presently exhibited before us
various feats of extraordinary agility and strength--some of these are
almost too curious to be believed by those who are not aware of the
flexibility and dexterity of the Hindoos. We were most surprised and
amused by the exploits of a lady of forty, which is considered a very
old age in that climate, who ran up the pole more like a monkey than a
human being, and then sticking herself on the top horizontally like a
weathercock, whirled herself round, to the great astonishment of the
European beholders. What tickled us particularly on this occasion was
the good lady accompanying her strange movements with a noise so
exactly like that of our old and respected friend Punch, when drubbed
by his faithful wife Judy, that we all burst out a-laughing.

The sun had now fallen past that particular angle in the sky above
which it is considered by the bearers inexpedient to travel, we
nestled ourselves into our respective palankeens, and proceeded on
the journey through what seemed to us a very respectable forest,
growing on lands which had once been under the plough, but apparently
very long ago. To our inexperienced eyes and European associations, it
seemed as if a century at least must have elapsed from the time such a
matting of wood first supplanted the labours of the husbandman; but
our friend the collector soon explained to us, that, if any spot of
ground in that rich district were neglected for a very few years,
natural trees, as tall as those we now admired so much, would soon
shoot up spontaneously, and occupy all the soil. We shook our heads at
this with the confident scepticism of ignorance, and exchanged glances
amongst ourselves at the expense of our official companion; but in the
course of an hour we were compelled, by the evidence of our own
senses, to alter our note of disbelief. On coming to the real
untouched virgin forest of the climate, we beheld a most noble
spectacle indeed, in the way of scenery, such as I at least had never
seen before, and have but rarely met with since. I do not recollect
the names of the principal trees, though they were mentioned to us
over and over again. The grand Banyan, however, with which European
eyes have become so correctly familiar through the pencil of Daniell,
rose on every side, and made us feel, even more decidedly than the
cocoa-nut trees had done in the morning, that we were indeed in
another world.

Shortly after we had left the Indian vil