[33]. At the point of my descent this was characteristically illustrated by my Rajput friend of Semar, whose domain had been invaded and cow-pens emptied, but a few days before, by the mountain bandit of Sirohi. With their booty they took the shortest and not most practicable road: but though their alpine kine are pretty well accustomed to leaping in such abodes, it would appear they had hesitated here. The difficulty was soon got over by one of the Minas, who with his dagger transfixed one and rolled him over the height, his carcase serving at once as a precedent and a stepping-stone for his horned kindred.
[34]. [“Oldest of all the physical features which intersect the continent is the range of mountains known as the Arāvallis, which strikes across the Peninsula from north-east to south-west, overlooking the sandy wastes of Rājputāna. The Arāvallis are but the depressed and degraded relics of a far more prominent mountain system, which stood, in Palaeozoic times, on the edge of the Rājputāna Sea. The disintegrated rocks which once formed part of the Arāvallis are now spread out in wide red-stone plains to the east” (IGI, i. 1).]
[35]. Near this the Chambal first breaks into the Patar.
[36]. Here is the celebrated pass through the mountains.
[37]. Here the Niwaz breaks the chain.
[38]. Both celebrated passes, where the ranges are very complicated.
[39]. I have rescued a few of these from oblivion to present to my countrymen.
[40]. Hence its name, Vindhya, ‘the barrier,’ to the further progress of the sun in his northern declination. [Skr. root, bind, bid, ‘to divide.’]
[41]. This the fourth Sind of India. We have, first, the Sind or Indus; this little Sind; then the Kali Sind, or ‘black river’; and again the Sind rising at Latoti, on the plateau west and above Sironj. Sin is a Scythic word for river (now unused), so applied by the Hindus. [Skr. Sindhu, probably from the root syand, ‘to flow.’]
[42]. The falls of the Kali Sind through the rocks at Gagraun and the Parbati at Chapra (Gugal) are well worthy of a visit. The latter, though I encamped twice at Chapra, from which it was reputed five miles, I did not see.