42 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
cial degradation, are nevertheless in many respects an 
extraordinary race. The moral elements, indeed, 
exist among them, but these have not yet been ex- 
cited into active and vigorous combination, for their 
vices prevail so completely over their brighter quali- 
ties, that the latter only occasionally scintillate through 
an intellectual darkness which is all but complete. 
The hill-man of this region is a slave to his passions 
and to his selfishness, the latter of which is so in- 
delible within him that nothing can dislodge it. He 
is soon roused to anger and is then treacherous and 
cruel. He seldom fails to commit the most brutal 
excesses where the means are within his reach. He 
will rob whenever he has the opportunity, and impu- 
nity is his encouragement. He is not only violent 
and hasty, but also crafty and revengeful, and so pro- 
found is his duplicity, that he will frequently fawn 
at your feet with the most cringing humility while 
he holds the concealed dagger to plunge into your 
heart. The worst features of the Asiatic character 
are seen with most repelling prominence among the 
inhabitants of these mountains, originally imbibed, 
perhaps, in their occasional intercourse with the plains, 
and distorted into the wildest extremes by that im- 
punity which is the curse of humanity and the pri- 
vilege only of savages. Their princes offer them but 
a bad example by entertaining among themselves 
the deadliest animosities and displaying all the fe- 
rocious features so prominent in the feudal system in 
Europe during the middle ages. They acknowledge 
no law but the sword, no virtue but retaliation, no 
honour but revenge. So implacable sometimes are 
