angles like an American town, lay along sandy roads, cactus-bordered and for the most part under the shadow of great trees. On the right was a range of hills crowned with white-walled castles. We met processions of women walking into the town carrying on their heads loads of fuel, composed chiefly of dung, which would have been better disposed of if dug into the land. It is their poverty, not their will, consents. Fuel is scarce and dear, and this artificial compost serves its purpose. We saw on the hill-side men and women engaged in its preparation, spreading it out to dry in the sun.

We passed our elephant on the way from the palace grunting discontentedly at this necessity for turning out in broiling midday to compliment the foreigner. Further acquaintance confirmed the opinion of his strong individuality. He knelt down at the signal from his driver, and we climbed up on his back by a ladder. There was no partially enclosed and canopied howdah as is represented in popular pictures of elephant-riding, only a kind of pack saddle, whereon we sat sideways, with feet dangling down and full opportunity of slipping off. This is the usual way of riding in this district, the elephant furnishing the "outside car" of India. Our elephant was rather artistically got up, both

his forehead and the enormous flaps of his ears being painted in blue and red patterns. The motion was by no means pleasant under the hot sun. There was never any mistake when he put his foot down. I found that, to begin with, half an hour of an elephant is enough. But our journey there and back involved a ride of an hour and a half.

The elephant had brought with him a copious supply of water which he tanked somewhere in his stupendous chops. Every ten minutes, or oftener if he met a camel, he inserted his trunk in the reservoir and brought out about a gallon of water, with which, waving his trunk to and fro, he splashed his chest and the front of his fore legs, a refreshing gust of spray rising up for the delectation of his "fare." We met many camels, which involved lavish draughts on the reservoir; but it was equal to the calls upon it, and certainly lasted all the way back. The camels were terribly afraid of the monster, the supreme "don't-knowyah" air with which they passed through the town, being changed at sight of the elephant for one that may be described as "rather-notknow-yah." They invariably halted and cringed up to the hedge at the side of the road, as Hindoos fresh from bathing in the Ganges flatten themselves against the wall when a Christian passes.

Some of them sobbed in their fright. As for the elephant, he vastly enjoyed himself, grunting with terrible import and emptying his tank with increased energy as the camels' knees shook and their piteous sighs broke forth. I believe it was all a joke, and that he liked to frighten them, enjoying the spectacle of their abject terror. The driver sat astride the elephant's neck, armed with a kind of kitchen poker, hooked at one end, pointed at the other. When the elephant became too demonstrative this poker was brought down on his skull with resounding whack.

"Did a leaf fall?" Thor murmured, drowsily turning over on his side when the earthly giant, catching the god asleep, smote him on the forehead with a bludgeon wielded with all his strength.

When the kitchen poker came down on the elephant's skull his snorting and watering were interrupted by a moment of reflection. He seemed to come to the conclusion that a twig had fallen on his head, of itself not much, but it might presage the tumbling of a whole branch. He therefore concluded to be quiet and watch. But as certain as a camel appeared his propensity for practical joking overcame his caution. There was more grunting, a fresh shower, renewed terror among the

camels, then more kitchen poker, and the reascendancy of caution.

After climbing some distance over a hilly road, sometimes provokingly dropped down on the other side of a crest, we came to the outskirts of the deserted city, the Futtipore Sikri of the Rajahs of Jeypore. The houses are for the most part lofty and commodious, rather palaces than hovels. They are partly inhabited by families who do not seem of the class able to pay rent. It is a steep climb to the castle, through narrow tortuous streets, overshadowed by peepul trees, from the boughs of which monkeys jabbered at us as we passed. There is nothing specially beautiful about the palace except its situation. It stands on a crest, girdled with ruin-crowned hills. From the terrace there is a view, through a gap, showing a far-away plain, all yellow in the sunlight. Within, the principal treasures are a fine pair of brass gates, some brass-bound oak doors, and some good carving of marble. But Amber should certainly be visited before Agra.

When we came down into the court-yard to remount our steed, we discovered him under the shade of a mighty peepul tree, such as that under which Buddha sat and endured the pangs of his spiritual second birth. The

driver giving him the signal to advance, he suddenly uplifted his trunk, wound it round a stout bough of the tree, and tore it off as if it were a leaf. Down came the kitchen poker, but the elephant would move only at his own pace, which was encumbered by the necessity of holding the bough under his foot whilst he tore off with his trunk the succulent green leaves.

We accomplished the return journey in safety, and bade farewell to the elephant at the point where the carriage was waiting to take us back to Jeypore. As he ponderously moved off, there was something in the back view of his hind legs irresistibly reminiscent of Major O'Gorman, once member for Waterford, walking out of the House of Commons to vote against the Government.