36 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



Brahmans. Nothing more completely refutes the accusa- 

 tion of want of taste for natural beauty, so often made 

 against the Hindus, than their almost invariable selection 

 of the most picturesque sites for their religious buildings. 

 Many of the commonest legends of Hindu mythology 

 have, as usual, been transplanted by the local priests to 

 this neighbourhood. The monkey legions of Haniiman 

 here leapt across the chasm on their way to Ceylon ; and 

 the celestial elephant of Indra left a mighty footprint in 

 the white rock which is still exhibited to the devout 

 pilgrim. Several picturesque temples dedicated to Siva 

 crown the clifi on the right bank; and by the river's 

 edge is a favourite ghdt for the launching of the bodies 

 of devout Hindils into the waters of Mother Narbada. 

 A pleasure party to the rocks is apt to be not a little 

 marred by a collision with one of these unsavoury objects 

 in mid-stream. In India many a fair scene has its foul 

 belongings and fell inhabitants; and these lovely waters 

 are polluted by ghoul-like turtles, monstrous fishes, and 

 repulsive crocodiles, that batten on the ghastly provender 

 thus provided for them by the pious Hindu. 



I beheve the common Magar of the rivers and tanks 

 of the Central Provinces is identical with that of upper 

 India {Crocodilus hiporcatus). The other species of Indian 

 crocodile {Gavialis Gangeticus), the long-nosed Gavidl, is 

 found in these provinces only in the Mahanadi river, which 

 falls into the Bay of Bengal. The long stiU reaches of 

 the Narbada all contain a goodly complement of broad- 

 snouted magars ; but, so far as I have observed, they do 

 not attain in our rocky-bottomed rivers nearly to the 

 dimensions I have seen in the slimy tributaries of the 

 Ganges and Jamna. Eight or nine feet in length I take 

 to be here about the limit of the magar's growth. Nor 

 have I ever heard an authentic case of an adult human 

 being having been killed by a crocodile in our rivers. 

 Small animals are frequently carried off, and children 

 sometimes disappear from the ghats in a suspicious 

 manner. A dog employed in retrieving wild fowl is 

 almost certain to be sooner or later made a meal of by 

 the saurian. The fall of a duck in his neighbourhood 



