These ruins are small in size, and their architecture rude, though
the individual blocks are certainly large and well though not
elaborately carved. But they produce a strange impression of awe by the
dreary solitude and wildness of their position which is perhaps peculiar
to themselves, although they lack both the fairy elegance of Netley
Abbey, and the massive grandeur of a Pevensey Castle. The men who
accompanied me advanced very cautiously through the thick underwood,
beating with their sticks in order to drive away the Iguana Lizards,
which they call the "bis cobra" and hold in deadly fear, believing its
bite to be most surely fatal. This belief is universal among the natives
of India, but there is no proof of its truth, and I need hardly say that
the dental arrangement of Bactrachian reptiles is incompatible with the
possession of poisonous qualities. But though science will not admit it,
it is strange that the idea is so widely spread, especially as the
natives do not fear any other species of lizard, while they believe that
every snake is armed with the fatal fang.
AUGUST 3rd.--Heavy rain prevented my departure from Wangut, at the usual
early hour, but about 9 o'clock it cleared up, and I marched on Arric
eight miles distant down a path on the right bank of the river, (I
ascended the valley on the other side.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65