At noon the Parsee gave the signal for departure. The country soon be-gan to look very wild. The great forests gave place to copses of tamarindsand dwarf palms, after which came wide-spreading, arid plains, bristlingwith wretched shrubs and dotted with great boulders of syenite. The wholeof this part of upper Bundelkhand, but little visited by travellers, is inhabit-ed by a fanatical people hardened in the most terrible practices of theHindu religion. The English have been unable to establish their rule effi-ciently over this region, subject as it is to the influence of the rajahs, whomit would have been no easy matter to teach in their inaccessible fastnessesin the Vindhia Mountains.
More than once troops of fierce-looking Indians were descried makingwrathful gestures as they watched the great quadruped speeding by. Butthe Parsee avoided them as much as possible, for he thought it unsafe tomeet them. They saw few animals in the course of that day; here and therea monkey or two, that scampered away making endless contortions andgrimaces, to Passepartout's great delight.
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