The babblings of mountain rivers and springs, the sweet notes of winged choristers, the gruntings of elephants, the delicious notes of Kinnaras, and the auspicious voice of ascetics singing the Samans, O hero, and various other kinds of music, made that retreat highly charming. The very imagination cannot conceive another hermitage as charming as the one I saw. There were also large houses in that asylum, intended for the preservation of the sacred fire, and covered all over with flowering creepers.