These ropes were roots or young trunks from banyan-trees, growing on the ground above, and which came through the cracks in the rocks, and stretched themselves down so as to root in the floor of the cave, and make a lot of underground trunks for the tree above.

The banyan-tree is the most enterprising trunk-maker I ever heard of.
We pulled down a lot of these banyan ropes, some of them more than twenty feet long, to take away as curiosities.

Corny thought it would be splendid to have a jumping-rope made of a banyan root, or rather trunklet.

The banyans here are called wild fig-trees, which they really are, wherever they grow.

There is a big one, not far from the town, which stands by itself, and has a lot of trunks coming down from the branches.