under the boats, whence they had not strength to recover themselves. Two dervises, strange antic figures, in manycoloured patched garments, with large wallets, begged of us to-day. I gave a trifle to the elder, a venerable old man, who raised his hand with much dignity and prayed for me. At Bar, where I dined, is an old ruined house, with some little appearance of a palace, once the residence of the Jemautdar of the district, under the Mahommedan government. We brought to about half-past six near an indigo-field, which filled my cabin with bugs. The night was very hot and close. August 19.-Another intensely hot day, but made bearable by a breeze. I found a young scorpion in my cabin this morning among my books. It seems to prove that such pests are not so common in India as is often supposed, that I have now been ten months in the country without seeing more; and that, though I have walked a good deal, and never particularly avoided places where such things are to be looked for, I have only seen one cobra de capello. I had supposed scorpions to be black, and was surprised to-day to see an animal white and almost transparent. The pinnace got aground in passing from the chain of nullahs and jeels which we entered yesterday, into the main river, and we were obliged to call in the assistance of some fishermen to help her off; they laboured hard for near an hour, and were grateful for a gratuity of two pice; they were nine in number, besides a Brahmin, who came down from a village while we were just getting disengaged, and extending a basket full of scarlet flowers, applied for a thank-offering to his god, in consideration of our escape from danger. I thought he was merely asking for alms, not quite hearing what he said, but Abdullah explained his meaning. However, he had obtained his request. Our halting-place was on a pleasant open shore, opposite to Futwa, but still short of Patna. The country round is bare of wood, but well cultivated and very populous: the land laid out in alternate patches of grass-fallow, covered with cows, buffaloes, and swine, and fields of millet and Indian corn, among which appear also some patches of the castor-oil plant, which, now that the coco-nut is no longer found, is the usual supply for their lamps. I walked about a good deal, the evening being pleasant, and was much interested. The buffaloes were all buried in the water, scarcely shewing more than their noses and horns above its surface, but as the sun went down they came out, sleek, black, and glossy; too wild and timorous to suffer an European to approach them, but shewing no degree of fierceness. The pigs are small, black, and shaggy, of a very wild appearance. At the nearest village to which I walked were two or three cottages, which, though mere hovels of mud and thatch, yet from the size of their out-buildings, and the treading of many cattle all round them, I should conceive were really the residences of toler HINDOO FARMER. 311 ably wealthy farmers. One of these, an old man, was threshing out a small kind of millet, by driving oxen over it round and round in a circle. They were just leaving off work as I came up, and a hind was bringing a large bundle of green Indiancorn, weeded from the thick crop, for their provender. I observed, however, that the animals, during their previous employment, were not muzzled, according to the Scriptural rule, at the same time that they were kept so constantly moving that a few mouthfuls were all that they could get. While I was examining this heap of grain, and asking the old man some questions, his cows came up for the evening, and I pleased him exceedingly, when the cowman ran forward to beat them from my path, by forbidding him to strike them. "Good! good!" he said, with an air indicative of much satisfaction, 66 one must not beat cows." It seems to me that the tender mercies of the Hindoos towards animals are exhausted on cows only; for oxen they have no pity, they are treated with much severity, but I have not here seen them shew such marks of cruelty as those near Calcutta. Comfortable, on the whole, as this village seemed, many of the houses must soon be rendered uninhabitable, if, as seems by no means impossible from present appearances, the river rises a single cubit higher. Their round granaries, however, are all raised considerably above the other buildings, and must, I should suppose, be tolerably safe. When I asked what was to become of the others if the river rose, the answer was, they hoped it would not rise more - than a few inches higher, which would be sufficient for their fields, without starving their cattle. Futwa, which was directly opposite to us, is a large and ancient town, on a river for which the people of the town seem to have no other name than" Futwa kee Nuddee." Futwa is famous for a very long and handsome old bridge, (an object of some rarity in India) and a college of Mussulman law and divinity, the Moulavies of which are widely renowned. The night was very cool and pleasant. August 20.-We arrived at the south-east extremity of Patna about nine o'clock; it is a very great, and from the water at some little distance, a very striking city, being full of large buildings, with remains of old walls and towers, and bastions projecting into the river, with the advantage of a high rocky shore, and considerable irregularity and elevation of the ground behind it. On a nearer approach, we find, indeed, many of the houses whose verandahs and terraces are striking objects at a distance, to be ruinous; but still in this respect, and in apparent prosperity, it as much exceeds Dacca as it falls short of it in the beauty and grandeur of its ruins. As we approached, I proposed slacking sail to give the Corries time to come up, but Mohammed said that opposite the old castle was one of the most rapid and difficult passages of the river between Hurdwar and Saugor, and that if we did not use the fine wind we now had, we might be kept for weeks. We, therefore, proceeded along this noble expanse of water, which I really think grows wider instead of narrower as we advance, and which here between wind and stream, was raised into waves little less than those which the Mersey sometimes exhibits below Liverpool; my boat for this sort of service is really a very fine one. At the eastern extremity of Patna is a large wood of palms and fruit-trees, pointed out to me as the gardens belonging to a summer palace, built and planted by the Nawâb Jaffier Ali Khân. They are renowned for their beauty and extent, being two or three miles in circuit. We also passed a large and dilapidated palace, which had been the residence of the late Nawâb of Patna, Abbas Kouli Khân, a splendid and popular person; he left no successor, but his nearest heirs are two very intelligent young men, who are said to hold some lucrative employment under the English Government, and to be much in its confidence. The houses of the rich natives which we passed, pretty much resemble those of Calcutta. They have, however, the advantage of immediately abutting on the river, and I saw one which, beneath its Corinthian superstructure, had a range of solid buildings of the Eastern Gothic, with pointed arches and small windows, containing a suite of apartments almost on a level with the water, uninhabitable, I should suppose, from damp during this season, but which must be coolness itself during the hot winds. The continued mass of buildings extends about four miles along the river, when it changes into scattered cottages and bungalows, interspersed with trees, till some more large and handsome buildings appear about three miles fur |