[Drives the chariot with great velocity.
KING. [Looking all about him.
Charioteer, even without being told, I should have known that these were the precincts of a grove consecrated to penitential rites.
CHARIOTEER.
How so?
KING.
Do not you observe?
Beneath the trees, whose hollow trunks afford
Secure retreat to many a nestling brood
Of parrots, scattered grains of rice lie strewn.
Lo! here and there are seen the polished slabs
That serve to bruise the fruit of Ingudí[15].
The gentle roe-deer, taught to trust in man,
Unstartled hear our voices. On the paths
Appear the traces of bark-woven vests[16]
Borne dripping from the limpid fount of waters.
And mark!
Laved are the roots of trees by deep canals [17],
Whose glassy waters tremble in the breeze;
The sprouting verdure of the leaves is dimmed
By dusky wreaths of upward curling smoke
From burnt oblations; and on new-mown lawns
Around our car graze leisurely the fawns.