Paid a visit in the afternoon to
Sumnud Shah for the purpose of replenishing my exchequer, but found his
shop better calculated to exhaust it. I'll not go there again.
AUGUST 25th.--Lying down inside my tent I just now heard two crows
chuckling and laughing in their way and saying to one another "here's a
joke" or caws to that effect. You need not laugh at this statement or
think that my mind has suddenly become deranged, I merely state a fact.
The language of animals--dumb creatures as fools call them--is far more
expressive than you imagine, and if you had spent the same time and the
same attention that I have in listening to birds notes, you would be
able to understand much of their meaning. Here a conversation carried on
in a foreign tongue, one to which you a perfect stranger, will you be
able to distinguish words? No! you will only hear a confusion of sounds
possessing apparently but little variety. But as you become accustomed
to it the words and syllables will start out into clear relief; so with
birds songs--at first they will appear to you to be always the same, but
they have really different tones and meanings, which you may learn to
appreciate by studying them in connection with their acts. However I
heard the crows say "here's a joke" and guessing I was to be the victim
of it, I immediately jumped up and rushed out.
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