They Showed No Signs Of Alarm At Our Approach, And,
Having Received Our Greeting, And Some Of Them A Piece Of Sugar-Cane,
They Calmly Stayed On Their Branch-Thrones, Crossing Their Arms,
And Looking At Us With A Good Deal Of Dignified Contempt In Their
Intelligent Hazel Eyes.
The sun had set, and we were told that the supper was ready.
We
all turned "homewards," except the Babu. The main feature of his
character, in the eyes of orthodox Hindus, being a tendency to
blasphemy, he could never resist the temptation to justify their
opinion of him. Climbing up a high branch he crouched there,
imitating every gesture of the monkeys and answering their
threatening grimaces by still uglier ones, to the unconcealed
disgust of our pious coolies.
As the last golden ray disappeared on the horizon, a gauze-like
veil of pale lilac fell over the world. But as every moment
decreased the transparency of this tropical twilight, the tint
gradually lost its softness and became darker and darker. It
looked as if an invisible painter, unceasingly moving his gigantic
brush, swiftly laid one coat of paint over the other, ever changing
the exquisite background of our islet. The phosphoric candles of
the fireflies began to twinkle here and there, shining brightly
against the black trunks of the trees, and lost again on the silvery
background of opalescent evening sky. But in a few minutes more
thousands of these living sparks, precursors of Queen Night, played
round us, pouring like a golden cascade over the trees, and dancing
in the air above the grass and the dark lake.
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