2Si 
SCENES IN INDIA, 
came in contact with their deformed bodies, some of 
them measuring three feet from the extremity of one 
wing to that of the other, and showing their teeth 
with a determination to resent further aggression the 
moment he placed his fingers within two inches of 
their noses. With deliberate prudence, he knocked 
about a dozen or two of these creatures on the head, 
and flung their carcasses to the vultures. He de- 
stroyed, besides, a number of snakes, frogs, lizards, 
scorpions ; and when, after several hours of minute 
search, he fancied he had sufficiently cleared the place 
of its noxious inmates, he prepared to make it the 
temporary dwelling of himself and daughter, until a 
more commodious asylum could be found ; and being 
a disgraced man, he thought that such an asylum 
suited best with his condition. 
The next day, he drove his bullocks to a village at 
some distance, where he disposed of them for a few 
rupees, and returned to the tomb. Here he dwelt for 
some time in perfect security ; and after a while was 
joined by three other Parsees, who had been like- 
wise degraded from their community, and were glad 
to associate with one under a similar interdiction. 
They were all men of reckless daring, as is generally 
the case with those upon whom society has fixed 
the brand of alienation. Among these men without 
characters, and alike indifferent to the opinion of their 
tribe and to the consequences of their misdeeds, the 
lovely daughter of Jumsajee lived intact, like a jewel 
surrounded by common earth, the brightness of which 
is no longer obscured than while the crust of the mine 
is around it ; — the lustre is still within. 
