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INDIAN FARM-YARD.

yard and homestead. In front was a small mud building, with a thatched verandah looking towards the village, and behind was a court filled with coconut husks, and a little rice straw; in the centre of this was a round thatched building, raised on bamboos about a foot from the ground, which they said was a "Goliah," or granary; round it were small mud cottages, each to all appearance an apartment in the dwelling. In one corner was a little mill, something like a crab-mill, to be worked by a man, for separating the rice from the husk. By all which we could see through the open doors, the floor of the apartments was of clay, devoid of furniture and light, except what the door admitted. A Brahmin now appeared, a formal pompous man, who spoke better Hindoostanee than the one whom we had seen before. I was surprised to find that in these villages, and Mr. Mill tells me that it is the case almost all over India, the word "Grigi," a corruption of "Ecclesia," is employed when speaking of any place of worship. Most of these people looked unhealthy. Their village and its vicinity appeared to owe their fertility to excessive humidity under a burning sun. Most of the huts were surrounded by stagnant water; and near the entrance of one of them they shewed us a little elevated mound like a grave, which they said was their refuge when the last inundation was at its height. So closely and mysteriously do the instruments of production and destruction, plenty and pestilence, life and death, tread on the heels of each other!

Besides tamarinds, cocos, palmiras, plantains,

MALDIVIAN VESSELS.

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and banyans, there were some other trees of which we could not learn the European name. One was the neem, a tree not very unlike the acacia, the leaves of which are used to keep moths from books and clothes. Another I supposed to be manchineel,—a tree like a very large rhododendron, but now without flowers; its thick club-ended branches, when wounded, exuded a milky juice in large quantities, which the natives said would blister the fingers. We saw one jackall run into the woods : the cries of these animals grew loud and incessant as we returned to the ship, and so nearly resembled the voice of children at play, that it was scarcely possible at first to ascribe them to any other source. On our arrival at the vessel we found two "Bholiahs," or large row boats, with convenient cabins, sent to take us up the river, as it was impossible, with such light winds, for the yacht to stem the force of the current.

October 10.-At 2 o'clock this afternoon, we set out for Calcutta in the bholiahs, and had a very delightful and interesting passage up the river, partly with sails and partly with oars. The country, as we drew nearer the capital, advanced in population; and the river was filled with vessels of every description. Among these, I was again greatly struck by the Maldivian vessels, close to some of which our boat passed. Their size appeared to me from 150 to near 200 tons, raised to an immense height above the water by upper works of split bamboo, with very lofty heads and sterns, immense sails, and crowded with a wild and energetic

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APPROACH TO CALCUTTA.

looking race of mariners, who Captain Manning told me were really bold and expert fellows, and the vessels better sea-boats than their clumsy forms would lead one to anticipate. Bengalee and Chittagong vessels, with high heads and sterns, were also numerous. In both these the immense size of the rudders, suspended by ropes to the vessel's stern, and worked by a helmsman raised at a great height above the vessel, chiefly attracted attention. There were many other vessels, which implied a gradual adoption of European habits, being brigs and sloops, very clumsily and injudiciously rigged, but still improvements on the old Indian ships. Extensive plantations of sugar-cane, and numerous cottages resembling those we had already seen, appeared among the groves of coco-nut and other fruit-trees, which covered the greater part of the shore; a few cows were tethered on the banks, and some large brick-fields with sheds like those in England, and here and there a white staring European house, with plantations and shrubberies, gave notice of our approach to an European capital. At a distance of about nine miles from the place where we had left the yacht, we landed among some tall bamboos, and walked near a quarter of a mile to the front of a dingy, deserted looking house, not very unlike a country gentleman's house in Russia, near some powder mills; here we found carriages waiting for us, drawn by small horses with switch tails, and driven by postillions with whiskers, turbans, bare legs and arms, and blue jackets with tawdry yellow lace.

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CALCUTTA PEONS, OR HURKARUS; AND SAEES, OR GROOM.

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