al apparatus, is now used for a depot of opium; and the
hall of philosophy contains huge boxes of liqueurs, rum and champagne,
which are prohibited by the Koran, as well as by the Brahmans.

We were so enchanted by what we heard about Hyderabad, that we resolved
to start thither the very next morning, when our ciceroni and companions
destroyed all our plans by a single word. This word was: heat. During
the hot season in Hyderabad the thermometer reaches ninety-eight degrees
Fahrenheit in the shade, and the temperature of the water in the Indus
is the temperature of the blood. As to Upper Sindh, where the dryness of
the air, and the extreme aridity of the sandy soil reproduce the Sahara
in miniature, the usual shade temperature is one hundred and thirty
degrees Fahrenheit. No wonder the missionaries have no chance there.
The most eloquent of Dante's descriptions of hell could hardly produce
anything but a cooling effect on a populace who live perfectly contented
under these circumstances.

Calculating that there was no obstacle to our going to the Bagh caves,
and that going to Sindh was a perfect impossibility, we recovered our
equanimity. Then the general council decided that we had better abandon
all ideas of a predetermined plan, and travel as fancy led us.

We dismissed our elephants, and next day, a little before sunset,
arrived at the spot where the Vagrey and Girna join. These are two
little rivers, quite famous in the annals of the Indian mythology, and
which are generally conspicuous by their absence, especially in summer.
At the opposite side of the river, there lay the illustrious Bagh caves,
with their four openings blinking in the thick evening mist.

We thought of crossing to them immediately, by the help of a ferry boat,
but our Hindu friends and the boat-men interposed. The former said
that visiting these caves is dangerous even by daytime; because all the
neighborhood is full of beasts of prey and of tigers, who, I concluded,
are like the Bengali Babus, to be met with everywhere in India. Before
venturing into these caves, you must send a reconnoitring party of
torch-bearers and armed shikaris. As to the boatmen, they protested on
different grounds, but protested strongly. They said that no Hindu would
dare to approach these caves after the sun set. No one but a Bellati
would fancy that Vagrey and Girna are ordinary rivers, for every Hindu
knows they are divine spouses, the god Shiva and his wife Parva