COUNTRY BOATS.

3

fine features,-certainly a handsome race; the fruits were shaddocks, plaintains, and coco-nuts, none good of their kind as we were told; the shaddock resembles a melon externally, but it is in fact a vast orange, with a rind of two inches thick, the pulp much less juicy than a common orange, and with rather a bitter flavour, certainly a fruit which would be little valued in England, but which in this burning weather I thought rather pleasant and refreshing. The plaintain grows in bunches, with its stalks arranged side by side; the fruit is shaped like a kidney potatoe, covered with a loose dusky skin which peels off easily with the fingers. The pulp is not unlike an over-ripe pear.

While we were marketing with these poor people, several large boats from the Maldive Islands passed, which were pointed out to me by the pilot as objects of curiosity, not often coming to Calcutta; they have one mast, a very large square mainsail, and one top-sail, are built, the more solid parts of coco-wood, the lighter of bamboo, and sail very fast and near the wind; each carries from 30 to 50 men, who are all sharers in the vessel and her cargo, which consists of cowries, dried fish, coconut oil, and the coir or twine made from the fibres of the same useful tree; and each has a small cabin to himself.

Several boats of a larger dimension soon after eame alongside; one was decked, with two masts, a bowsprit, and rigged like a schooner without topsails. The master and crew of this last were

taller and finer men than those whom we had seen before; the former had a white turban wreathed round a red cap, a white short shirt without sleeves, and a silver armlet a little above the elbow; the crew were chiefly naked, except a cloth round the loins; the colour of all was the darkest shade of antique bronze, and together with the elegant forms and well-turned limbs of many among them, gave the spectator a perfect impression of Grecian statues of that metal; in stature and apparent strength they were certainly much inferior to the generality of our ship's company.

Two observations struck me forcibly; first, that the deep bronze tint is more naturally agreeable to the human eye than the fair skins of Europe, since we are not displeased with it even in the first instance, while it is well known that to them a fair complexion gives the idea of ill-health, and of that sort of deformity which in our eyes belongs to an Albino. There is, indeed, something in a Negro which requires long habit to reconcile the eye to him; but for this the features and the hair, far more than the colour, are answerable. The second observation was, how entirely the idea of indelicacy, which would naturally belong to such naked figures as those now around us if they were white, is prevented by their being of a different colour from ourselves. So much are we children of association and habit, and so instinctively and immediately do our feelings adapt themselves to a total change of circumstances! it is the partial and inconsistent change only which affects us.

PASSAGE BOATS.

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The whole river, and the general character of this shore and muddy stream, remind me strongly at this moment of the Don, between Tcherkask and Asof, and Kedgeree, a village on the opposite side of the river from Saugor, if it had but a church, would not be unlike Oxai, the residence of the Attaman Platoff.

Several boats again came on board us; in one of which was a man dressed in muslin, who spoke good English, and said he was a " Sircar'," come down in quest of employment, if any of the officers on board would entrust their investments to him, or if any body chose to borrow money at 12 per cent. In appearance and manner he was no bad specimen of the low usurers who frequent almost all seaports. While we were conversing with him, a fowl fell overboard, and his crew were desired to hand it up again; the naked rowers refused, as the Hindoos consider it impure to touch feathers; but the Sircar was less scrupulous, and gave it up at the gangway. A "Panchway," or passage boat, succeeded, whose crew offered their services for 15 rupees to carry any passengers to Calcutta, a distance of above 100 miles. This was a very characteristic and interesting vessel, large and broad, shaped like a snuffer dish; a deck fore and aft, and the middle covered with a roof of palm branches, over which again was lashed a coarse cloth, the whole forming an excellent shade from the sun; but, as I should apprehend, intolerably close. The "Se

1 A native agent, as well as a money-lender.-E.