les and anklets,
which have not been so expeditiously digested as their fair owners,
victims of the monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child,
'farci an ris,' must be a tempting and tender _bonne bouche_ to these
river gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a
great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown away
upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing blueness
of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every evening during
my Gangetic voyage."

Nocturnal Bathing.

"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at the
great tank called the Indra Daman, I went with a party of three or
four others to witness the spectacle. The walls surrounding the pool
and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its centre were brilliantly
lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or small oil-lamps, casting a
flickering lustre upon the heads and shoulders of about five hundred
men, women, and children, who were ducking and praying, _a corps
perdu,_ in the water. As I glanced over the figures nearest to me,
I discovered floating among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies,
which had either been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely
come to die on the edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic
survivors taking not the slightest notice of their soulless
neighbours."

King John at the Cape.

"The largest house in Simon's Town, and, indeed, the greater part of
the town itself, belongs to an Englishman of the name of Osbond,
who, however, is more generally known by the dignified title of 'King
John.' He was carpenter on board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was
wrecked off this coast some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea,
and like Juan he found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted,
he won the heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars
he afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to
good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on
these--to every one but himself--_inhospita littora._ King John is
much respected."

Population of Cape Town.

"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion
among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to
a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with his
pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed
daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per doctor's
certificate, t