Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825, with notes upon Ceylon, an account of a journey to Madras and the southern provinces, 1826, and letters written in India [ed. by A. Heber].

Front Cover

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 241 - O'er Gunga's mimic sea ! I miss thee at the dawning gray, When, on our deck reclined, In careless ease my limbs I lay, And woo the cooler wind. I miss thee when by Gunga's stream My twilight steps I guide, But most beneath the lamp's pale beam I miss thee from my side.
Page 234 - To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain : whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life ? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Page 241 - But miss thy kind approving eye, thy meek attentive ear. But when of morn and eve the star beholds me on my knee, I feel, though thou art distant far, thy prayers ascend for me. Then on ! then on ! where duty leads my course be onward still, — O'er broad Hindostan's sultry meads, o'er bleak Almorah's hill. That course nor Delhi's kingly gates, nor wild Malwah detain, For sweet the bliss us both awaits by yonder western main.
Page 247 - The shrill cigala strikes his lyre ; And what is she, whose liquid strain Thrills through yon copse of sugar-cane ? I know that soul-entrancing swell ! It is — it must be — Philomel. Enough, enough, the rustling trees Announce a shower upon the breeze, — The flashes of the summer sky Assume a deeper, ruddier dye ; Yon lamp that trembles on the stream, ^ From forth our cabin sheds its beam ; And we must early sleep, to find Betimes the morning's healthy wind. But, oh ! with thankful hearts confess...
Page 247 - And through the trees yon failing ray Will scantly serve to guide our way. Yet mark ! as fade the upper skies, Each thicket opes ten thousand eyes. Before, beside us, and above, The fire-fly lights his lamp of love, Retreating, chasing, sinking, soaring, The darkness of the copse exploring, While to this cooler air confest, The broad Dhatura bares her breast, Of fragrant scent, and virgin white, A pearl around the locks of night ! Still, as we pass, in softened hum Along the breezy alleys come The...
Page 246 - O'er the broad plantain's humbler shade And dusk anana's prickly blade ; While o'er the brake, so wild and fair, The betel waves his crest in air. With pendant train and rushing wings, Aloft the gorgeous peacock springs ; And he, the bird of hundred dyes, Whose plumes the dames of Ava prize. So rich a shade, so green a sod, Our English Fairies never trod ! Yet who in Indian bower has stood, But thought on England's
Page 69 - ... years to operate in, it is not easy to fix any limits to their power. I am inclined, after all, to suspect that our European vanity leads us astray in supposing that our own is the primitive complexion, which I should rather suppose was that of the Indian...
Page 373 - Fakirs' houses, as they are called, occur at every turn, adorned with idols, and sending out an unceasing tinkling and strumming of vinas, biyals, and other discordant instruments, while religious mendicants of every Hindoo sect, offering every conceivable deformity, which chalk, cow-dung, disease, matted locks, distorted limbs and disgusting and hideous attitudes of penance can shew, literally line the principal streets on both sides.
Page 157 - Colly). Some were swimming about at the full extent of their strings, or lying half in and half out of the water ; others were rolling themselves in the sun on the sandy bank, uttering a shrill, whistling noise, as if in play. I was told...
Page 9 - Thus many Brahmins eat both fish and kid. The Rajpoots, besides these, eat mutton, venison, or goat's flesh. Some castes may eat any thing but fowls, beef, or pork ; while pork is with others a favourite diet, and beef only is prohibited.

Bibliographic information