan. Did any of the harmless Hindoos eat 

 the seed or fruit of this plant, as they convert its leaves into 

 dishes and plates at their own vegetable meals, they would exactly 

 answer Homer's description of the innocent lotophagi. 



" At length we touch'd, by storms and tempests tost, 



" The land of Lotos, and the floweiy coast ; 



" We climb'd the beach, and springs of water found, 



" Then spread our frugal banquet on the ground : 



" The people there are kind to foreign guest, 



" They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast j 



