edges, between it and the architrave. I knew these columns must have some type in Nature, and puzzled myself to find it. On visiting one of the smaller temples on the eastern side of the island, the resemblance flashed upon me at once- -it was the poppy-head. The globular capital, and its low, fluted crown, are copied almost without change from the plant, and these two symbols-the poppy and the lotus-with the closed eyelids and placid faces of the colossal guardians, give the whole temple an air of mystic and enchanted repose. One involuntarily walks through its dim and hushed aisles with a softer step, and speaks, if he must speak, in an undertone.

There is something in every form of religion worthy of general respect; and he who does not feel this, can neither understand nor appreciate the art which sprang from the ancient faiths. Our teachers of religion speak with sincere and very just horror and contempt of all forms of idolatry; yet, under pain of their anathemas, I dare assert, that he who can revile Osiris and Amun-Re, is unworthy to behold the wonders of Thebes. The Christian need not necessarily be an iconoclast; nay, more, his very faith, in its perfect charity and its boundless love, obliges him to respect the shrines where the mighty peoples of the ancient world have bowed and worshipped. Besides, there is truth, however dim and eclipsed, behind all these outward symbols. Even the naked and savage Dinkas of Central Africa worship trees; and so do I. The Parsees worship the sun, as the greatest visible manifestation of the Deity; and I assure you, I have felt very much inclined to do the same, when he and I were alone in the desert. But let not the reader, therefore, or because I respect the feeling of worship, when expressed in other forms than my own, think me a Pagan.

The walls of the great hall of the temple of Elephanta are divided into tablets, or compartments, each of which contains, as a central figure, the colossal statue of some god, surrounded by a host of inferior deities. Few of these have escaped the fanatical fury of the Portuguese, but sufficient remains to show the bold and masculine character of the art which produced them. The smaller figures are introduced above and at the sides of the central god, and some of the tablets have a striking resemblance to pictures of the old Italian masters, representing a saint surrounded by a cloud of cherubs. In the absence of all inscriptions, it is impossible to determine at what time the temple was excavated. The architecture, judged by its style alone, appears to be the antecedent of the Egyptian, which would then represent its perfect development, modified somewhat by being transplanted to a different soil. But I believe that most ethnographers now consider that the ancient Egyptians and Hindoos are kindred branches of one stock, whose seat is to be looked for somewhere in Central Asia.

The side chambers of the temple are much smaller, and the walls are covered in the same manner, with sculptured tablets. Some of the figures have been recently smeared with red paint, a sign that they are still worshipped by some of the Hindoo sects. At the foot of a flight of steps which leads to the chambers on the left of the grand hall, two curious figures of dogs seated on their hind legs, which have been very lately excavated, are erected on pedestals. It requires an experienced antiquarian to tell whether they are dogs, lions, or dolphins. There are three or four small enclosed apartments resembling the adyta of the Egyptian temples. In the centre of each is a low pedestal, or platform, upon which stands a stone about three feet high, with a rounded top-the Lingam, which is one of the most ancient as well as common of the Hindoo symbols. One of these, in particular, is still in great repute among the natives, and is resorted to by the Hindoo women, who seat themselves upon it for a certain length of time, as a cure for barrenness. I was told that an English lady of Bombay, whose marriage had not had the desired result, was induced to try the experiment, which, to her great surprise, was successful.

After spending some time in the larger temple, two native boys. showed us the way to the two smaller ones, which are higher up the hill, on its eastern side. Other visitors had come in in the meantime, and a company of sailors were employed in knocking down the pods of the tamarind trees. The husk encloses a thick paste, wrapped around the seeds, with an intensely acid, but agreeable taste. From the gap between the two peaks of the islands, we looked down into a lovely little valley on the opposite side, gradually widening to the water, near which was a native hamlet. I longed to pitch my tent in one of its palm-groves, and to spend a week in studying the strange gods in the caverns above.

The smaller temples have been much mutilated. The entrances are nearly filled up with rubbish, and the inner chambers are now the abodes of the jackal and the serpent. They were too dark to be properly seen without torches, which we had not, but I could perceive that many of them contained the upright stone, and the usual sculptured tablets on the walls. The outer courts of both were supported by elegant poppy-headed pillars, a few of which have escaped destruction. Excavation would, no doubt, reveal much that is now hidden; but the Government has no taste for such things, and there are few archaeologists in Bombay. The most that has been done is to build a cottage and station a sergeant at the entrance of the great temple, in order to prevent visitors from injuring the sculptures.

The afternoon shadows were growing long by this time, admonishing us to return. The wind had risen, and as it was not

entirely favourable, we were obliged to run up the bay, past a point of the Island of Salsette, before we could make a tack for the city. Instead of going on to Bombay, however, we landed at the pier of Mazagaun, and drove to the Botanic Garden, near the Governor's residence, at Parell. The garden is laid out with great taste, and filled with a variety of rare tropical trees, among which are several superb Brazilian palms. I there saw the first banyantree; but the specimen was too young to justify its fame. The flaming blossoms of the azalias, pelargoniums, and sagittarias first deepened in hue, and then grew dusky and indistinct in the fading flush of sunset, as I wandered through the palmy alleys, breathing of "nard and cassia," and the voluptuous Persian rose. But the short southern twilight sank away, and I rode back to Bombay, with the silvery, meteoric lustre of the zodiacal light gleaming over my path.

CHAPTER II.

A NAUTCH AMONG THE PARSEES.

THE morning of New Year's Day dawned clear and beautiful. Lord Falkland, Governor of the Bombay Presidency, gave a splendid ball at his residence at Parell, on the previous evening. The simple ceremony of calling upon him would have insured me an invitation; but as I carelessly neglected to do this, and therefore missed the ball, I accepted the more readily an invitation to attend a nautch at the country residence of my Parsee friends, on the following evening. A servant came to my room early on New Year's morning, with a tray heaped with fruit, a large bunch of roses, and a polite note from Dossabhoy Merwanjee Wadya and his associates, containing the compliments of the season, and an invitation to be at Parell at half-past nine o'clock. I could not help being struck with the difference between New Year in Bombay and in New York. While my friends were making their round of calls, muffled in furs, and with red noses and frosty hands, I was sitting on an open verandah, as lightly clad as possible, looking down on the palms and papayas in the gardens below, and listening to the songs of birds gathered on all the house-tops, my New Year's gift consisting of a pummelow (a fruit resembling the shaddock, but of much finer flavour), a pile of oranges and golden bananas, and a pawn, for chewing, wrapped in a gilded betel-leaf.

Three of my countrymen were also invited, as well as two

Englishmen, but the remainder of the guests were native, Parsce and Hindoo. A pleasant drive of five miles brought us to the country-house, which was built on land granted to the family by the East India Company, on account of the services they have rendered as ship-builders. It was a spacious one-storey bungalow, and brilliantly lighted up for the occasion with hanging lamps of cocoa-nut oil, which gives out a very delicate and pleasant perfume while burning. We were ushered into a hall, around the sides of which were couches made in imitation of sofas, and not so lazy and luxurious as the Turkish divan. The floor was carpeted, and the musicians and nautch-girls were seated in a group in one corner.

Dossabhoy, and our friends, Hirjeebhoy, the head builder in the Bombay dockyard, Jamsetjee, and Cursetjee, received us cordially, and immediately on taking our seats, bunches of fragrant roses were presented to us, over which fresh rose-water was sprinkled from a silver vase. Another servant then appeared with a tray of pawns, which the Parsees were already chewing vigorously. Indeed, you rarely see a native, of whatever condition, without a pawn in his mouth. They are composed of chips of betel-nut, cardamum seeds, and betel-leaf, to which some add lime made from mussel-shells. In order to be like the rest, I commenced chewing, and found the taste very much like sassafras, but more astringent. It is by no means disagreeable, and must be rather conducive to health than otherwise, or it would not have become a universal custom. Both the leaf and nut are excellent tonics. The juice only is swallowed; but the practice of chewing makes both the mouth and teeth, for the time, of a bright red colour. I was quite shocked on landing, to see so many natives (as I thought) spitting blood.

Professor Johnston says: "On those who are accustomed to use it, the betel produces weak but continuous and sustained exhilarating effects. And that these are of a most agreeable kind, may be inferred from the very extended area over which the chewing of betel prevails, among Asiatic nations. In the damp and pestilent regions of India, where the natives live upon a spare and miserable diet, it is really very conducive to health. Part of its healthful influence in fever-breeding districts is probably to be ascribed to the pepper-leaf which is chewed along with the betel-nut."

In a short time the musicians had finished tuning their instruments, and the two nautch-girls (bayaderes) took their places on the floor. The word bayadere is a French invention, and is unknown in India. These girls were about twenty-five years of age, small in stature, dark-brown in complexion, plain in features, and inert and languid in expression. They were far from being as handsome or graceful as the Almehs who danced for us in the temple of Luxor. They wore full robes of a gay colour, descending

nearly to the ancle, but confined by a broad shawl so far below their hips as to restrict the motion of their feet. They had also shawls around their heads, trowsers of red silk, and slippers. The musicians commenced singing a melancholy, monotonous measure, with a lively accompaniment on their lutes. The girls joined in the singing, occasionally lifting their arms with the utmost deliberation, or slightly shifting the position of their feet. Now one advanced a few steps, and as slowly retreated; now the other. I never saw a dance so spiritless and inexpressive.

Some of the songs, on the other hand, pleased me exceedingly. Less wild and barbaric than the Arab chants, they are pervaded with the same expression of longing and of love, and though sung by voices which were occasionally shrill and harsh, still preserved a touching air of tenderness. After witnessing two or three dances, we were called into the other room, to a collation of fruits and sweetmeats, in which the Parsees joined us, contrary to the usual custom of their sect. This restriction, however, does not seem to be a part of their faith, but to have resulted from a long residence among the Hindoos, who maintain such a religious distinction of caste, that to the Brahmin the mere touch of one of the lower orders is defilement, and can only be removed by bathing and change of apparel. The Mussulmans in India have adopted the same notions, and will neither eat with Christians nor drink from the same vessels.

During the interval, the nautch-girls made a change in the fashion of their dress, by binding their robes in such a manner that they reached only to the knees, and giving their turbans_a flattened form, like those worn by the natives of Bengal. In fact, the dance which succeeded was called the Bengalee. It differed little from the preceding, except that the measure was more animated, and the languid shuffling of the feet done in somewhat quicker time. The song which accompanied it was translated to me, and ran thus: "My beloved Nabob, take me to Calcutta: with the howdah on the elephant, the saddle on the horse." This is the style of poetry of which these songs are usually composed, but some of them cannot be so safely translated. There are nautch-girls who have a fame among the natives equal to that of Taglioni or Ellsler in Europe, and who are paid at the rate of five hundred rupees a night, but they are to be found at the Courts of the native sovereigns in Northern India, where the nautches are got up on a grand scale.

The previous evening, on my way home from the Botanic Garden, I met a magnificent marriage procession in the streets of the native town. First came a large number of beautiful children in open vehicles, the pearls and spangles of their dresses glittering in the light of torches, which were borne on long poles, and waved in riotous jubilee to the sound of the music. Behind them were