Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-05-10

walls Of silence. They had . great deal to
say, and they all said u, and u was all
about me, too for they frequently pointed
at me with their hands, and snarled and
gnashed their tecth at me. Again they
contracted the semi-Circle - before. And
20 they kept gradually coming nearer and
nearer, and growing moro and more ex-
cited. still remained quiet and silent,
and still In the distance the monkey youths
played the mad gambols of their living
pendulum, needless Of what engaged the
attention Of their seniors. All else was
silent and undisturbed-no sign of man.
The semi-circle had gradually contracted
10 within fourteen or fifteen feet of where
I stood; the monkeys indeed were 40
near that In In two or three leaps they
could easily have jumped upon me. I felt
decidedly uneasy; wondered how they
would attack me, and whenf From the
right, or the LEFT, or the frontS BY jump
ing on me from a distance, or waiting till
quite nearf Then I wondered whether
the care -takef would return In time to
stave of the assault, for I was still quite
close to the house. or the dreadful results
Of the attack, IL once made, I had not the
slightest doubt. Still remained leaning
iminovable against the tree, calm aud
cool. facing them straight, looking fully in
10 their faces all in turn, and showing out
wardly no signs of flinching or alarm. Yet
began 20 think that IL was now only
matter ofa few more minutes. Before .
quarter Of an hour at the ftirthest they
would be sure to begin to handle my
clothes; and whether I permitted II. or
resisted. or tried TO fly, would with equal
certainty be attacked and overpowered
and killed.
But my deliverance was at hand. In the
midst of one of their most noisy discus
sions-or did 1t only seem more noisy be-
cause they were now so near f-they one
and all became suddenly silent aud per-
fectly still. They seemed 70 be listening
attentively. l listened, too, but at first
could catch no sound anywhere the still
ness of death was all around for even the
young monkeys had ceased their tricks.
What could have disturbed or silenced the
noisy throng? Or what did they now pur-
poser Next from afar off came the loud cry
of a'monkey-evidently tho warning call
of scout on outpost duty. Then, first,
family from afar, aud then gradually
nearer aud louder, came, down the main
road through the wood, the welcome sound
of the clatter of a horses hoofs at swift
walking pace. This 1t was which their
quicker ears had detected long before l
had heard oft. They kept their ground
for a few moments more, but their atten-
ton was now evidently divided between
me and the approaching horse. Again,
and nearer, the scouts cry sounded through
the wood. There was All immediate stam-
pede. One aud all the monkeys rushed
of to the neighboring trees, and, scramb-
ling up the trunks and into the branches,
they were, in the twinkling of an eve, lost
to sight in the leafy canopy overhead.
They had disappeared in their hundreds
as rapidly as they had come, and almost
as silently, save when the rustling among
the leaves indicated their course as they
passed from tree to tree and fled further
into the wood.
/ waited still against the tree till the
horse and his rider-a mounted policeman
going his rounds-had come quite near.
Then made for the house and bolted my
self in, thankful for the timely arrival and
involuntary aid of the unconscious patrol.
Unknowingiy, but proyidentially, he had
saved my life. Through the window l
could still see the monkeys in the distant
trees and hear their chatter. When the
policeman had gone away, numbers of
monkeys again descended to the ground
and walked about, perhaps looking for me.
l was, however, secure within doors; nor
did l open them till, half an hour later,
the care taker returned with food, and
message from the Brahmins, fixing the
same afternoon as the time for visiting the
temple. Having satisfied the calls for
hunger, and, later on, visited the temple,
left JwalamoOkhee and it's monkeys be-
hind me, and rode back the same day to
/ don't care il ever see
money again in all my life.
And what about the temple and the fire ?
Well, there was not much to see except
"barbayic pearls and gold" The temple
is large and lofty, certainly, and differs
much from the usual style of Hindoo
temples; it is, however, without any
pretension to architectural beauty and
grandeur. But the constant flames are
really there. There are fissures in the rock
on which the temple is built, especially
in hollow, like a rectangular cistern,
natural or excavated, in the centre of the
temple. These assures are vents for the
escape of natural gas, produced most
probably from vast reservoirs of earth-oils
in the bowels of the hill These Jets of gas,
once set on fire. naturally keep burning
for long spaces of time. Sometimes one jet
fails, and sometimes another, to be re-
kindled when fresh supply of gas has
been accumulated in Natures laboratory
below. When l was there no fewer than
seventeen jets were in active combustion
in various parts of the temple, the greater
number being in the cistern.