n a reason for stopping his
master."

And then the conversation again languished. During the night the train
crossed the mountains, passed Nassik, and next day, the 21st October,
it traversed a comparatively flat district of Kandish. The
well-cultivated country was sprinkled with villages, above which the
minarets of the pagodas took the place of the English church-spires.
Numerous tributaries of the Godavery watered this fertile territory.

Passe-partout awoke and looked about him. He could not at first
believe that he actually was crossing India in a carriage upon the G.
I. P. Railway. It appeared quite incredible, but it was none the less
real. The locomotive, driven by an English engineer and fed with
English coal, puffed its steam over coffee, cotton, clove, and pepper
plantations. The smoke curled around the palm-trees, amid which
picturesque bungalows were frequently visible, and "viharis," a sort
of abandoned monasteries, as well as a few temples enriched with
wonderful Indian architecture, were here and there apparent. Farther
on, they passed immense tracts of land extending as far as the eye
could reach, and jungles in which serpents and tigers fled scared at
the roar and rattle of the train; then succeeded forests through which
the line passed, the abode of elephants which, with pensive gaze,
watched the speeding train.

During the forenoon our travellers traversed the blood-stained
district beyond Malligaum, sacred to the votaries of the goddess Kali.
Not far from this arose the minarets of Ellora and its pagodas, and
the famous Aurungabad, the capital of the ferocious Aurung-Zeb, now
the chief town of one of the detached kingdoms of the Nizam. It was in
this country that Feringhea, chief of the Thugs--the King of
Stranglers--exercised sway. These assassins, united in an invisible
and secret association, strangled, in honour of the goddess of death,
victims of every age without shedding blood, and in time there was
scarcely a place where a corpse was not to be found. The English
Government has succeeded in checking very considerably these wholesale
massacres, but Thugs still exist and pursue their horrible vocation.

At half-past twelve the train stopped at Burhampore, and Passe-partout
succeeded in obtaining a pair of slippers decorated with false pearls,
which he wore with evident conceit.

The passengers ate a hurried breakfast, and the train again started
for Assinghur, skirting for a moment the ri