Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/448

392 bid water, rolling silently along, and full half a mile in width. We were hardly able to ford it on horseback. Rain had fallen among the hills farther up, and in a single night, to use an Indian phrase, “the river had come down." This is characteristic of Indian rivers. You may pass a beautiful stream, with the water just wetting the hoofs of your horse, in the morning, and in the afternoon find it an impassable river or a swollen and foaming torrent. In such a case the traveller is compelled often to sit down and quietly wait until “the river has run by.” The rain which has filled the channel with water ceases, and the flood subsides, allowing a renewal of intercourse between the opposite sides of the stream. Where such obstacles are common, a primitive sort of ferry-boat is made by covering a large circular bamboo basket with raw ox-hide. In one of these a dozen persons may embark, and be ferried across with safety by means of a rope stretched from bank to bank.

The natives bringing produce from the interior are often detained for days with their clumsy carts until the waters shall subside. Thus “waiting for the river to run by” in India is no joke, but a sober reality, and one,