down?--You are very pretty--which pithy sentences he used to rattle out
with great volubility, fortunately not making an indiscriminate use of
them.

But my particular friend was the youngest of his two fat brothers, whose
merits, alas! were unknown in England, the more elevated position of the
Minister Sahib monopolizing all the attention of the lion-loving public.
Colonel Dhere Shum Shere, such was his name, was the most jovial, light-
hearted, and thoroughly unselfish being imaginable, brave as a lion, as
recent events in Nepaul have proved, always anxious to please, and full
of amusing conversation, which, however, from my limited knowledge of
Hindostanee, I was unable fully to appreciate.

It is considered a breach of hospitality to make invidious remarks
affecting the character of the mansion in which you are a guest; but
although my recollections of the _Atalanta_ are most agreeable in
reference to the kindness of the officers, I must say she was a most
indisputable tub; and if there is an individual who deserves to be turned
slowly before the fire in her engine-room, so as to be kept in a state of
perpetual blister, it is the Parsee contractor who furnished the
provisions, for so meagre was the supply that we could barely satisfy the
cravings of hunger.

On the morning of the tenth day after leaving Ceylon we came in sight of
the city of palaces, and, sweeping up its magnificent river, soon after
anchored amidst a host of other shipping.

Of Calcutta I need say nothing; Chouringhee Road is almost as well known
in these days of quick communication as Piccadilly; this is not quite the
case with towns in the interior: if it is easy to get to Calcutta, it is