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Other interesting points relating to the great lily growing in the Himalayan lake, Karl had mentioned from time to time to his companions: for he knew that the Nelumbium speciosum was the celebrated Pythagorean bean mentioned in the writings of the Greeks more especially by Herodotus and Theophrastes.
Clearing our way through a row of tall swamp weeds, Zizania aquatica, Scirpus lacustris, Scirpus pungens, among which the white flowers of Sparganium ramosum and Sagittaria variabilis are conspicuous, we steer into a large inlet entirely covered with the broad leaves of the Nymphaea odorala and the Nelumbium luteum, of which the former waves its beautiful flower on the surface of the river, while the latter, the queen, in fact, of the waters, proudly raises her magnificent crown upon a perpendicular footstalk.
Brown had shot nine geese, and our fox hunters returned with forty-four of the small species. When the natives became hungry, they ate the lower part of the leaf-stalks of Nelumbium, after stripping off the external skin.
They might draw from the waters, which cover a very small part of the fertile valley, fish enough to support, with the nelumbium nuts, nearly the whole of the present population; but then they are lotus-eaters, and as such improvident and indolent by all rules of poetry and legend. Srinagar has been likened to Venice.
They threw a great number of them over to us, and I could not help making a rather ridiculous comparison of our situation, and our hosts, with that of the English ambassador in China, who was treated also with Nelumbium by its rich Mandarins. The natives seemed to speak a less melodious language, which might be ascribed to the mountainous character of their country.
The flowers of the Nelumbium speciosum when in full bloom, give out a most fragrant odour somewhat resembling that of anise; while the seeds, shaped like acorns, have a flavour equal in richness and delicacy to that of the finest almonds. It was not upon that occasion that Karl communicated to his companions all these interesting facts in relation to the great lily.
They spoke a language entirely different from that of the natives of Darling Downs, but "yarrai" still meant water. Charley, who conversed with them for some time, told me that they had informed him, as well as he could understand, that the Mackenzie flowed to the north-east. Brown found an empty seed-vessel of the Nelumbium, in their camp.
There was also a splendid water-lily with very broad leaves and large flowers of pink and white colour the seeds and the stalks of which Karl knew to be edible; as he had read of their being used for this purpose by the poorer people in the country of Cashmeer. The lily in question, viz. the Nelumbium speciosum, grows plentifully in the lakes of the far-famed valley so named.
The prouder Nelumbium, a second-cousin, lineal descendant of the sacred bean of Pythagoras, keeps aloof, through pride, not humility, and dwells, like a sturdy democrat, in the Far West. But, undisturbed, the water-lily keeps her fragrant court, with few attendants.
With these facts fresh in his memory, Karl conjectured that the water-hens seen by him and his companions were supported on a similar pedestal, and playing themselves on a like platform. His conjecture proved correct: for on visiting the place shortly after, the broad orbicular leaves of the Nelumbium speciosum were perceived almost as large as those of their South American congener.
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