A favorite food is clarified butter, called "ghee," white rancid stuff,
kept in skin bottles to mix with curry.

Water is the general drink, and there could not be a better. Yet there
are intoxicating drinks, and some of the Hindoos have learned to love
them, from seeing the English drink too much. What a sad thing that
Christians should set a bad example to heathens!

PRODUCTIONS.--There are many beautiful trees in India never seen in
England, and many nice fruits never tasted here.

The palm-tree, with its immense leaves, is the glory of India. These
leaves are very useful; they form the roof, the umbrella, the bed, the
plate, and the writing-paper of the Hindoo.

The most curious tree in India is the banyan, because one tree grows into
a hundred. How is that? The branches hang down, touch the ground, strike
root there, and spring up into new trees--joined to the old. Under an
aged banyan there is shade for a large congregation. Seventy thousand men
might sit beneath its boughs.

There is a sort of grass which grows a hundred feet high, and becomes
hard like wood. It is called the bamboo. The stem is hollow like a pipe,
and is often used as a water-pipe. It serves also for posts for houses,
and for poles for carriages.

There are abundance of nice fruits in India; and of these the mangoe is
the best. You might mistake it for a pear when you saw it, but not when
you tasted it. Pears cannot grow in India; the sun is too hot for grapes