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the table. At night you enquire the cost. in consequence, never troubled with green-grocers', butchers', or other bills of this description, coming in at Christmas, as everything in the way of food is paid for when ordered; a happy system that would work well at home-benefiting not only the creditor by ready money payments, which would enable him to sell his goods the cheaper, but the debtor, by the pleasing thought of owing no man anything. To return, however, to the dinner-table. It appears to be the great ambition of all dinner-party givers in India to have as many English dishes on the table as possible. The hermetically sealed meats, soups, and confections, that are sent out in tin cases, and principally manufactured in Glasgow for the Indian market, are in high repute in Bombay; and it is curious to sit down and dine upon Scotch salmon, or turbot, as fresh as if but just caught in its native stream; or to partake of a dish of green peas, or carrots, grown in the land of cakes. Green gooseberries,

currants, rhubarb, and other bottled fruits, are much used in pastry, and, though excessively dear, the bazaars are seldom over-stocked, as the very dearness of these articles has made them fashionable. Stilton, and other celebrated cheeses are sent out in lead cases, but soon become dry and hard; and if not carefully watched, fall a prey to creeping things innumerable; even these leaden cases are not always proof against the adamantine teeth of the bandecoote, or country rat, that infests your store-rooms and larders. I

remember being presented with a fragment of oaten cake, a package of which had been sent overland, as a great treat, to some friends in Bombay, though its carriage must have cost, at least, a rupee an ounce. Miniature fountains, playing in crystal basons filled with the choicest flowers, are occasionally seen on the tables of some of the merchant-princes of the East; in fact, every plan that is calculated to cool the atmosphere of their suffocating rooms, is adopted. I have often thought that, if any man in this age of wonders, were fortunate enough to hit upon an invention that would lower the temperature of these heated apartments in the hot season, to 70 or 72 deg., he would make his fortune in twelve months, and be loaded with honours as lasting as those which have been heaped even upon a Nelson, or a Wellington. Man's ingenuity has certainly been put to the test here; and not without some desirable results. He has called in chemistry to his assistance; and attraction and repulsion have been duly investigated. Every known refrigerant has had its day, and even the ice that covers the great American lakes has found its way into the wine-coolers of the AngloIndian. Porous jars of common country-ware, are very well adapted for cooling water. They are generally made of a fine clay, and as they are not glazed, the water slowly percolates through the sides, and the consequent evaporation cools the fluid within. They are commonly suspended by a cane-work handle to the under branch of a tree near your bungalow.

Some cover them, as they do also vessels containing wine, beer, &c., with a bag dipt into a solution of muriate of ammonia, nitrate of potash, salt, and water; thus producing in fact, a freezing mixture. One of the great disputes between the Abdar, (water-cooler,) and his master, turns upon the neglect of this really important duty; for you can drink nothing in India until it has been properly cooled. This cooling process certainly causes no small trouble in a large family, for your servants are constantly losing your cooling bags, and cannot comprehend their utility. Much has been said of Indian hospitality; and, generally speaking, an Englishman is pretty certain of a hearty welcome, when he arrives in the country, if he has the least introduction to any English family in the place; and this may account, in some manner, for the absence of boarding-houses in Bombay; as there is only one that has the least pretensions to that name in the Fort: I believe this is the case in Calcutta. Captains of vessels usually sleep on board their ships in harbour; and cadets and officers, upon landing in India, have quarters immediately provided for them; so it is only the unknown adventurer who feels the want of an hotel, when cast lonely upon the ancient shores of Hindostan.

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CHAPTER VII.

"Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield;
The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;
Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise."

How Englishmen lose caste. Expense of Palanquins and travelling. Hindoo gentlemen. Variety of characters. Religious rank and distinction. Feasts and festivals. Bagabatee and Doorga. Native holidays. Kartek and Ganesh. The fate of a Goddess. Infant betrothments. The mystic fire. Frightful monstrosities. The darkness of the Hindoos. Peep at the Esplanade. Tents of the Commander-in-Chief. Bands of music. Portable houses. Singular wandering people. A drunken English sailor, his fate. Disadvantages of living in tents. The power of a hungry musquitoe. Tipula Plumicornis. The prayers on the sea shore. Arabian Jew. Devout Parsees. England's ten talents. What can we do individually. Have we done our duty to India. Worthy bishops. The Presidency of Bombay. Its extent and population. Mount Meru, &c., &c.

PECUNIARY circumstances would not always admit of my keeping a tattoo, or palanquin, so my out-door exercise depended, in a great measure, upon the use I might make of my own legs; and though it is thought extremely vulgar to be seen walking anywhere, and

you are supposed to lose caste by the first offence of this kind perpetrated in public, yet was I vulgar enough to walk every day; and truly if we allow such trifling matters as these to disturb our happiness, we can expect but a sorry pilgrimage in the vale through which all of us must wend our way. Few can form an idea what enormous sums of money are annually expended in India in palanquin hire alone, by people who are fearful of being thought poor, or are too proud to walk short distances. I remember one individual, whose salary was only eighty rupees a month, and out of which he actually paid twenty to be carried half a mile twice a-day, to and from his place of business, by four bearers. My poverty in this case was, perhaps, an advantage to me; for, gentle reader, I am not ashamed to confess, that I was poor in India; it gave me a better opportunity of extending my knowledge of the country, and of observing the national character of the people, with whom it was my lot to be mixed up in their daily avocations, and of studying the habits and customs of this large portion of the great human family, now living under the happy rule of Great Britain. There is something extremely pleasing and winning in the natives. The Hindoo gentleman is polite, affable, and agreeable, though to those unaccustomed to Oriental salutations, his address may at times rather savour of servility. He entertains a high opinion of the English. His dress is very plain and simple, consisting of a close-fitting

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