170

FIELD OF CUCUMBERS.

cured the Sunderbund fever. Rhadacant Deb had assured me that no Hindoo ought or would on any account, take spirits, or even any liquid medicine, from the hands of an European. Yet these people were all Hindoos; so that it appears that the fear of death conquers all the rules of superstition, or else that these people in general really care less about the matter than either Europeans, or such bigots as Rhadacant Deb would have us believe.

The river, I should guess, at this place, is about as wide as the Mersey a mile below Liverpool; but its very flat shores make it look wider. The place where we lay was evidently frequented by people who either were frightened, or had recently been so, since there were very many traces of that devotion which originates from a supposed dangerous enterprise. I saw no fewer than three turfbuilt kiblas, for the devotion or thanksgiving of Mohammedans; and a small shed containing the figure of a horse, rudely made of straw plaistered over with clay, which I was at a loss whether to regard as Mohammedan or pagan, since the Mussulmans of this country carry about an image of the horse of Hossein, and pay much honour to that of Khizr. Near it was a small shed of bamboos and thatch, where a man was watching a field of cucumbers, which interested me as being the same custom to which Isaiah alludes in chap. i. ver. 8. I pointed out the coincidence to Abdullah, who was greatly delighted, and observed, after some praises of Isaiah, that surely the old religion of the Brahmins must have had some truth, since they

all, he said, looked forward to an incarnation of Vishnu, on a white horse, to restore the world to happiness. "They only not know," he said, “that Vishnu already incarnate, and that he come again when they mention, on white horse, as they speak;" alluding, as he afterwards explained himself, to the description of Christ in Revelations xix. ver. 11. This man is certainly intelligent, and for his situation in life, extremely well-informed.

And thus we are, literally, in India beyond the Ganges. We have had the mortification, however, of learning that we have come hither too soon, and that our Serang ought to have kept on the western bank till almost opposite Jaffiergunge. Through his ignorance we shall have the greatest strength of the monsoon to contend with to-morrow, instead of having its force broken by a weather-shore, or one which partly answers to that description.

June 30.―This morning we heard a very good account of our patients, and left them with a small stock of bark and wine, enough, I should hope, to set up men who are entirely unaccustomed to any stimulant. We found, unfortunately, but too soon, the difficulty of proceeding on our way to Dacca. The men towed us a few miles with much labour, against a fierce wind, which thumped us every moment with right good-will, on the clay bank,then begged leave to rest,-then to try the middle of the river. To this measure we were much inclined, as the stream we thought would of itself be enough to carry our vessel down, while the wind, (with the driver and jib,) would serve to steady us.

We soon found, however, that the pinnace, from its want of keel, had no guidance or stability in the water; that she neither answered to her helm, nor in the least bore up against the wind; nay, that the stream itself had not so much hold on her shallow construction as the wind had, even when all the sails were down. I urged them to try their oars; but the sea ran so high, and the vessel rolled so much in the middle of the stream, that these too were useless, or nearly so. We tried to regain the shore from which we had parted, but found this difficult, without a very serious loss of ground. Under these circumstances it seemed still adviseable to stretch over to the western bank, which we had prematurely quitted; and accordingly we stood across for the sandy island, which, on our arrival, we found divided by a broad channel. Our Serang was very coolly going to establish himself for the night on the first land which he touched; but I insisted on his, at least, proceeding over the next broad stream, so as to get in a favourable direction for towing next day, and for remaining with a weather-shore during the night. He obeyed, and we at 5 o'clock again took up our quarters on a sandy beach, the very likeness of Southey's Crocodile Island, being pretty nearly the spot where we should have been yesterday evening, had our Serang known where he was. The only interesting occurrence was the capture of a very large and beautiful iguana, or lizard, 2 feet 9 inches long, with five toes on each foot, and a forked tongue, beautifully marked with tyger-like

stripes of yellow and black. It was basking on the river bank, but was no sooner disturbed than it ran into the water, then, seeing the boats, instead of diving, it began to creep up the bank again, when one of the boatmen caught it in a snickle. They were all much afraid of it, and spoke of its bite as poisonous, which, from its appearance, I am little inclined to believe. It did not, indeed, seem to have any teeth at all. Stowe rambled about the island, and waded through a marsh after some widgeons, and shot two; on cutting them up an egg was found in each. This supply will not be unseasonable to our rapidly decreasing larder.

July 1. This morning, the wind being more moderate, we continued our course to the western bank of the river, without any great loss of ground, and then proceeded favourably enough by towing. The river soon became free from islands of any sort, and expanded into the most noble sheet of fresh water I ever saw, I should guess not less than four miles wide. The banks are tolerably high when we are near them, but while we creep along the one, the other is only seen as a long black line on the horizon. Of course, though the view is striking, it is not picturesque, and it would soon weary us, which could hardly be the case with the beautiful Chundna.

I had the delight to-day of hearing again from my wife, and this is worth all the fine scenery in the world.

The fishermen are a finer race here than those in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and their boats

better. They have also large seines, like those on the Hooghly. Yet many circumstances in their equipments are extremely rude. Many have for sail a mat, or cloth, suspended between two bamboos, one on each gunwale, like the New-Zealanders; and one skiff passed us scudding under a yet simpler contrivance, two men standing up in her, and extending each a garment with his feet and hands. I have seen some such representations of Cupids and Venuses on gems, but little thought that the thing had its prototype in real life, and was the practice of any modern boatmen.

The noise of the Ganges is really like the sea. As we passed near a hollow and precipitous part of the bank, on which the wind set full, it told on my ear exactly as if the tide were coming in; and when the moon rested at night on this great, and, as it then seemed, this shoreless extent of water, we might have fancied ourselves in the cuddy of an Indiaman, if our cabin were not too near the water. About half-past five we stood across the river, which ran really high, and washed the decks handsomely, and brought to amid rice, indigo, and sugar-fields, near the native town of Jaffiergunge, and had an interesting walk, though it was too late for a long one. The people were cutting indigo, which they then packed in large bundles, and loaded in boats. It both looked and smelt something like new-made hay, though with rather a stronger flavour. A good deal of wild celery was growing on the bank, which Abdullah said the people of this country boil and eat in large quanti