I At Length Descried A Long Line Of Noble Forest In The Distance, And This I Conjectured To Be Near The River, Which Turned Out To Be The Case; We Were Soon Relieved From The Burning Sun By The Shade Of As Splendid A Forest As I Have Ever Seen.

A few hundred yards from the spot at which we had entered, Yalle river rolled along in a clear stream.

In the wet season this is a rapid torrent of about 150 yards in width, but at this time the bed of the river was dry, with the exception of a stream of about thirty paces broad, which ran directly beneath the bank we were descending.

An unexpected scene now presented itself. The wide bed of the river was shaded on either side by groves of immense trees, whose branches stretched far over the channel; and not only beneath their shade, but in every direction, tents formed of talipot leaves were pitched, and a thousand men, women, and children lay grouped together; some were bathing in the river, some were sitting round their fires cooking a scanty meal, others lay asleep upon the sand, but all appeared to be congregated together for one purpose; and so various were the castes and costumes that every nation of the East seemed to have sent a representative. This was the season for the annual offerings to the Kattregam god, to whose temple these pilgrims were flocking, and they had made the dry bed of Valle river their temporary halting-place.

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