2 17 
purifications, and ablutions in llie river; his dressing and eating 
his victuals; the objects which he touches; the companions with 
whom he associates, are to him all intimately and equally con- 
nected with religion, and the everlasting welfare of his soul. If 
there is any part of his conduct with which his religious ideas have 
no concern, it is his moral character. In 44 doing justly, or loving 
mercy/' he is apparently left to act as he pleases: but if in the 
most trivial action he violate the rules of his superstition, he is, in 
this life, deprived of all the comforts of society; and in the next, 
condemned to animate the body of some noisome reptile, or con- 
temptible animal.” 
These sentiments correspond with the reflections I minuted 
while reposing under the banian-tree at Clioura, when not permit- 
ted to enter a Hindoo habitation. Having refreshed our bearers 
and cattle, we pursued our journey through an arid plain towards 
the lower Gauts; a chain of mountains separating the broad valley 
we were travelling through, from the Concan plains reaching to 
the sea. This part of India during the rainy months, is doubtless 
a perfect garden; but at the end of the dry season its general 
aspect is very different: although in mentioning a parched country 
or barren plains in Hindostan, I by no means liken them to the 
burning deserts of Persia and Arabia; a scene of desolation, where 
Pitts, during a journey of thirty-seven daj^s from Mecca to Cairo, 
met with scarcely any thing green, and where neither beast nor 
fowl was to be seen or heard ; nothing but sand and stones, except 
in one place which the caravan passed by night; this they thought 
to be a village with trees and gardens. 
The general aspect of Hindostan, excepting the sandy plains 
2 F 
