394 TERAI. Chap. XVII. 



and covered with a thick stratum of fine mud or silt, which 

 is only deposited on these low flats ; on it grew many 

 naturalized plants, as hemp, tobacco, jack, mango, plantain, 

 and orange. 



About eight miles on, we left the river-bed, and struck 

 westerly through a dense forest, to a swampy clearance 

 occupied by the village of Rummai, which appeared tho- 

 roughly malarious : and we pitched the tent on a narrow, 

 low ridge, above the level of the plain. 



It was now cool and pleasant, partly due, no doubt, to a 

 difference in the vegetation, and the proximity of swamp 

 and forest, and partly also to a change in the weather, 

 which was cloudy and threatening ; much rain, too, had 

 fallen here on the preceding day. 



Brahmins and priests of all kinds are few in this 

 miserable country : near the villages, and under the large 

 trees, are, every here and there, a few miniature thatched 

 cottages, four to six feet high, in which the tutelary deities 

 of the place are kept ; they are idols of the very rudest 

 description, of Vishnu as an ascetic (Bai-kant Nath), a 

 wooden doll, gilt and painted, standing, with the hands 

 raised as if in exhortation, and one leg crossed over the 

 other. Again, Kartik, the god of war, is represented sitting 

 astride on a peacock, with the right hand elevated and 

 holding a small flat cup. 



Some fine muscular Cooches were here brought for 

 Mr. Hodgson's examination, but we found them unable or 

 unwilling to converse in the Cooch tongue, which appears 

 to be fast giving place to Bengalee. 



We walked to a stream, which flows at the base of the 

 retiring sand-cliffs, and nourishes a dense and richly-varied 

 jungle, producing many plants, as beautiful Acanthacece, 

 Indian horse-chesnut, loaded with white racemes of flowers, 



