Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1820 edition. Excerpt: ... were performed on the banks of this river. The brahmins of India have, in many places on the Ganges, a regular endowment, for the support of a large breed of monkeys, called Indian apes; t ese animals are very gentle, and live in " tribes of three or four hundred, and appear to have some sort of order in their sylvan polity." The reason why these monkeys are so ighly fa K voured, is this: Rama, when he attacked the giant Ravan, king of Lanes, commanded an intrepid race o this breed; and, with their assistance, subdued many of his enemies. " Might not this army of satyrs," says Sir William Jones, " have been only a race ofrude mountaineers, whom Rama, if such a monarch ever existed, had civilized?" Among the tributary streams of the Ganges, the Burrampootz is the most magnificent; which. after a course of 400 miles through the British territories, joins the Ganges a little below Luckipour: here the two streams form a fresh water sea, in which sports many a verdant isle, some not inferior to the Isle ofWight in size and beauty. The course of the tributary stream nearly equals that of the sacred Ganges; its source has never been defined, but thus much is alllrmed, that they rise nearly together; and after separating for about 1000 miles, they unite and become one. The Jumna, another large river in the north of India, flows into the Ganges at Allahabad. The Indus, after a course of about 1000 miles. falls into the Indian sea, by many mouths, in the province of Siml. The Kistna is also a sacred river, which rises at Balisur, not far south to the Bona; audafter an eastern course of about 500 miles, it forms a delta at Musulipatam. On the banks of this river are the celebrated diamond mirics of Golconda, of...