ons in some of the native states. But the
fact that elephants were not used in the royal processions at the last
Delhi Durbar, will probably lead to their being gradually less used
even for ceremonial purposes. Camels are employed for all sorts of
work in Northern India, and add greatly to the picturesqueness of the
road and street traffic. The horse plays a subordinate part,
comparatively speaking, in the labours of India, except for hack duty.
And though wealthy people, both English and Indian, drive handsome
horses, the motor-car is rapidly taking their place in the service of
the rich, or the prosperous professional, of all nations.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE INDIAN WORLD OF NATURE

The Southern Cross. Crocodiles. Fire-flies. Locusts; their
ravages. Indian birds; they cannot sing; their plumage. The
"brain-fever" bird. Swallows. Peewits. Vultures. Crows.
Kites. Tameness of the birds.

In spite of the expression, "a traveller's tale," being equivalent to
saying that a story is probably untrue, your confidence in the general
veracity of the traveller is strengthened when you find that certain
things are even more beautiful or strange than books of travel led you
to expect. For instance, the Southern Cross is a glorious
constellation and an undoubted cross, and entirely satisfying, so that
you are not disturbed by the opinions of the few who say that it is
disappointing. Whether you see it for the first time from the deck of
the steamer in the Red Sea, or for the hundredth time high up in the
air over the heathen City of Poona, as if it claimed victory over it,
the sight is always equally inspiring.

The view of crocodiles lying on the mud-bank of a river in Bengal
inspired confidence in the accuracy of early teachings, because they
were so like the hideous monster in the picture hung on the nursery
wall. A crocodile can see and breathe while the whole of its body is
immersed in the water, because its eyes and nostrils are on a plane on
the surface of the head. A person incautiously bathing, or dipping
water out of the river, may be suddenly seized by a crocodile who,
though on the watch, is buried in the muddy water and invisible. Every
year a certain number of human lives are lost in this way. Cattle and
other animals coming to the river-side to drink are dragged into the
water and devoured. The Poona river, swollen to a torrent in the
rains, and for the rest of the year reduced to a small