DUSCHETT. 
99 
On the third evening after our arrival at the quarantine, our 
servants and baggage were fumigated, preparatory to our release 
the ensuing day. This ordeal passed, we received certificates of 
health; and, having now liberty, I paid my visit to the town and 
the fortress. At six o’clock on the morning of October the 11th 
(O. S. 1817,) we re-commenced our march. We ascended the 
mountain to the southward of Annanour, crossing its woody 
summit almost directly over the town. About midway of our 
day’s journey, we had a full view of Duschett, our next halting- 
place ; a distance of nearly eleven wersts from our last. It is 
situated at the bottom of the hill we were then descending, in 
an extensive valley, rich with cultivation and villages, and 
seeming to promise a very different entertainment from that of 
Annanour. A great many of the natives were occupied in 
ploughing; but the machine they used was exceedingly heavy, 
its share very sparingly clothed with iron, and so inconveniently 
long, that it made a furrow full two feet in width, and as deep 
as any hedge-ditch in England. The soil was rich, black, and 
weighty; so much so, that fourteen oxen were yoked in pairs, to 
drag the plough through its furrows. Buffaloes are very nume¬ 
rous here; and are often used for these agricultural labours, as 
well as for business on the road, where they sometimes carry 
burthens on their backs ; and at others, draw a clumsy sort of cart, 
with wheels of a solid piece of wood, like those of Portugal. 
Droves of these animals were grazing near the road, some of 
them of an enormous size, much larger than the largest of the 
English cattle I ever saw. Their cry is peculiar, for I cannot 
call it either lowing or bellowing: it is long and monotonous, 
resembling the hum of an insect; but as much louder, as the 
magnitude of the one animal exceeds that of the other. The 
comparison may seem a strange one, but it is true. 
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