Eveena, however, quickly undeceived
me, pointing out the prevalence of certain plants peculiar to the
cultivated pastures we had seen in the plain. These were so
predominant as to leave no reasonable doubt that they had been
originally sown by the hand of man, though the irregularity of their
arrangement, and the encroachment of one species upon the ground of
another, enabled my companion to prove to me with equal clearness that
since its first planting the pasture had been entirely neglected. It
was, she thought, worth planting once for all with the most nutritious
herbage, but not worth the labour of subsequent close cultivation. Any
lady belonging to a civilised people, and accustomed to a country
life, upon Earth might easily have perceived all that Eveena
discovered; but considering how seldom the latter had left her home,
how few opportunities she had to see anything of practical
agriculture, the quickness of her perception and the correctness of
her inferences not a little surprised me. The path we pursued led
directly to the object of our visit. The waters of the higher hills
were collected in a vast tank excavated in an extensive plateau at the
mid-level.
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