ETTAIAH. 
113 
have heard my version fifty times over only become the 
more desirous of hearing it again. 
“ In days long past what city was so great and glo- 
rious as Ettaiah, — her inhabitants, lofty in stature and 
beautiful in form, stood among their fellow men as the 
sun in his strength compared with the twinkling stars 
of heaven. But evil is strong upon earth, and the 
terrible goddess Kali, working with powerful and ma- 
licious influence in the hearts of men, had gradually 
reduced the proud city to degradation and misery. 
Truth, justice, industry, domestic peace, and public 
virtue passed away, like the vernal glories of plain and 
forest after the clouds of the blue locust have rested 
upon them. Arts and manufactures were disregarded; 
sloth and intemperance had paralysed every hand, 
while poverty and famine roved throughout the city as 
fierce as paria dogs howling for their prey. The con- 
trol of law had long ceased in Ettaiah ; provisions, 
money, almost all the necessaries of life, were obtained 
by plunder alone, and as long as any stores remained, 
they were at the disposal of every strong arm and fero- 
cious spirit who could demand his portion from the 
general stock, or wrench it from the grasp of a weaker 
neighbour. When all was gone, the lawless robbers 
set forth to levy new contributions, lying in wait for 
luckless travellers in the gloomy ravines that intersect 
the lofty banks of the Jumna, greedy and watchful as 
the crocodile lurking in the reedy shallows below them ; 
or rushing on some unprotected village, they robbed 
l 3 
