212 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
footing for any animal beyond the size of a lizard. 
Some of them are clothed with wood nearly to the 
summit ; others are bare almost to their base. To- 
wards the bottom, the sides of the mountain are 
covered with trees of considerable bulk, and these 
are so infested with monkeys as entirely to banish 
silence from her primitive dominion. Their inces- 
sant gabbling, for clamour and continuance, can only 
be compared to a disturbed rookery. 
In the old palace which we occupied, we were hap- 
pily beyond the reach of these serenaders, but they 
never failed to hail our appearance upon the battle- 
ments above with peals of their boisterous merriment. 
We several times amused ourselves with rolling large 
stones over the precipice, in order to terrify them into 
silence ; but it had quite the contrary effect : for these 
ponderous projectiles bounded downward with the 
most fearful impetuosity, crashing amid the trees, 
and causing such consternation among the monkeys, 
that their chattering was changed into loud screams 
of terror. We saw them bounding from branch to 
branch in such multitudes, that the whole forest 
seemed alive. W e were notwithstanding wanton enough 
to continue our perilous pastime for a while at the 
imminent hazard of some of their lives. They, how- 
ever, adroitly avoided the impending destruction, 
and were certainly more alarmed than injured ; 
nevertheless, had they been able to expostulate in 
words, they would, I imagine, have cried out with 
the frogs in the fable, “ this may be sport to you, 
but it is death to us.” 
From the elevation of the hill whence we were 
