d woods, and two or three
temples or mosques. The view from this elevation embraced an expanse of
some miles of country. In its front, or more prominent part, lay the
lowlands of the station of Banda, on the most beautiful and clear stream
in Hindostan, the river Cane. This beautiful stream empties itself into
the Jumna, about sixteen or twenty miles from this station. Between us
and Banda stood some enormous hills; and temples were built on their
very pinnacles, which are reached by winding steps, cut out of the rock
by manual labour. These buildings, viewed from the base of the hills,
look like little white spots in the sky.

When the sun arose on the following morning, I was invited to go up and
witness the splendour of the scene; and I had no cause to regret such an
invitation. The morning clouds seemed to slumber on the tops of those
barren hills; but the rising sun's glittering beams roused them from
their lethargy, and drove them from their thrones of night. Even at
mid-day, I have seen the buildings on these hills entombed in the murky
clouds, and their inmates, when visible, seemed beings of another world.
They were Brahmin mendicants, who descended in the morning, and
solicited alms all day in the name of Alla, re-ascending at eve to their
aerial abodes, there to mumble forth their witchcrafts, and to
contaminate the salubrious breeze of night with their invocations to
blocks and stones. The breeze in these valleys is pure, renovating, and
salubrious. Pea-fowls are seen in great abundance on these hills. They
are both fed and worshipped by the mendicant priests, who are much
annoyed if you disturb or shoot them, which, notwithstanding that,
Europeans take the liberty of doing, wherever they can find them. These
birds are, while young, as delicious as a young turkey. In former days,
even during my time in India, shooting peacocks was strictly prohibited
by the government, as interfering with the religious rites of the
natives; but those orders or prohibitions have been long since
rescinded, and they are now considered fair game. They are found in
almost all the districts of Hindostan. Their plumage is splendid and
beautiful, and, when parading before the sons of idolatry, who worship
them, they seem as proud of their tails as the priests themselves do of
their pretended and presumptuous knowledge of futurity.

By their ridiculous predictions of futurity these wretches live, and
impose on the deluded villagers,