The population of Burpetah is estimated at about three thousand souls; their huts are built without any regularity on high artificial mounds of earth, in the centre of gardens of betel nut and plantain trees, clumps of bamboos, cane and grass jungle, mango and other large trees, under the shade of which, impervious to the sun, roads or channels intersect the town in every direction. In the rainy season, these channels, owing to the inundation of the country, are filled with water many feet in depth. Every house, consequently, is provided with one or more canoes, in which the inhabitants visit each other’s isolated positions; and the cattle are brought upon the little eminences at night, and housed oftentimes under the same roof with the family, if not in the same room. Daily may the cattle be seen swimming across these street-streams in search of a dry spot of land on which to graze. In this manner, for four months of each year—June, July, August, and September—are the people surrounded by floods; but, as if endowed with amphibious natures, they seem equally happy in or out of the water, and pass their time on board their boats in trading with other villages throughout Assam. When at home, they amuse themselves during the rainy season in collecting the wood which floats down the rivers, from the destruction of their banks alluded to in the foregoing chapter; and in the sport of catching wild buffaloes, deer, and pigs, which are now seen in great numbers swimming across the rivers from the low inundated grounds to reach more elevated spots on which to subsist: the animals in their passage, being overtaken by canoes, are captured with the aid of ropes and spears, with little difficulty.
1. VAMPIRE OR FOX BAT.
2. TIGER BEETLE OF ASSAM.
3. HERCULES BEETLE OF Do.
W. Wing delt.
London, Smith Elder & Co. 65, Cornhill
At Burpetah there is a very long building supported by wooden posts carved with emblems of Hindoo Deities, with a grass roof and mat walls. It is called a shuster, alias temple; and is a religious endowment, where the vedas or holy books of the Hindoos are chanted, and offerings in kind and cash received. A grant of rent-free land, given by the Assam king Sebsunker, in 1657 A.S. or 1735 A.D. is attached to the temple, and a number of disciples, with two chief priests or pontiffs, manage the affairs of the establishment.
On the trees at Burpetah, great numbers of the Vampire or Fox-bats are to be seen hanging by their claws with their heads downwards. They are offensive looking objects, having a body eleven inches long, and each wing twenty-two inches in length. I have never heard a native assert that they suck the blood of cattle when sleeping, and if it were the case, such a circumstance would certainly be quickly verified; it may therefore justly be inferred, that this is a popular error. It is said that the food of the fox-bat consists entirely of jungle fruits; their flesh is esteemed a delicacy by many natives, and I have frequently shot them to gratify the appetites of my own servants. There is a strange superstition amongst the natives, that the bones of the fox-bat, worn as an amulet or charm, will cure any limb or part of the body affected with pain.
One of the most curious members of the animal (query, vegetable?) world in Assam is the Leaf insect—so called from its very close resemblance in form, colour, and general structure (even to the fibre), to the leaf of the tree which it inhabits. In fact, until the insect moves, it is difficult to distinguish it from the leaf itself. The annexed drawing will convey an idea of this singular freak of nature; many attempts at transmitting a perfect specimen to Europe have been frustrated by the perishable character of the insect. Spirits are entirely inefficacious as preservatives, and camphor destroys the colour of the animal.
1 & 2. LEAF INSECT OF ASSAM (MALE & FEMALE).
3. SAIKNAH CATERPILLAR (BUTTERFLY).