Kipling's India - Arley Isabel Munson

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ... iv The Great Desert making his way back through Simla and down to the Plains, the traveller turns southward, and journeying now by metre gauge and now by the broad, regular line of the Indian Railway, finds himself after a few hours in the heart of the Rajputana Desert, with all its solemn grandeur and all its bitter desolation. Miles and miles of yellow sand stretch away to the horizon, broken only by great boulders, ragged camel's-thorn bushes, and little scrubby trees, or, perhaps, a whirling dust cloud, which rises high in air, scatters, and settles again. Here and there the waters of a lake or river, blue and sparkling in the blazing sunshine, refresh the eye; or low hills, purple in the distance, grow larger, clearer, and less fascinating as one nears their bare, brown ridges destitute of verdure. Again, thatch-roofed native huts peep out from flaunting, bright-coloured foliage in a great patch of forest land where, among the rocks and trees, tigers and leopards and wolves abound. As everywhere else in India, monkeys romp and chatter among the trees, little striped squirrels dart into sight and off again, and the green parrot looks down critically from a distant bough. Occasionally, a solitary camel, the jaws and brow of its rider bound tightly against the dust, weaves across the plain; a country bullock-cart creaks dismally along with its burden of men or cotton; or a band of gypsies, with wild, dark eyes, splendid bodies, and rainbow attire, pass slowly by, driving their cattle, the ornaments of the women, bone and iron and brass, clanking loudly. The heat is tremendous, and one wilts visibly in mind and body and apparel; the blazing sunshine blinds the eyes, and one is glad indeed when the waning light brings relief and the...