In one place there
is a garden where monkeys riot about at their pleasure, for all in that
garden is for them alone, the delicious fruits, the cool fountains, the
shady bowers, all are for the worthless, mischievous monkeys.
But if it be strange for men to worship _monkeys_, is it not stranger
still to worship _snakes_ and _serpents_? Yet there is a temple in India
where serpents crawl about at their pleasure, where they are waited upon
by priests, and fed with fruits and every dainty. How much delighted must
the old serpent be with this worship!
Kites also, those fierce birds, are worshipped. There is meat sold in
shops on purpose for them; and it is bought and thrown up in the air to
the great greedy creatures.
There are splendid peacocks flying about in the woods, but the Hindoos do
not worship them; they shoot and eat them.
Of all the animals in India there is none which terrifies man so much as
the tiger. The Bengal tiger is a fine and fierce beast. Woe to the man or
woman on whom he springs! What then do you think must become of the man
who falls into his den? These dens are generally hid in jungles, which
are places covered with trees, and overgrown with shrubs and tall grass.
A gentleman was once walking through a jungle, when he felt himself
sinking into the ground, while a cloud of dust blinded his eyes. Soon he
heard a low growling noise. He fancied that he had sunk into a den, and
so he had.
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