22 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
“ The reckless peasant who these glowing flowers, 
Hopeful of rubied fruit, had fostered long, 
Seized and with cordage strong 
Shackled the god * who gave him showers. 
Straight from seven winds immortal genii flew : 
Varuna green, whom foamy waves obey ; 
Bright Vahni, flaming like the lamp of day ; 
Kuvera, sought by all, enjoyed by few ; 
Marut, who bids the winged breezes play ; 
Stern Yama, ruthless judge ! and Isa cold. 
With Nairrit, mildly bold : — 
They, with the ruddy flash that points the thunder, 
Bend his vain bands asunder. 
Th’ exulting god resumes his thousand eyes, 
Four arms divine, and robes of changing dyes.” 
We had now advanced sufficiently far into the 
hills, to witness one of the most grievous inflictions 
to which the inhabitants of all mountainous dis- 
tricts are subject. That huge wen known in the 
Swiss alps under the name of goitre is here even 
more prevalent ; it enlarges to an immense size, often 
entirely encircling the neck, and giving an aspect of 
the most revolting deformity to those miserable crea- 
tures who are the objects of this dreadful visitation. 
Some of these tumours were of such enormous dimen- 
sions as to force the head considerably backward, at 
the same time reaching nearly to the breast, while 
the sickly hue of the complexion, and the squalid ap- 
pearance altogether of those thus afflicted, excited an 
emotion of disgust at once painful and irrepressible. 
* Indra assumed the form of a shepherd-boy, and entering a 
garden to steal pomegranate- blossoms for his beloved Indrani, 
was seized and bound by the owner. This legend will remind 
the classical reader of Ovid’s account of Bacchus bound by the 
sailors. Met. lib. iii. 
