54 - 
scenes IN INDIA. 
confined to the higher classes. The poor are buried 
in various ways : sometimes they are burned, some- 
times cast into the nearest river, and they are not 
unfrequently left upon the peak of some solitary 
mountain to be devoured by the vultures. 
In certain districts the inhabitants expose the bodies 
of their friends and relations in a similar manner to be 
eaten by carnivorous creatures, with only this differ- 
ence, that the corpses are laid out with great ceremony 
within a walled area, being placed upon iron gratings 
over a deep vault and left uncovered, in order that 
they may be the more readily devoured. A similar 
practice prevails among the Parsees at Bombay, who 
are a remnant of the Guebres, or ancient fire-wor- 
shippers. In order to exclude the horrible sight of 
the carnival within, those cemeteries are surrounded 
by a lofty wall, in which there is a large aperture to 
admit dogs, jackals, and other beasts of prey, that 
crowd daily in great numbers to these disgusting re- 
ceptacles for the dead. 
The animals found in the Himalaya mountains are 
neither so numerous nor so fierce as those on the 
plains. In the lower regions of the hills the elephant 
is sufficiently common and the rhinoceros is some- 
times seen, though not frequently. Tigers and leo- 
pards inhabit the forests but rarely frequent the 
higher situations. There are deer of various sorts 
and very numerous. Wild hogs are by no means 
rare, though neither so large nor so fierce as in the 
level country. Buffaloes are also indigenous to this 
sequestered region, but they confine themselves to 
the bases of the mountains. Hares, monkeys, jack- 
