seemed completely at their wits' end, uttering piercing lamentations, or so roughly endeavouring to effect a release, as to endanger the life of their friend. Pleased with the affectionate solicitude displayed by these monkeys, and sympathizing in their disappointment, the lady, after having amused herself for a considerable period by watching their manœuvres, ordered one of the servants to let the monkey loose. The moment the party perceived that his freedom was effected, their joy was unbounded; embracing him many times, they gamboled and capered about with delight, and finally, seizing the emancipated prisoner by the arm, ran off with him to the woods, and were never seen again, not one of the same species appearing during the time the party remained in camp; thus corroborating the evidence of the natives, who persisted in declaring that grey, black-faced monkeys, with long arms, were not inhabitants of the district.

A circumstance, somewhat similar, and equally authentic, which took place on the Madras side of India, related to the writer by an officer of rank to whom it occurred, may amuse those who take an interest in inquiring into the habits and manners of a race which, together with the conformation, seem to partake of the caprices and inconsistencies, of men. Near to the bungalow in which the officer resided, and which had been newly erected in a jungly district, a troop of monkeys were in the habit of crossing the road daily, on their way to the neighbouring woods. On one of these occasions, a sepoy, perceiving the amusement which they afforded to his officer, caught a young one, and brought it to the house, where it remained fastened to one of the pillars of the verandah. The parents of this monkey were soon perceived to take up a position on a ledge of rocks opposite, but at some distance, where they could obtain a view of their imprisoned offspring, and there they sate all day, sometimes apparently absorbed in silent despair, at others breaking out into paroxysms of grief. This lasted for a long time; days passed away without reconciling the parents to their loss; the same scene was enacted, the same sorrow evinced; and being of a compassionate disposition, the young officer took pity upon the misery of the bereaved pair, and gave his captive liberty. Anticipating the contemplation of the greatest delight at the meeting, he looked out to the rock whither the young monkey instantly repaired, but instead of the happy reunion which his fancy had painted, a catastrophe of the most tragic nature ensued. Seizing the truant in their arms, the old monkeys tore it to pieces in an instant; thus destroying at once the pleasurable sensations of the spectator, and perplexing him with vain conjectures whether, irritated by their previous distress, they had avenged themselves upon its cause, or whether, in the delirium of their joy, they had too roughly caressed the object of their lamentations. Having committed this strangely cruel act, the monkeys took their departure.

Amid the interesting places in the neighbourhood of Monghyr, the celebrated rock of Jungheera must not be omitted. It consists of several masses of grey granite, rising boldly from the river. It is supposed to have formerly been a point of land projecting from the shore, but is now completely isolated by the violence of the current, which rushes down in the Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.14.No.54.

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rainy season with extraordinary vehemence and rapidity. Trees have imbedded their roots amid the crevices of the picturesque rock, and on its terraces several small temples are erected, adding much to the romantic beauty of the scene. It has been during many ages considered one of the most sacred places in the Ganges, and is a great resort of Hindoo devotees, who crowd to it, not only on account of its reputed sanctity, but to offer their homage at the shrine of Narayan, an idol of great celebrity at this place, whose figure, besides being preserved in one of the pagodas, is sculptured upon several parts of the rock, together with those of Vishnu, Seeva, and Sirooj. Jungheera is inhabited by Hindoo fakeers, who are not above asking charity of the European voyagers on the river, but who will not condescend to accept copper money from them. Passing Jungheera in the rains, when the Ganges runs roaring through the rocks with great noise and violence, a sensation of danger is added to the sublimity of the landscape; but when the river is low, and its turbulence has abated, nothing can be more calm and lovely than the scene. Between the two rocks, there is a ghaut or landing-place, gently sloping into the water, and never without a cluster of those graceful figures, which in this picturesque country form themselves so readily into groupes, such as artists delight to sketch, and which must be vainly sought amidst the peasantry of England. From this ghaut the ascent to the summit is by flights of steps cut out of the solid rock. In the temple, which crowns this height, the principal fakeer is usually to be seen, sitting on a tiger-skin by way of carpet, and having the skull of one of these animals by his side. According to the rules of their order, this begging fraternity are very scantily clothed, their greatest claims to sanctity resting upon the voluntary abandonment of the luxuries and comforts of life. The contempt which they profess for all domestic accommodation, is, however, very inconsistent with their known propensity to accumulate worldly treasure. It is no secret in the neighbourhood, that the chief of the fakeers, who, covered with dirt and ashes, seems to have relinquished every vanity, is the proprietor of a considerable estate, and the possessor of numerous flocks and herds. It is shrewdly suspected that these self-denying ascetics do not spend their whole time upon the rock of Jungheera, but that there are seasons in which they indemnify themselves for the penances which they undergo, in order to secure the veneration of an ignorant multitude. The disguise of chalk, long matted locks disfigured with dirt, and untrimmed beards, renders it easy for three or four confederates to personate one fakeer, relieving guard at stated interyals, and when off duty enjoying all the delights which money can purchase. The same person apparently may be seen always sitting in the same posture, neither eating, drinking, or smoking, and with nothing but the boughs of a tree to shelter him from the inclemencies of the season; and yet these privations, sustained only at stated times by one of several individuals, may be extremely light. But, though an immense number of hypocrites are to be found amongst these people, there are many Hindoo devotees, who really and truly encounter the most frightful hardships for the sake of a reward hereafter.

At a considerable distance below Jungheera, there are other rocks which attract the attention of the voyager; they are profusely sculptured and fringed to their bases with wild creepers, and the overhanging garlands of the trees, which spring from every fissure. The projecting points of Colgong and Patergotta form a beautiful bay at this place; the amphitheatre of hills, gleaming like amethysts in the sun-set, and the small wooded islands, which rise in fairy beauty upon the glittering surface of the Ganges, present a scene of loveliness, which it is scarcely possible to behold unmoved.

But there are objects of utility, as well as of beauty, to interest the traveller, whose destiny leads him to the neighbourhood of Monghyr. Above, on the opposite bank of the Ganges, a work has been constructed, which has excited the admiration of all who are capable of appreciating the importance of the benefit which it has conferred. The zillah or province of Sarun, during many ages, enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most fertile tracts in the British territories, having had the name, common to all fruitful places, of "the garden of India," bestowed upon it. A melancholy change, however, took place, in consequence of the encroachments of the river Gunduck, which undermined the dyke, and at length carried it away. This calamity threatened the destruction of a fair and populous district; for, too frequently, extensive tracts of valuable land were inundated by the rising of the river, which on its reflux left nothing but barren wastes covered with sand, and hillocks alike unfitted for agricultural or pastoral occupation. The inhabitants, driven from their employments, forsook their villages, and for many miles the country presented nothing but waste and devastation. In the early part of 1830, the supreme government determined upon arresting the devastating encroachments of the river, and Captain Sage, the executive officer of the division, was directed to construct a dyke, or bund, for the security of the adjacent country. He commenced his operations in the middle of April in the same year, and on the nineteenth of the following June had completed his undertaking, along a distance of ninety-two miles two furloughs and fifty-seven yards. The bund is in its average dimensions forty-five feet wide at the base, ten in width at the top, and nine feet in height, forming an elevated road, on which carriages of any description may safely be driven. Another cross bund, supplied with sixteen sluices for the purpose of irrigation, was completed after the rains by the same indefatigable officer, who, under a burning sun, in the hottest season of the year, accomplished a work which would have done credit to the genius of Holland. No less than 19,489 men were employed daily in this undertaking; and strict personal superintendence was necessary to secure their effectual co-operation. The merit of the design also belongs to Capt. Sage; and in the opinion of competent judges, the solidity of the construction is such as to defy the utmost force of the river for many ages to come. Agriculture, as well as manufactures, flourishes in the neighbourhood of Monghyr; grain of all kinds, sugar, and indigo are in great abundance, and the country is celebrated for its opium. Immense fields of poppies,

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which, though they have been not unjustly described as all glare and stench, have a gay appearance, their flowers varying in colours, like the tulip or the anemone, and changing with every breeze that sweeps across them, render part of the cultivated district one wide parterre. Cotton plantations abound; the paths are strewed with pods full to bursting, which disclose the soft treasure within, appearing like a lump of wool intermixed with a few black seeds the blossom of the cotton plant is very pretty, somewhat resembling that of the gum cistus, but of a pale yellow. There are also large tracts of indigo, a dark green shrubby plant; the neighbourhood of a factory being always indicated by the appearance of the lower order of natives employed in it. The name given to them, that of leel wallahs (blue fellows), is very characteristic and appropriate, for they are literally blue; the few clothes which they wear are dyed of that colour, and so are their skins, which seem to take the tint very easily. The contrast between the steel-coloured and the copper-coloured brethren has a very droll effect. There are gardens of the betel-nut and sugar-plantations in this part of the country, and though the coco-tree has almost disappeared, its place in the landscape is supplied by the date and tara palm. Cocos are not supposed to grow luxuriantly except in the vicinity of the coast; but their cultivation in many inland situations, in India, shews that a little care alone is necessary for their introduction into the most remote parts of Hindoostan. Nothing ean be more beautiful than the effect produced by their magnificent coronals, when intermixed with the foliage of other trees.

The coco-nut tree is reverenced and esteemed sacred in India, on account of its utility. It affords nutritious food and several kinds of beverage. When green, its fruit is excellent stewed; and when not eaten alone, slices enter into the composition of kaaries, and other made dishes: no one can have an idea of the flavour and delicacy of a coco-nut, who has only tasted it in the hard dry state in which it is brought to Europe. The milk from the freshly-gathered fruit is delicious. Vinegar is manufactured, and spirits distilled, from the juice of the palm-tree; the oil it yields is unrivalled in excellence; its leaves plaited are employed in making the walls and covering in the roofs of native cottages, and the fibres are twisted into cables, or, when finely picked, used for the stuffing of mattresses, cotton being esteemed too warm and soft for the climate. The coco-nut, either whole or in slices, always enters into the offerings made to the deities, whose shrines occur in the district where it grows. Graceful girls may be seen, carrying a small tray of polished brass, on which spices, fragrant flowers, and slices of the coco-nut are laid, intended for the altar of Mahadeva, or some equally-venerated object of their worship. The same honours do not appear to be paid to the bamboo, although it is, if possible, more important than the coco-nut, being used for scaffoldings, enclosures, houses, ladders, masts, oars, poles of every kind, and almost every sort of furniture.

There is no resident clergyman at Monghyr; but it is occasionally visited by the district chaplains, and a baptist missionary has an establishment,

where public worship is constantly performed. At the visit of Bishop Heber, the congregation did not exceed sixty persons, of which three only were natives: a proof of the difficulty attending conversion in India, since nothing can be more fervent than the zeal which Christian missionaries bring to their endeavours.

The bank of the Ganges opposite to Monghyr has not the slightest pretensions to beauty; its low, flat, swampy shores, intersected with reedy islets, are the haunts of multitudes of alligators, which, in the hot season, may be seen sunning themselves by the side of the huge ant-hills erected upon the sand-banks, appearing above the surface of the water. Some of these animals attain to a prodigious size; they are exceedingly difficult to kill, in consequence of the adamantine armour in which the greater part of their bodies is cased. Even when the balls penetrate less guarded points, they are so tenacious of life as to cause a great deal of trouble before they can be finally despatched. One, which had received eight balls, and was supposed to be dead, after having been tied to the bamboo of a budgerow for a whole day, exhibited in the evening so much strength and fierceness, as to be a dangerous neighbour, Many of these monsters are fifteen feet long, and they swim fearlessly past the boats, lifting up their terrific heads, and raising their dark bodies from the water as they glide along. Though not so frequently as in former times, when the echoes of the river were less disturbed by the report of fire-arms, natives are still the victims of that species of alligator, which lies in wait for men and animals, venturing incautiously too near their haunts. In many that have been killed, the silver ornaments worn by women and children, have been found, a convincing proof of the fearful nature of their prey. An alligator, it is said, will sometimes make a plunge amidst a group of bathers at a ghaut, and, singling out one of the party, dart into the middle of the stream, defying pursuit by the rapidity of its movements against the current, through which it will fly with the velocity of an arrow, and having reached deep water it sinks with its victim into the abysses of the river. Sportsmen, the younger portion especially, delight in waging war against these giants of the stream, as they lie wallowing in the mud in shallow places, and presenting the defenceless parts of their bodies to the marksman. In the Sunderbunds, where the creeks and natural canals of the Ganges wind through the forest, whose margin almost mingles with the stream, alligators are sometimes engaged in deadly encounters with the tiger. A battle of this kind witnessed by a missionary is described to have been a drawn one, for although the tiger succeeded in dragging his unwieldly adversary into the jungle, after the lapse of an hour or two the alligator was seen to emerge, and to regain the water not very materially injured by the conflict it had sustained.

The natives of Monghyr are a quiet industrious race, rarely participating in the crimes which are so frequently perpetrated in the upper and lower country, neither addicted to the lawless proceedings, the onslaughts, murders, and highway-robberies often committed in open day by the warlike