There was such a scene when my intentions were made known
to the other crew, at first with tears and folded hands they
supplicated, but when that proved useless they took to cursing and
gesticulating, which they continued as their boat moved away and so long
as they were within hearing, screaming across the water, making faces,
and shaking their fists aloft; the old man was especially violent, it
was very laughable. My present crew consists of the man I have
mentioned, three good looking young woman, one of whom has the hooping
cough, and a variety of children I have not yet made out the different
relations to each other. There was lightning and some heavy rain last
night (the result no doubt of yesterday's ceremony) and the sky is still
gloomy and overcast. On from Alsoo after Chota Hazree or first breakfast
to Lunka, a small island, which is only fifty yards square, is thickly
covered with pine trees, with trailing grape vines clinging around their
boughs, on it stands an old ruin, and fallen pillars and carved stones
litter the ground. From a distance it looked very lovely, floating as
it were on the bosom of the open waters, but as we neared it an
unpleasant odour became perceptible, rapidly increasing to a horrid
stench. This proceeded from a colony of natives who were in temporary
habitation of the island, and were engaged in catching and drying the
fish with which the lake abounds.
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