FESTIVAL OF JUNMA OSMEE.

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walking home in her wet clothes without fear of catching cold. The ancient Greeks had, I am convinced, the same custom, since otherwise the idea of wet drapery would hardly have occurred to their statuaries, or, at least, would not have been so

common.

: We again brought to about seven o'clock, by a field just ploughed ready for the rising inundation; we are now not quite half-way from Monghyr to Patna. The women here are still more adorned with trinkets than those in Bengal. Besides the silver bracelets, their arms are covered with rings of a hard kind of sealing-wax which looks like coral, and another ornament either of silver or bright steel is common, in shape something like a perforated discus; it is worn above the elbow.

August 18.-This morning, after leaving the nullah, we proceeded with a fine breeze, along the left-hand bank of the river, which is very fertile and populous, with a constant succession of villages, whose inhabitants were all washing themselves and getting on their best attire, it being the Hindoo festival of Junma Osmee.

The day was a very brilliant one, and, though hot, rendered supportable by the breeze, while the whole scene was lively and cheerful,-all the shops having their flags hoisted,-little streamers being spread by most of the boats which we passed, and a larger banner and concourse of people being displayed at a small pagoda under the shade of some noble peepul and tamarind-trees.

The river is all this time filled with boats of the

most picturesque forms; the peasants on the bank have that knack of grouping themselves, the want of which I have heard complained of in the peasantry of England. Two novel circumstances were seen this morning; the one the appearance of considerable herds of swine, of a small kind resembling the Chinese breed, which were grazing near most of the villages; the other a system of planting tara-palms in the trunks of decayed peepul-trees. The first which I saw I supposed had been sown there by accident; but I soon found that the practice was frequent, and that the peepul thus treated had generally the greater part of its branches, and all the top cut away to favour the intruding plant, which stands as if it were in a rude flower-pot. The hollow part of the tree must, I suppose, be previously filled with earth. A very excellent fence is thus obtained for the young tara-plant; but I conclude that they are not Hindoos who thus mangle and violate the sacred tree of Siva.

Towards noon the banks became again, though not rocky, high and precipitous, and full of holes for the muenas' nests. We are fortunate in having a breeze, for the towing here would be dangerous, the bank being crumbling and undermined, and the stream flowing with great rapidity. A friend of Mr. Corrie's had two dandees drowned in this place last month. I was astonished when he told me this, since it seemed almost as possible to drown an alligator as men of their habits. I was answered, however, that the poor fellows were worn out with towing, and that the current washed them

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 Mohammedan 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