lossal bust with three heads. This has been supposed to represent the Trimoortee, or Hindoo Trinity, but there are objections to this theory, and to all the other hypotheses which have been invented to explain its meaning. Several other statues decorate this apartment, and on each side is a smaller chamber, opening into the larger one, and also containing idols.

The antiquity of this temple has long furnished a subject of wonder for visitors to Bombay; and their fancy has had almost unlimited ground for conjecture as there is no inscription or other sign by which the antiquarian would be enabled to fix the age exactly. Late investigations, however, and particu larly a comparison with similar caves the age of which is known, have combined to attribute to it a date more modern than the year 900 of our era. What adds to the probability of this conclusion is the fact that during the short time that it has been known to Europeans, although every care for its preservation has been taken by the authorities, it has sustained great injury from the weather, which makes it extremely improbable that so perishable a material as the soft stone from which it is excavated, could resist the power of the elements for many centuries.

The island of Elephanta was so named by the Portuguese. Its native name is Shahpooree. The Portuguese name is derived from a gigantic stone elephant, three times the size of life, which stands a short distance from the cave. This figure, however, like the cave itself, is very much defaced by the action of the weather, and the form of an animal, which it bears on its back, is now so disfigured that its distinctive peculiarities cannot be distinguished.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

BOMBAY TO CAIRO.

The "Ganges"-Our Fellow-passengers-The Crew-Life on the Steamer-Aden-Its Appearance" Hell with the fires put out "-An Original Head-dress-Arabs-The Cantonments-The Fortifications-Importance of the City-Free Trade-A Footprint of Civilization-The "Gate of Tears"-The Red Sea-Its Heat-Suez-Transit across the Desert-Its Appearance-The Road-The Pyramids-The "City of Victory"-A Recommendation for Indian Travel.

WE remained at Bombay over a fortnight. On the eighteenth of February we bade good-bye to one of our party, Mr. Gibson, the English engineer, who went to England by ship. The rest of us took passages to Cairo, and on the evening of the nineteenth we went on board the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Ganges, a vessel of 1200 tons, propelled by paddle-wheels. As these steamers are intended. mostly for passengers, their accommodations are ample and very comfortable. Every provision is made for hot weather, and there are even punkahs over the tables.

Early on the morning of the twentieth we steamed out of the "beautiful bay,"* and by noon we had lost sight of land. Our fellow-passengers, who proved most agreeable companions, were about fifty in number. They were mostly officers of the army, from the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, although some of them had come from the Punjab and extreme North West, from which part of India the easiest way to reach England is by way of Mooltan, as there is a line of steamers between Kurrachee and Bombay, and steamboats run regularly on the Indus from Mooltan to Kurrachee. Among the passengers were eight or ten ladies and twice that number of children. The presence of the latter detracted almost as

* The name Bombay was given by the Portuguese, and is corrupted from two words in their language meaning "good bay."

much from our comfort as the society of the former added to it. The children were almost all attended by their native nurses, and few of them spoke any other language than Hindoostanee.

The crew were Lascars, except the secunnies, or steersmen, who were from Manilla. The duty of steering the ship was shared by the Chinese crew of the captain's gig. The servants were Parsees or Moosulmans, and the stokers were stalwart negroes from the African coast, the only men who can bear to work in the intense heat of the engine rooms, where the Scotch and English engineers sicken and often die, although they have no manual work to do, and are only required to expose themselves for a few hours each day. The officers were, of course, all British, and were most obliging and gentlemanly men. This great variety of nationalities gave the quarter-deck a very picturesque appearance on Sunday mornings when all hands were mustered, and appeared washed clean for the week, and each dressed in his national costume.

On Sunday we had divine service in the cabin, attended by all the Europeans. The natives, whose work was made as light as possible on that day, gathered around the deck in groups, listening to one of their number who read the Korán or some other book, and mending their tattered clothes.

On week-days, the regular amusement was single-stick for the officers and passengers, but it was generally so hot that most of us preferred to sit quietly and read or converse.

Most of the passengers slept on deck at night, as the staterooms below were too hot for comfortable repose. The only objection to this plan was that we were waked up soon after four o'clock by the washing and holystoning of the decks.

On the 27th of March we arrived at Aden,* which is situated on the southernmost point of Arabia the Happy, about a hundred miles east of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and perhaps a hundred and fifty miles from Mocha, which is within the straits. Aden is under the jurisdiction of the East India

*The accent of this word is on the last syllable, and it is pronounced exactly as the two English words a den.

Company, and is strongly fortified and garrisoned. It is considered one of the most important naval stations in the Eastern seas, from which circumstance, and its great strength, it has been called the "Gibraltar of the East."

If the rest of Araby the Blest looks like the country around Aden, the name must have been given in the bitterest irony. A more desolate scene it would be hard to find than that which met our eyes on awaking in the harbour. The shore was sand and rocks, the hills were steep ragged masses of cinders and scoriæ. Truly, as a former traveller has said, it looks like the "Region of the Demon of Desolation" in a melodrama. Another tourist declares, with scarcely less truth, that it is "Hell with the fires put out." At the harbour is the coaling station of the P. and O. Company. There is also an hotel where we took lunch, and some bungalows, the residences of officials connected with the Steamship Company, and of a few traders, among whom is an American who does quite a large business with the Arab and African ports.

The inhabitants are Sumalees and Arabs. The former are a wretched, half-starved and ill-formed race. Their skins are almost black, and they have a habit of covering the head with a thick coating of mud, which they keep wet as a protection against the heat. It is certainly an original head-covering, and converts the hair into a mass of tangled red bristles, the contrast of which, with their black skins, is considered by themselves as one of the most beautiful features in their appearance. They wear little or no clothing. The Arabs whom I saw were very dark-coloured, and quite an inferior race to those who live further north. They are all turned out of the town before night, a measure which is necessary to the safety of the place, and has been found considerably to reduce the number of murders and other crimes which were formerly of frequent occurrence. The defences of Aden are so strong as to afford entire protection from the surrounding tribes of Arabs, who are all hostile. Still it is not considered safe to venture many miles into the interior even in the daytime, and at night great vigilance has to be observed by the garrison.

As soon as breakfast was over, we all landed, and, mounting

upon horses or donkeys, proceeded to the cantonments, as the fortified town is called. The road was well macadamized, and led for a couple of miles along the beach. Then we turned inland, toward the steep hills, which the road ascended. We passed the ridge through an artificial cut, strongly defended by two massive gateways of great strength, which form part of the line of fortifications surrounding the town. Here we found on guard some Indian sepoys, several regiments of whom, and one of English soldiers, formed the garrison.

Further on, we came to the city, which has almost wholly sprung up since the occupation of this place by the British. It is now a town of over twenty thousand inhabitants, but contains no remarkable buildings. The larger part of the trade of Mocha and other Arab ports now centres in Aden, a result which is to be attributed not only to the greater security for life and property under the English rule, but is also largely due to its being a free port, so that the Arab merchant escapes the onerous duties of the Turkish Government, and the extortions of the customs' officials.

We remained but a short time at cantonments, where we found only a badly kept Parsee hotel. The landlord informed us that the only articles of food to be had in the vicinity are fish and oysters. Every thing else must be imported, and even the water has to be brought in boats for some distance, as that found in the place is scarcely drinkable.

The fortifications of Aden are of great extent, and have been perfected at an enormous expense. Bayard Taylor says of them: "The skill and genius exhibited in their design impressed me far more than the massive strength of Gibraltar. I never felt more forcibly the power of that civilization which follows the Anglo-Saxon race in all its conquests, and takes root in whatever corner of the earth that race sets foot. Here, on the furthest Arabian shore, facing the most savage and inhospitable regions of Africa, were law, order, security, freedom of conscience and of speech, and all the material advantages which are inseparable from them. Herein consists the true power and grandeur of the race, and the assurance of its final supremacy." I have taken the liberty of quoting these