sequence of the other; and for the last I have no remedy, now that I have neither secretary nor assistant, and have so much of my day taken up by travelling and the necessary preparations for travelling. Lushington and Arcdeacon Corrie were considerable helps to me in writing, &c. but I do not know that their presence at all forwarded my progress in Hindoostanee.

December 14.-This day's march was ten coss, to a small and poor village named Muhaisna; where we had some difficulty in obtaining supplies, and found the ryuts disposed to grumble and be uncivil. One of the men, who was fiercest and loudest, was a remarkable tall and fine-looking young man, with a silver bracelet of a singular form on his arm, which struck me from its classical character, being two ser pents twined together. They complained that hay had been taken without paying for it, which did not appear to have been the case; and at last the principal farmer of the village owned that their outcries were from fear of what would be taken, rather than from any mischief which my people had already done.

In our way we passed through the outskirts of Amroah, a considerable town, with some neat mosques and extensive gardens, with walls and summer-houses, and surrounded with large plantations of sugar and cotton. The generality of the country, however, is poor, sterile, and ill-inhabited, with more waste land than is usual in India. The sown land, too, appeared suffering extremely from drought, which, indeed, is the case with all Rohilcund.

The station of Muhaisna was a bad one in another respect. The only grove of trees was on a broken piece of ground intersected with gullies, and so overgrown with weeds that the tents could not be pitched there; and I was obliged to encamp on the plain near two fine peepul trees, which, however, were by no means sufficient for the comfort of the people, and the numerous animals of our cofila. The groves of fruit trees are the surest marks, I think, of prosperity about an Indian village; and in this part of Rohilcund their rarity, and, generally speaking, their insignificant size, show that the land is either naturally almost irreclaimable, or that, lying near the Ganges, and the frontier exposed to the usual stream of invasion, the country has not recovered the horrors of that time, when the Maharatta was their near and triumphant neighbour. A strong proof of the recollection which the calamities of that time has left behind is, that when the people of Bareilly were informed not long since that the money raised by internal duties was to be laid out for the improvement of their town, they expressed a general wish that their walls

might be repaired. On asking "what enemies they feared?" they replied that all was quiet at the moment, but they could not tell but the Maharattas might one day return.

I had more applications to-day for medicine, and, putting worrying in place of beating, found I was in as fair a way to be forced into considering myself an able physician as Sgagnarelle, in the Medecin malgre lui. The sepoy declared himself quite well; which emboldened one of his comrades to complain of being feverish; and a ryut, hearing the application, came forward also to beg something for sore eyes. He was not, however, content with my medical aid, for immediately afterwards he said in a low tone that a man had been killed in the village of which he was thannadar, and he should get into trouble unless I stood his friend!

The weather was so cool and cloudy that I hoped rain was coming; I did not indeed wish for a decided fall before I got into Meerut, yet even this I would have gladly borne, to see the poor dry clods moist and hopeful.

December 15.-This morning we came, a march of eight coss to a village named Tighree. Half-way we passed another village named Gujrowlie, with a tolerable serai, where one of my horses had been sent on before to give me the advantage of a change, as usual in Indian travelling. The country thus far was cultivated, not well, nor fully, but still there were marks of cultivation, though every thing was grievously parched for want of rain. The remainder of the distance lay through a desolate tract, once evidently well inhabited, as was apparent by the few palm-trees scattered up and down, but now, and probably for many years, waste and overgrown with high grass-jungle.

Tighree itself is a poor place, a small village, with a few patches of corn round it, in the midst of the wilderness, without any tree, except one or two scattered palms, and scarcely space enough between the young wheat and the jungle to admit of our encampment. The day was hot, and the people and animals suffered a good deal for want of shade, added to which, all our supplies were to come from Gurmukteser, a distance of three coss, so that it was almost noon before either grass for the horses, or fuel or food for the men arrived, and much later before the poor camels and elephants got their boughs. The jemautdar, however, and tusseldar of Gurmukteser, were civil, and, at length, furnished us with every thing, except that the kid which they sent had the rot and was uneatable. There was no fire-wood in the neighbourhood, but the tusseldar sent a cart-load of dungcakes, and would take no repayment, saying it was no more than dustoor. There was little to tempt me out here, and it VOL. I.

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was more from dustoor, than any thing else, that I walked in the evening to see the village, which I found neat, though small and poor. The cottages in Upper India have generally the mud walls of their front white-washed, and a rude painting of flowers or some figures of men, animals, or divinities, painted on each side of their doors, a circumstance which I never remarked in Bengal or Bahar, and which has a lively and agreeable effect. They have also, generally, on one side of this door, a small platform of clay beaten hard, raised about a foot and swept very clean, on which the family usually sit in the cool of the day, and where at such times their spinning and other household works are carried on.

The jemautdar of Gurmukteser, who accompanied me in this walk, said that the Ganges, at present, was distant about two coss; but that during the rains it came up close to this village. He said that Tighree and the jungles round it were celebrated as hunting-ground all over this part of India; that there was great abundance of wild hogs, deer, and all other animals except elephants. These require a deeper forest and large trees, both for shelter and nourishment. I asked if there were many tigers. He said plenty; but that there was a very wonderful thing in the neighbourhood; that there were two Hindoo Yogis, who lived in different cells in the wilderness, about two coss from the village, in opposite directions, of whom the one was never hurt by the tigers though living in the neighbourhood where they most abounded, and where no other man would pass a night for half Rohilcund; while, to the other, a tiger actually came every night and licked his hands; and fondled and lay by him for hours. At first, from my imperfect knowledge of the language, I fancied it was the same sort of story which I had heard concerning the saint's tomb at Sicligully; but on asking if it was where the Yogi was buried, he explained himself very clearly, that the saint was still alive,-that he was very old, and went quite naked, with a long white beard and hair, that his dwelling was a little hut among the long grass, not far from the road-side, in the way to Gurmukteser, and that there were people who had been there at night and seen him and his tiger together. He added that he lived by charity, but never asked for any thing except he was actually hungry, which was seldom the case, as, from his high reputation, he was generally supplied. I asked the jemautdar if he had seen the tiger. He answered "No, because he had never been there at night, but that there was no doubt of the fact." I asked "If I were to go there now, (it was growing dusk,) should I see him?" He answered that I might have done so, if the holy man had been at home,

but that he had gone the day before to Amroah, and that I must have passed him on the road. In fact, the saees who had been sent on to Gujrowlie, said that he had seen a very remarkable old man, answering to the description given, seated in a corner of the serai at that place. The jemautdar was a Mussulman, and had no motive for swelling the praises of a Hindoo saint, so that I have little doubt that he himself believed what he told me, nor, indeed, do I think the fact impossible, or even improbable. Similar stories are told of hermits in Syria, whose cells have been frequented by lions; and a lion I should conceive to be as formidable a chum as a tiger; and it certainly is not unlikely that a man, with no other occupation or amusement, might very thoroughly tame a tiger's whelp, so as to retain a hold on its affections, and to restrain it, while in his presence, from hurting others, even after it had arrived at its full growth and fierceness. Every animal is, cæteris paribus, fiercer when tied up or confined; yet the great tiger at Barrackpoor would, I have no doubt, allow his keeper to sleep in the same den with him; in a wilderness abounding with hogs and deer, there would be little risk of the tiger's coming home so hungry as to be tempted to attack his friend; and the principal danger of the devotee would be from the rough fondling of his pet when he was two-thirds grown. As to the supposed safety of the rival saint, that I conceive to be merely luck, added to the fact that, except a tiger be provoked, or much pressed by hunger, or have once tasted human flesh, it seems pretty certain that he seldom attacks a man.

The poor sepoy to whom I had given medicine the day before, and who was this morning reported much better, was again attacked with fever at night. I gave him a rather stronger dose than before, but by no means felt easy about him.

I am not sure whether I mentioned in their proper place two curious facts which were told me in Kemaoon respecting the forests and their productions. The one is, that fires often take place in the jungles during the dry season, by the mere friction of the cane stalks against each other in high winds. This was first told me by the Raja Gooman Singh, and it was confirmed, at least as being the usual opinion of the people, by Mr. Traill and Sir R. Colquhoun. A scene of this sort, and arising from this cause, is described in Leyden's Scenes of Infancy, but I had always, till now, supposed that the poet's fancy, rather than his reading, had been his prompter here. The other is, that the Boa Constrictor is frequently found, particularly in the wood between Bamoury and Dikkalee, under the immediate feet of the hills. These snakes are of enormous size, but not much feared by

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ELEPHANTS SWIMMING.

the natives, since though they have, in their opinion, sufficient strength to master a buffalo, they are proportionably unwieldy. Many stories are told here, as in Surinam, of persons stepping on them by mistake for fallen trees, and being terrified on finding them alive.

December 16.-From Tighree to the ferry of the Ganges is about three coss, all wild jungle. Half-way we passed the hermitage of the tiger-saint, a little cottage almost buried in long grass, but both larger and more apparently comfortable, than, from the jemautdar's description, I had expected. We now took leave of the noble Ganges, not again to see it till our return by sea to Saugor Island. Even here, at this distance from the sea, and in almost the driest season of the year, it is a great and mighty river, not far short, as I think, of the Thames at Westminster bridge. During the rains it must, judging from its traces on both sides, be nearly four miles across. I had frequently asked military men whether the Ganges was any way fordable after it left the hills, and had, as usual in India, received contradictory and unsatisfactory answers, but the impression left on my mind was, that it was fordable both at Gurmukteser and Anopshehr. On asking the jemautdar and ferrymen, however, they all agreed that there was no ford in its whole course. Here there certainly was not; since, as the boats could not receive our elephants, and they tried to wade through, even they were in the middle of the stream, compelled to swim, a sight which I was not at all sorry to have an opportunity of seeing. All three could swim, which was fortunate, as this is not always the case with them. I did not think that the one which I remarked, sank so deep in the water as had been described, to me; or as the elephant is represented as doing in Captain Williamson's print.

In the course of this day's march, a circumstance occurred which proves, I think, how much the people of this country look up to the English for help and counsel in all emergencies. I was going along a jungly piece of road, for all this day's march as well as yesterday's was more or less jungly, when I saw a little cluster of travellers of the lower class surrounding somebody on the ground. As soon as they saw me they immediately ran up, saying, that one of their friends was sick, and they begged me to look at him and give him medicine. The man, as it turned out, had only a little colic, which was well before my physic chest arrived to enable me to give him medicine. But what struck me, was the immediate impulse which led these men to suppose, on seeing a European riding along the road, that he was likely to help and advise them! Surely, if this opinion is general, it must be one of the best holds we have on our Indian empire.