obliged to get out of our palankeens and make our way through it, forcing back the matted undergrowth with our hands, or following our more alert guides the peons, who made the passage clear before us with their tulwars and spears. "Before we entered the last deep recess of the wood, we crossed several fields where it was evident that sugar-canes had lately grown, but which, on the evening preceding, as we afterwards ascertained, had been entirely destroyed by the wild elephants. These animals frequently commit the most frightful depredations upon the cultivated spots that skirt the forests. They prostrate every thing before them, so that a whole field of sugar-cane is often entirely laid waste by them in the course of a few hours. A man and his wife, who had been stationed in a hut to look after the plantation through which we passed, and to frighten off any of the forest ravagers that might appear to carry on their work of destruction, had been compelled to mount upon the upper branches of a large tree as the only place of security; for their enemies were not only many, but terrible also in their might and energy. Here the watchers remained all the time that the work of devastation was going on, which they distinctly saw, for there was a clear moonlight, without the slightest power of interrupting it. As soon as the plantation had been entirely laid waste, the elephants retired, when the terrified couple, who had so long lodged in the branches of a teaktree, descended from their painful elevation to communicate the unwelcome intelligence to the landed proprietor. "This herd of quadruped giants was only at a short distance from us as we were making our way through the jungle. We distinctly heard them forcing a path for their unwieldy bodies, and tearing down the large branches of trees that interrupted their progress. They seemed to be conscious of our vicinity, for they never came in sight of us, though we could continually hear that they were almost close at hand. We had, however, very little apprehension about them, as they are known never to attack except when molested. It is, in truth, a wise ordination of Providence that animals are generally mild in their character, and gentle in their habits, in proportion to their bulk. How admirably is this merciful distribution of nature adapted to the condition of things since the fall of man in Paradise! If the elephant were ferocious in proportion to his might, every country in which he could find a refuge would soon become a scene of utter devastation. If the tiger had the elephant's amazing bulk and prodigious strength, combined with the lion's courage and his own peculiar fierceness, what would become of the population of those countries where he now prowls in search of baser prey than man, only because he fears the highest order of God's creatures upon earth, and is by nature as cowardly as he is ravenous? The crocodile, indeed, and the shark, are ferocious in proportion to their size and strength, but their sphere of action is circumscribed; so that man, under any circumstances, could have comparatively little to apprehend from those tremendous powers of destruction with which they are gifted." TEMPLE AT MAHABALIPOOR. WELL placed! amid the shock And whirl of tempests, while the thunders roll; Unto the Eternal Rock! To thee the seaman's eye May turn when danger rides the crested wave, So, by sore trial press'd, Devotion towards the steadfast haven flies, Seeking, though frowns despair from angry skies, Life in the Temple's breast! Still in thy grandeur stand, And heavenward point, by rushing blasts unstirred; Still in thine aisles, a solemn voice, he heard Hymns of a grateful land! 56 |