precepts under the benevolent foliage of the pepul tree! Apart, however, from this hobgoblin of Buddhistic tradition, the pepul tree is a grand product of the vegetable kingdom, and its dense foliage will not only defy the rays of the sun, but its gigantic leafy canopy will effectually shade a whole regiment of a thousand men.
While on this expedition we realised, with raptures of delight, that the welcome rainy season had been ushered in by the recent thunderstorm, and which, in fact, was the herald of the periodical monsoon. And with its advent what a sudden transition from misery to joy; what a charming transformation in the aspect of the country, and the temperature of the atmosphere reciprocally occurred, to be sure! Only a few days before the whole face of the earth, as far as the eye could wander, was burnt up like a cinder; but now, within a week since the bountiful rain, all Nature, satiated with the refreshing deluge and washed clean, suddenly revived, and sprang, as it were, into new life, and came out in a new toilet. Over the refreshed landscape now stretched a rolling carpet of verdant grass; innumerable birds joyfully singing appeared upon the scene, as mysteriously as the thousands of frogs that found their way out from the bowels of the earth, and croaked in loud, unearthly chorus the return of cooler days; myriads of flying and crawling insects swarmed everywhere; while we ourselves felt as if, at a single bound, we had unconsciously sprung from a perfect hell into an agreeable clime.
