go for such unusual delicacies; so safety
was the parole.

The first march I taught my young companion the art of becoming his own
butcher, cook, &c.; for I killed, skinned, washed, cooked, and eat a
fine young kid, of part of which I made a curry, and grilled the
remainder; of this my young friend partook, with most excellent
appetite. After tea we moved into a village for the night; for some
suspicious fellows had already been seen loitering about. When thus
travelling, I would recommend people to show their fire-arms, and in the
dusk of the evening to fire them off. The dacoits, or low thieves, in
India, although a most desperate set, have the greatest dread of
fire-arms, and will seldom approach those whom they know to possess
them, however ill-disposed they might be under other circumstances.
Thus, I have often, on the rivers Hoogley and Ganges, when coming home
at night in a lone boat, escaped being robbed, and perhaps murdered, by
frequently discharging my fire-arms, while others, who have neglected
this precaution, or perhaps not had fire-arms with them, have been
plundered, and in many instances murdered, in spite of the police kept
on those rivers.

The regiment was now only twenty miles ahead of us. We therefore retired
early to rest, intending to reach the corps the following day. We had
not reposed more than an hour, lying upon our things, when I was awoke
by a noise something like the crowing of the domestic cock, and then
like the barking of a dog. I had been too long in the country not to
know that these crowings and barkings were sure indications of robbers
being on the look-out. I therefore seized my pistol, resolving to have a
shot at whatever first made its appearance. For a time all was still.
There were two doorways to the hut in which we had sheltered ourselves;
and, across each of these doorways lay myself and my young friend. I was
wide awake, and he was just dozing, when, all of a sudden, he jumped up,
and bellowed out, so that his voice re-echoed again, "Who is that?" I
jumped up and said, "What's the matter?" He answered, "Some person's
hand touched my face." I replied, "You must have been dreaming." He said
he was confident that what he said was true. "Well, then, if it is,
don't be afraid," said I. This nettled the young soldier, and he
replied, "No, Sir, I am not so easily frightened as you may imagine." I
thought at one time he was going to give me proof of his valour, by
coming to an o