tween 6 and 8 o'clock over the indigo grounds, and all the natives I passed on the road stooped with their heads to the earth, until I passed them. The females ran and hid themselves at my approach. A native, who came to ask a favour, commenced kissing my foot until I ordered him off. I have hired my establishment of household servants. I have a steward, a cook, two lacqueys, a gardener, a cow boy, and a chamber-maid. I am allowed in addition by my employer a chokeedar, or watchman, and two ostlers, making my compliment of servants amount to ten individuals, most of whom are Mahometans.

2d January. I was walking over a ploughed field this morning when I nearly stepped upon a snake. It was the first snake I had met with in the fields. I called up one of the natives, who told me it was a cobra de capello, or hooded snake, which is one of the most venomous snakes in all India. The reptile was asleep: my servant got a long piece of bamboo and struck it over the head until he killed it; when it received the first blow it raised its hood, which was marked black and white, something like spectacles in appearance; it hissed and thrust out its tongue, and made a dart in the direction in which I stood.

6th January. used from her infancy to live sequestered in her native village, is excessive. I came accidentally upon one of them to-day, while she was engaged grinding corn; she had cast off the cotton drapery from her breasts and shoulders, and as her back was towards me, I was close upon her before she observed me; she had evidently never seen a white face before, for she fixed her dark eyes upon me for an instant, and then bounded into the jungle like a hunted deer, scarcely touching the ground with her delicate feet.

The timidity of a Hindoo girl,

CHAPTER III.

"Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crown'd,

Where the dark scorpion gathers death around:
Where, at each step, the stranger fears to wake
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake."

10th January. The servants all leave the house as soon as I go to bed, which is generally about nine o'clock: the only person near is the Chokeedar, whose duty it is to watch at the door during the night. Sleep rarely visits my couch till midnight: the insufferable heat, and the buzzing of the musquitoes, together with a combination of dismal sounds, among which may be mentioned the croaking of frogs, the crying of jackals, the mournful howling of a thousand Pariah dogs, and the flapping of the wings of the bats and owls, which nightly fly round the roof of my bedchamber, all

conspire to keep me awake. At 4 P. M. a Faquir, nearly naked, came to the door and asked alms; he was covered over with ashes, and a rope coiled round his waist; his hair was matted in locks over his shoulders; he appeared to have an insolent air, and when I refused to give him any thing, went away muttering a curse between his teeth.

25th January. A great many Brahminee Bulls infest the country, and are dangerous to meet on the road, as they are sometimes very furious. Those bulls are turned loose by the Hindoos. When a Hindoo of a high caste dies, it is the custom for his descendants to turn loose one of those animals to bear away, as they allege, the sins of the deceased. They allow them to wander whereever they choose; and many of them are very old. When a Hindoo loses caste, he is said to be virtually dead; he is dead in the affections of his relatives, and he is dead in law, for the next heir succeeds to his property, as if he were actually dead. Under such a state of things, it is not surprising that beautiful young widows offer themselves up as a sacrifice to be burned on the funeral-pile of their deceased husbands, rather than drag out a miserable life in a state of hopeless degradation.

7th February. My cook did not make his appearance to prepare breakfast. I sent to inquire

the reason, and learned that the poor fellow had lost his wife. A cobra de capello had crept into the mat where he and his wife were sleeping, and bit her on the cheek; she only survived a few hours. This is not an uncommon occurrence here; the poor natives are more liable to be bitten by the snakes than Europeans, as, from their requiring to be abroad on errands after nightfall, they often tread upon them in the dark. These rep

tiles are consequently a constant source of terror and annoyance to them.

25th February. I have heard from the natives a fearful account of gangs of murderers, called Thuggs, who infest the different provinces of India. Those miscreants are sometimes privately tolerated by the Zemindars, who, in return, share in their gains. Thuggs, like the jackals, hunt for their victims in packs: they enlist under a leader of superior intelligence and learning, and they go about like the destroying angel, decoying human beings. to destruction. They have a code of laws to govern them, and they offer sacrifices to the Goddess Kali, and are great observers of omens. A dreadful oath is administered to each person on his admission into the gang, and the Goor, or consecrated sugar, is eaten by the new made Thugg. A band of Thuggs is divided into several parties, who have distinct