spread eagle, what became of the other I could not tell, and he sat in royal state on that sublime animal of his, the bull Nundi, - which appeared as much like a fat porker as a bull. Here was the representation of immortality with a vengeance, and I was as much fascinated as Lord Byron seems to have been with the Apollo Belvidere an excess of feeling always sets me a whistling and to whistle I began, with such fury that a dozen pariar dogs came snuffling up with long ears, and tails cocked, who instantly broke the illusion, which had gathered so brightly around that splendid picture" Perhaps they are the Brahmin's forefathers," said I, but surely they would have had more sense than to run to a Furingee's whistle-for I beg leave to remark that the Natives know no such tones, and in most parts they imagine it to be the voice of the Shaitan, however, I may not have been wrong in my supposition for these were the very creatures who that night joined the dulcifying treble of Anabhaee Lakshmee in grand chorus, with the most unearthly howl my ears were ever saluted with-I did not retire to rest till the family had finished their repast; Manoo could never have anticipated the event of an European being the guest of a Brahmin, or he would not have enjoined giving a fourth of the victuals to a stranger. However my host never made me the offer, and I suppose the fourth part was swallowed by proxy. They never partake till they have offered one portion to the deities, and a second to their progenitors. It must be an edifying spectacle to see them drop on their knees and salute their imagined present but invisible ancestors, and turning the sacramental chord address them thus:-"Salutation to you, ye forefathers, may this oblation be acceptable." This spiritual food is ambrosially mixed with ghee, which the shades of their venerable progenitors, no doubt, snuff up with immaterial delight. While all this was going on, I fell fast asleep and whether my imagination had been heated by contemplating this extraordinary Brahminical superstition, or whether Shewa did really deign to show himself to me, I leave my readers to decide-Dreams, as a late acute writer has fully proved, depend on the state of the blood, and apparitions, signs before death, appearances of spirits, &c. &c. are the fanciful effects of corrupt circulation, be it so, but methought the picture on the wall, where my eyes were fixed, began to move like a shadow, then it gradually increased in size till its gigantic proportions seemed to load my sight with an impression of awful and overwhelming magnitude, and I was compelled to strain it to grasp as it were the horrible view. The Ganges, did indeed, roll and foam, and toss its waters, and then I thought I was flung, on its surf and whirled below amid alligators, crocodiles, and all imaginable creatures, among slime and filth and rottenness, and that thousands of Brahmins and other Hindus were lying dead around me, on which these monsters rioted; and though they strove to touch me, yet they could not-With all these sickening sights I still had the whole figure of Shewa in view, and then I thought the skulls

around his neck grew horribly livid, that eyes began to glare within the sockets; and to complete the horror, that I was a head among them, jabbering and chattering all unearthly things, without sense or feeling, without memory of the past or hopes of the future, yet in a state of agony at the idea of being the everlasting companion of these bodiless skulls, without the power of freeing myself from their unhallowed fellowship. It was not a state of existence, yet it was not an eternal sleep, and still I thought I was on my bed; still I heard the roaring waters of the Ganges rolling over me, so extraordinarily distinct were the situations in which I conceived myself to be placed, and which seemed to multiply the longer the vision lasted. Then I imagined, I stood on an illimitable dark expanse. The blackness around was like heavy, palpable and black dew, and there methought I had been fixed for countless ages; at length, a sound struck my ears, the mass of gloom around stirred; louder and louder were heard voices, louder still, till I thought my ears would crack, till pealing like ten thousand thunders and rocking the ocean bed, nigher resounded voices and yells and cries and up trooped the whole host of Hindoo gods, demigods, chimeras, devils, &c. &c. in ali fantastic shapes and forms; they swept by like a whirl-wind, and when I awoke with a groan, I just heard the voice of Anabhaee Lakshmee finishing her concert-a straggling howl of some still musically inclined cat and the low cry of a distant jackali-several minutes elapsed before I could persuade myself that I was on terra firma, and the glimmering lamp showed me the figure of the god of destruction reduced to his proper dimensions. Having astertained this truth, 1 again besought the aid of sleep, and awoke early with a cool breeze blowing over my feverish brow. My horse was brought, the palankeen and baggage went forward and before the family were up, I trudged on my way enjoying the scenery around. Soon after this I was ordered to quit the Konkan, and after being attached to another Collector elsewhere left India in a bad state of health, from diseased liver and fever.

FIVE years only had quickly flown away, when one morning, about the same time of the year as formerly I was approaching to the village of Amboolee, I passed over the same plain, the same rivulet; I almost fancied I could see the print of my horse's feet on the turf; so short seemed the time since I last was there, so exactly did every thing appear unchanged; and I had ventured to think that the old Brahmin would welcome a visitor whom he had seen before, a little more warmly from former associations. The shady grove was entered and left, and I soon came in sight of the old house. Something there seemed to be about it unlike its pristine cleanliness, the paling around the compound was broken down, I saw no animals grazing near, and not a single soul on the spot, the village was distant about three hundred yards. I rode up, but the place was deserted, the tiles were falling from the roof,

the cow house was empty and in ruins, the shed I slept under had admitted the last rains, and was nearly washed away, the granary was cobwebbed all over; and the indefatigable spiders had spread their webs from room to room; within the house, a broken pot, an old brass lota, and the top of the hubble-bubble lay in one corner of an apartment, and some stones heaped up together marked the place where Anabhaee Lakshmee's simple cooking powers used to be exerted, and a thick rope was hanging from a beam in the same apartment, an old black cat the last tenant was quietly gliding from room to room, rubbing the door posts with her long shining tail, as she purred with pleasure at the sight of some one to keep company with. In the verandah the figure of Shewa remained uninjured still, and forcily reminded me of his title, "the god of destruction," as I looked on the desolation around him. The floor had not been cowdunged for months, and when I emerged into the open air, I was covered with fleas. I now walked on to the village, and asked where the Khote was. There was none who then managed the affairs? where was Bicajee Abajee ? dead? dead! and his son? dead-and the old grandfather? dead too-and Anabhaee Lackshmee? dead also four cows at this moment passed by and seemed to look up rather oddly at me, and one I thought had that identical twist of the eye, which Bicajee's son was noted for. It was but a passing reflexion, not a very proper one I own, but I could not help its intrusion and smiled as I pondered on the absurdity of such an idea, but they certainly did not look like other cows, and whether the difference existed only in my fancy or not, I cannot pretend to tell. After my repast I sent for the Government officer, and learnt from him the following particulars :

BICAJEE'S son had formed an attachment to the slave girl; who was not careful to return it, and who had conceived rather unfavourable notions of this young Lothario from the manner in which he had treated his deceased wife, who did not, report says, come to a natural end. About a year after I had left the village, the Cholera made its appearance, and this poor girl vowed that if the family were not attacked by it, she would perform the ceremony of swinging at the next Yatra. They all were delivered from this horrible foe, and she was required to observe her oath, which the trembling creature ventured to beg a release from-in fact the villanous Gooroo of the adjoining temple had sworn by the cow's tail, that unless she would swing, they would all die, and the vow had in a way been forced upon her at this time young Abbajee proposed to her an elopement, her hatred of this indefatigable suitor overcame her horrors, and she refused; the next day, her death was determined on. The evening after, a tall athletic stranger, calling himself a Brahmin from Hindoostan, begged a lodging for the night, and was welcomed; sat and chatted with the old people, and engaged their attention till late at

night. It was unusually dark, no moon, and a cloudy sky, all were fast locked in the arms of slumber when the fair Chunamah felt herself gently pulled by the feet, she started up, a hand grasped her throat; the poor wretch struggled hard; while she received several stabs in the body-Anabhaee and her husband heard her first cry, and from their appearance the next morning, it is supposed that their resistance was great; the old man's throat was cut from ear to ear, and his body dreadfully mangled, and his wife who was a powerful woman had one hand nearly severed from her arm, several gashes on her breast, and was found suspended by a thick rope from a beam in a side room. The slave girl recovered sufficiently to give the little information she could: all that she remembered beside what is above stated of herself, was some one muttering, and from his extraordinary voice, she had little doubt but that it belonged to the stranger: a large knife known to be that of the son, was discovered under his mother's body, bent and nearly broken. The whole village was soon in an uproar, and when light dawned, the affrighted villagers who had not dared to stir, while the shricks were heard, or while the darkness was still on the face of the earth, now flocked to the abode of their old Khote. Government offered a large reward for the apprehension of the diabolical perpetrators of this act, and after a year the son was caught, but the stranger has never been heard of. This young monster confessed, and was hanged. The girl died, and the old grandfather who had slept the disturbance out, voluntarily drowned himself. On understanding the particulars, I now revisited the house with feelings of a most painful nature. The spot where poor Anabhaee Lakhsmee had been hanged, was pointed out to me, and the room in which this deed of horror had taken place, and the rope I had seen was the same which had been twisted round the neck of my former hostess. The house was supposed to be haunted, and no one had set foot within it after sunset. With some difficulty I got my servants to rest that night there, and after meditating on the extraordinary lot of these beings, I slept quietly, and the next morning pursued my journey.

M.

ART. VI.-The Outstation.

As I believe little is known in England of our manner of carrying on business in the interior, it may not be uninteresting to home-fire-side travellers to give a short sketch of the proceedings in an English Collector's Cutcherry or Office. Let me first hint that the statements which are generally given in some papers and books, of tyranny and exaction by Europeans, are made by persons who never leave the Presidency, and who hear from natives as ignorant as themselves, interested and garbled ac

counts of the conduct of Civilians, in performing their duties as Magistrates or Judges or Collectors of the revenue. The station to which I shall carry you, gentle reader, is that of Rutnagery, the healthiest, and I may say the prettiest in the country. The scenery is peculiar to this part of India. The bungalows inhabited by the European gentlemen are built on the brow of a black rocky hill, overhanging the sea-several houses have the advantage of most beautiful prospects, and are neat, airy, and comfortable, and some with upper rooms. An extraordinary hill, crowned by an old fort to the northward, a thick plantation of the elegant, though uniform Palm tree, covering and concealing the village of Rutnagery, skirted by some fishermen's huts; and the distant beach on which the sea in the monsoon beats with great violence, sending up a cloud of foam and froth; with the blue range of craggy hills far away, form at even-tide in that quarter no unpleasing picture; and when in the fair season, the ocean's breast is ploughed by numberless barks passing the coast with swiftness, their white sails glistening to the setting sun, and looking still whiter amid the blackness of the waters around when that sun has set, it adds an indescribable charm to the view. Your thoughts wander over the blue ocean to a land encircled by as fair a sea, and holding all you love most on earth, dearer from the distance which divides you, and the uncertainty of ever seeing that fond spot again which in childhood was your home, and which you wish in old age to be your last retreat from care and trouble. Turning your back on this, and walking up a slight ascent, you will reach a favorite seat of mine, which enjoys a more commanding prospect- a rough and ruggedly dark rocky plain, apparently without a spot of cultivated ground within it, sweeps to the southward, and is lost in the distance, forming an irregular black line in the horizon, as if your eyes were fixed on the agitated waters of the deep. A few short and thick stumps decorate this plain, and here and there some more verdant knots of brushwood and wild plants, give a striking contrast to the desolate wilderness around. From this turn your steps to the right, and after a walk of a few hundred yards, you will reach the brow of a precipice-the fall is not great, but sufficiently so to diminish the scenery beneath to a nearly telescope beauty. A winding river runs up the fruitful valley, and is lost in the thick foliage of the jungle, which adorns its banks a little higher up the stream. The patient labourer is here, and here only, seen with his wearied bullocks driving the light but continually exercised wain, and a few houses, the hum of distant voices, the barking of dogs, the fall of cascade, are sounds and sights though familiar, always pleasing and at times when "the gentleness of heaven is on the sea," and there is only the freshness of the dying breeze to cool the feverish brow, one almost loses in the intoxication of the moment, the memory of the past. Walking homeward you meet some natives hastening to their huts and their families; a poor Mahratta cultivator perhaps, with his little basket and jack