Page:Oriental Sketches Dramatic Sketches and Tales.pdf/270

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of wild animals to be seen feeding in apparent security on the shores of the Jumna, give also a savage air to the landscape. The ravines on either side are the dwelling places of hyenas, wolves, and other beasts of prey, while porcupines perambulate the sands, alligators bask upon the mud, and clouds of birds are to be seen in every direction.

"And wandering o'er the teeming plain
White with the cotton's bursting pod."

The country on both sides of the Jumna abounds in cotton, sugar canes, millet and other kinds of grain in a rude state of cultivation; shrubs covered with the nut which produces castor-oil spring spontaneously, and furnish food for lamps as well as the medicine so much prized in Europe. The indigo, which grows wild in the Doaab, is esteemed of as fine a quality as that which in other places is produced by the utmost care and attention of the planter.

"And truly 'twas a gallant sight
When issued forth the hunter train.

It is scarcely possible to imagine any thing more picturesque than an Indian cavalcade, which presents a