A Journey to Katmandu (the Capital of Napaul), with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor: Including a Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at HomeOliphant, Laurence
History
A Journey to Katmandu (the Capital of Napaul), with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor: Including a Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at Home
Oliphant, Laurence
Nepal -- Description and travel
The stream was rapid, and carried the boats down some distance. Ten
elephants, with nothing visible but the tips of their trunks and the
crowns of their heads, on which latter squatted the mahouts, made the
passage gallantly. On the opposite side we passed through a village, the
little square of which was absolutely filled with monkeys. They resort
thither by hundreds from the neighbouring jungles to be fed by the
villagers, and are most independent in their behaviour, unscrupulously
attacking the man who brings their daily allowance, and, as they are
accounted sacred, they are of course unmolested. We saw some serious
fights amongst them, young and old mixing indiscriminately in the melee;
a mother was frequently seen making a rapid but orderly retreat with her
young one on her back.
We occasionally passed picturesque villages, the inhabitants of which
were of course all attracted by so novel a spectacle. The system pursued
by the villagers here is the same as may be observed in many parts of the
Continent of Europe: they invariably congregate in a collection of mud-
built closely packed huts, showing a gregarious disposition, and great
aversion to living alone. I do not remember to have passed one solitary
house. As the whole of the country is richly cultivated, the distance of
their dwellings from the scene of their daily labour must in some
instances be considerable.
The Gandaki, over which we were ferried, is a large stream rising in
Nepaul, and as broad as the Gograh. We went some distance up its banks,
in the hopes of finding wild-pig, but were unsuccessful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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