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drinkable; and even this unpleasant beverage was so scanty, that 
we often saw the women wait several hours at a small hole in the 
earth, to collect sufficient to fill a jar: it is only in the months of 
April and May, just before the first fall of rain, that this scarcity 
prevails: during that sultry season, of most brooks and rivers it 
may be said, “ dumb are their fountains, and their channels 
dry" 
The commendation of an ancient patriarch who dug a well, 
must not be thought too trivial a circumstance for the sacred re- 
cords: he could not have bestowed a greater charity in a parched 
and thirsty soil: the frequent allusions to living streams, flowing 
rivers, verdant banks, and shady fountains, were delightful to the 
natives of Palestine: no prospect more enchanting, no promise 
more alluring, than to “ feed in a green pasture, and repose beside 
the still waters.” A good well and umbrageous banian-tree, are 
the most desirable objects to a traveller in Hindostan; since, on 
account of the peculiarities of caste, and the variety of religious 
professions, although an European carry his own provisions, very 
few of the natives will allow him to enter their house to eat them. 
This indeed is not to be expected among a superstitious people; 
who, like the Pharisees of old, make clean the outside of the cup 
and the platter, while they neglect the weightier matters of the law; 
who regard, with scrupulous exactness, eating or drinking with an 
inferior caste, the performance of stated ablutions, and bodily 
purifications: if by any accident, a Hindoo tastes food forbid- 
den to his caste, or touches what is deemed impure, he is sub- 
jected to the severest penance, or perhaps degraded from his rank 
in society; while the same man may be guilty of falsehood, perjury, 
