ade some acquaintance among the passengers, and began to
find my situation less irksome and lonely;" shortly afterwards
adding--"The annoyances inseparable from this situation were relieved,
in some measure, by the music and dancing going on every day except
Sundays, owing to the numerous party of passengers, both gentlemen and
ladies, whom we had on board--seeing which, a man forgets his griefs
and troubles in the general mirth around him." So popular, indeed,
does the khan appear already to have become, that the captain, finding
that he had hitherto abstained from the use of his pipe, that great
ingredient in Oriental comfort, from an idea that smoking was
prohibited on board, "instantly sent for my hookah, had it properly
prepared for me, and insisted on my not relinquishing this luxury, the
privation of which he knew would occasion me considerable
inconvenience." In other respects, also, he seems to have been not
less happily constituted; for though he says that "the rolling and
rocking of the ship, when it entered the _dark waters_ or open sea,
completely upset my two companions, who became extremely sick"--his
remarks on the incidents of the voyage, and the novel phenomena which
presented themselves to his view, are never interrupted by any of
those pathetic lamentations on the instability of the human stomach,
which form so important and doleful an episode in the relations of
most landsmen, of whatever creed or nation.

The commencement of the voyage was prosperous; and the ship ran to the
south before a fair wind, interrupted only by a few days of partial
calm, till it reached the latitude of Ceylon, where the appearance of
the flying fish excited the special wonder of the khan, who was by
this time beginning, under the tuition of his fellow passengers, to
make some progress in the English language, and had even attempted to
fathom some of the mysteries of the science of navigation; "but though
I took the sextant which the captain handed me, and held it precisely
as he had done, I could make nothing of it." The regular performance
of the Church service on Sundays, and the cessation on that day from
the ordinary amusements, is specially noticed on several occasions,
and probably made a deeper impression on the mind of our Moslem
friend, from the popular belief current in India that the _Feringhis_
are men _of no caste_, without religious faith or ceremonies--a belief
which the conduct and demeanour of the Anglo-I