ng the earlier
wisdom of the East India Company, forbids everyone to molest them, not
only when met with in the forests, which in all justice belong to them,
but even when they invade the city gardens. Leaping from one branch
to another, chattering like magpies, and making the most formidable
grimaces, they followed us all the way, like so many midnight spooks.
Sometimes they hung on the trees in full moonlight, like forest nymphs
of Russian mythology; sometimes they preceded us, awaiting our arrival
at the turns of the road as if showing us the way. They never left us.
One monkey babe alighted on my knees. In a moment the authoress of his
being, jumping without any ceremony over the coolies' shoulders, came to
his rescue, picked him up, and, after making the most ungodly grimace at
me, ran away with him.

"Bandras (monkeys) bring luck with their presence," remarked one of
the Hindus, as if to console me for the loss of my crumpled topee.
"Besides," he added, "seeing them here we may be sure that there is not
a single tiger for ten miles round."

Higher and higher we ascended by the steep winding path, and the forest
grew perceptibly thicker, darker, and more impenetrable. Some of the
thickets were as dark as graves. Passing under hundred-year-old banyans
it was impossible to distinguish one's own finger at the distance of two
inches. It seemed to me that in certain places it would not be possible
to advance without feeling our way, but our coolies never made a false
step, but hastened onwards. Not one of us uttered a word. It was as if
we had agreed to be silent at these moments. We felt as though wrapped
in the heavy veil of dark-ness, and no sound was heard but the short,
irregular breathing of the porters, and the cadence of their quick,
nervous footsteps upon the stony soil of the path. One felt sick at
heart and ashamed of belonging to that human race, one part of which
makes of the other mere beasts of burden. These poor wretches are paid
for their work four annas a day all the year round. Four annas for going
eight miles upwards and eight miles downwards not less than twice a
day; altogether thirty-two miles up and down a mountain 1,500 feet high,
carrying a burden of two hundredweight! However, India is a country
where everything is adjusted to never changing customs, and four annas a
day is the pay for unskilled labor of any kind.

Gradually open spaces and glades became more frequent and the light grew
as