184 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
We had a favourable breeze all the way from 
Chunar to Cawnpoor, but we nevertheless did not reach 
the latter town without encountering sundry acci- 
dents, from which one is never entirely free in a bud- 
gerow upon the Ganges. The dandies seem to love 
accidents, as they cannot get on without them ; they 
therefore look upon them as perfect matters of course. 
Several large boats were in company with us, and we 
had the selfish satisfaction of perceiving that we were 
by no means singular in our disasters, for they alike 
befel our companions. We passed a beautiful banyan 
tree, at a short distance from Mizapoor, under which, 
from the sanctity of the situation, a most excellent 
piece of sculpture had been originally fixed. Around 
this the tree had twisted its strong and sinewy arms, 
lifted it completely from the pedestal, and carried it 
up in its growth, throwing round it a frame formed 
by its own picturesque and convoluted branches ; thus 
rendering it a natural curiosity well worth beholding. 
The effect was as singular as it was striking. The 
tree from which the accompanying engraving is taken, 
was a much finer specimen of this extraordinary pro- 
duction of the vegetable kingdom, than that to which 
I have just referred ; it grew a few miles farther up 
the river. It had two stems of nearly equal cir- 
cumference, forming a junction at the root, and from 
these stems there branched laterally two large arms, 
from which numerous strong fibres depended ; these 
two arms throwing out horizontal shoots in all direc- 
tions, and covering a prodigious space with thick and 
verdant foliage. The tree afforded daily shelter to 
men and cattle, to pilgrims and travellers, who at 
