unprotected by a turban or other covering. I found afterwards, however, that this description was applicable to all the lower classes in Calcutta. They are certainly a far inferior race to the Chinese. On the boats they may be seen squatted on the high bow smoking the hubble-bubble—a position and an occupation which are a Bengalee's ideal of existence. The hubble-bubble, as the foreigners call the commonest kind of native hookah, from the peculiar noise heard when it is smoked, merits a description, as its use is one of the standard occupations of a native's life; and its awkwardness, with the impossibility of doing any active work while it is in use, are very characteristic. It consists of a cocoa-nut shell, half filled with water, and pierced above with two apertures. Through one of these, which is on top, passes a tube descending into the water. The other hole is for the mouth. The tube is ten inches or a foot long, and is surmounted by the earthen chillum, or pipe-bowl. The smoke passes down the tube, through the water, and out of the small hole into the smoker's mouth. The tobacco, as used by the natives, is formed into a soft paste with molasses, and has to be kept alight by the contact of burning charcoal, or balls of dried cow-dung, called ghools, which are ignited and laid on the tobacco. When used, the shell is raised to the mouth with both hands, the tube and chillum rising above the head. It has to be held with great steadiness, as any motion will shake off the ghools. No more awkward instrument could be devised, and none better calculated to induce inaction in a people whose chief pleasure is smoking, and who are naturally lazy.

But to return to the Hoogly. I have said that it resembled the Yang-tze-kiang, but many things showed that we were not on that river, or in China. First, the small numbers, and awkward build and rig of the native craft, with the laziness of their navigators. Then, again, the river was covered at one place with floating timber, from a lumber vessel which had gone to pieces the day before. In China every stick would have been picked up in an hour. Another most disagreeably distinctive feature was the dead bodies, bloated,

blenched, and covered with vultures and crows, which we constantly passed. The regular plan is to burn the dead and throw the ashes into the river; but in this observance the will is taken for the deed, and the relatives burn as much of the body as can be consumed by the amount of wood which they can afford. As wood is very dear in Calcutta and most Hindoos very poor, it consequently happens that the body is generally only half burned, or even only singed; and no more disgusting sight can be conceived than such a corpse, swollen by decomposition, half destroyed by the fire and half eaten by the birds, the skin bleached by the weather, affording "shelter and food" to numerous prawns and shrimps, who fatten on such diet for the famous "prawn curry" of Calcutta.

For the last two miles before reaching Calcutta the scenery of the river is so beautiful that it is known as "Garden Reach." On the eastern shore are numerous large houses, the residences of Europeans. The compounds are large, and filled with beautiful trees. A fine road leads down from the city, and is a favourite drive in the evening. On the opposite bank of the river is the Botanical Garden, a very extensive establishment, which the Calcutta people suppose to contain the largest banyan tree in the world.

In a window of one of the houses in Garden Reach we saw the King of Oude. He was sitting in a chair watching the arrival of our steamer. Two servants, with long fans of peacocks' feathers, brushed the flies away from his majesty.

For the last year or so the King has been kept in confinement on account of suspected complicity in the revolt. It is doubtful if the government will be able to prove anything against him in a court of law; though in India every one believes that he and his minister, Ali Nakhi Khan, were aware of the plot from the first, and that they were among the original conspirators. At any rate, his whole offence is confined to concealing from the government what he knew, and abetting the plots of his minister, since the miserable wretch is so utterly exhausted by a life of brutal debauchery as to be quite incapable of devising any great scheme, or taking an active

part in it. It is to be hoped that he will not be again released, and permitted to reestablish such a nest of nameless vices as was his mansion in Garden Reach. In truth, a life spent in confinement would not be an inappropriate termination to the career of one who, in his own person, degraded human nature below the level of the lowest brute.

CHAPTER IX.

CALCUTTA.

Palkees-Buggies-The City of Calcutta-Government House-Tanks-Bazárs-The largest Mint in the World-Supreme Court-Conflict of Laws-Missions and Schools -Spence's Hotel-Servants-Expenses of Living in India-Civil Servants-Their Salaries-The Language of the Camp-A People without a Country, and a Country without a Name.

ON landing in Calcutta I was at once surrounded by a crowd of nearly naked "niggers," painted all over the face and breast with red and white streaks, the sign of their having made poojah, i. e., done worship to some idol that morning. These gentlemen crowded me so much with their black, oily bodies, that I found a vigourous beating with my umbrella necessary to keep them at a respectful distance. They offered to convey my luggage to the hotel, and I accepted the services of one fellow, who at once distributed the various articles to about twenty others, one carrying a carpet-bag, another an umbrella, &c. I then inserted myself in a palanquin, or, as they are commonly called in Bengal, palkee. This is a black box, seven feet long, three feet high, closed all around, with a sliding door in the side, and furnished inside with a mattrass and bolster. At each end of the palkee, near the top, there is a pole, three feet long, projecting at right angles, which the bearers rest on their shoulders. Four bearers are under the palkee at any one time, and two more run alongside as a relief. To enter the palkee you turn your back toward it and sit down on the mattrass in its bottom, and then, by a dexterous "slew," bring your legs and head inside. You then lie down and are carried along reclining at full length. The palkee-bearers have a peculiar lock-step which prevents the least jolt, and nothing can be more luxurious than this mode of conveyance, at least for short distances.

Palkees were formerly universally used by foreigners in going about the city, but they are now supplanted by garrhees and buggies; the former, a vehicle which I have described when speaking of Singapore; the latter, a two-wheeled gig, with a top descending very low in front to keep off the sun. Everybody in Calcutta keeps or hires a buggy; even the captains of ships, and some of the mates, have their buggies waiting for them all day on the quay. The necessity of some conveyance arises from the impossibility of walking out exposed to the sun. In the palmy days of palkees, they were richly ornamented, and a single one would often cost as much as 3,000 rupees, or $1,500; and a certain number of palkee-bearers were a necessary part of every gentleman's household.

Calcutta is situated on the eastern branch of the Hoogly, and was the first concession to the British in this part of India. It was, when they obtained it, only a miserable village, known as Kalee-Ghât, of which its present name is a corruption. It is now supposed to have 600,000 inhabitants at least. Below the city of Calcutta, and between it and "Garden Reach," is a broad open plain, of from 100 to 150 acres, running along the water's edge. This is called the "Esplanade," or, as frequently by its Hindoostanee name, Maidan. It is the great drive of Calcutta, being divided by fine broad macadamized roads bordered with trees. The space between the roads is plain turf. Along the river's bank runs the largest of these roads, called the "Strand," where is seen in the evening the greatest show of carriages and equipages. Fort William, the principal defence of Calcutta, and one of the strongest fortresses in the world, is on the river's bank, wholly contained within the Maidan. Around the Maidan is built the European portion of Calcutta-fine houses of stuccoed brick, covering much ground, but commonly not over two stories high, and generally without compounds. At the lower extremity of the Maidan, surrounded by fine trees, is the cathedral, a large decorated Gothic building, of no particular merit. The finest building in Calcutta is Government House-the residence of the Governor General. It fronts on the Esplanade, but is surrounded by an open square of its own. It consists of two